Lao PDR: Civil Society Organization and Community Scoping Study

Drawing on scoping studies conducted in 2024, the Amplify country briefs provide an overview of current peace and security challenges women experience at all levels of society in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. Using a human security lens, the briefs also highlight how The Asia Foundation, through its AMPLIFY regional initiative, with support from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, is working to address these issues in alignment with and in support of ASEAN’s Women, Peace and Security agenda.  

In Lao PDR, the Women, Peace and Security agenda (WPS) is a recently introduced and implemented framework; however, its core principles are not entirely new or unfamiliar. Instead, WPS builds on work that has already taken place in Lao PDR to address women’s physical and economic security and rights. In 1981, the government of Lao PDR ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which provided the normative groundwork for considerations of women’s meaningful participation in all forms of decision-making that the WPS agenda has since enhanced by linking women’s participation with peace and security.