Women Leaders Share Strategies for Stability in Southeast Asia 

Armed conflicts and human security threats disproportionately impact women, which is why women worldwide are leading movements for peace and the safety and well-being of their communities.  

The Asia Foundation (TAF) recently convened women leaders from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to share experiences and strategies from conflict and post-conflict situations. 

“Women in Myanmar … have neither peace [nor] security,” Dr. Mar, founder of Thanakha Gender Tekkatho, said at the December 2024 event, “Transforming Women, Peace, and Security Learning into Action in Southeast Asia,” which was hosted by The Asia Foundation’s AMPLIFY program, a 5-year initiative funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and supported by The Asia Foundation’s Lotus Circle philanthropic network. 

The Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, or WPS, is a policy framework established by the United Nations in 2000 and is a growing area of focus for organizations like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. The framework prioritizes driving women’s participation in peace processes to contribute to longer, more resilient peace after conflict.  

TAF’s AMPLIFY project is supporting interventions across ASEAN, focusing on Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam, with potential engagement in Timor-Leste as it prepares to join ASEAN.  

Sunsanee McDonnell, regional program manager for AMPLIFY, said at the event that the program is working with women leaders in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Cambodia, and Myanmar

“We’ve looked at the needs of communities and women across those three countries and we’re trying to develop a program where we work with them to implement new solutions and interventions led by them,” she said. “We’re also working to support governments in addressing the WPS agenda and bringing the views of [civil society organizations] and women leaders to governments as well so that they could incorporate it into policies.” 

The December event emphasized the importance of supporting women as leaders in community, civil society, and governance bodies in future WPS programming and demonstrated how women from different countries and communities facing different kinds of conflict can inspire and support each other by sharing their knowledge and experiences. 

“A lot of their insights are really personal,” said Carla Silbert, TAF WPS program advisor. “They’re drawn from their own experiences of living through conflict, or they’re drawn from their families’ experiences in the aftermath.”  

One of the topics at the event was the role of the arts in promoting peace.  

“The work that we’ve seen today around arts initiatives for peace is something very important for the AMPLIFY program that the government of New Zealand is really supporting us on too in making sure that we can get the broadest possible audience and the broadest community commitments to agree on conflict prevention initiatives and to recognize that women are leaders in that type of work,” Silbert said. 

Participants from Myanmar dealing with ongoing conflict had the opportunity to learn from the lessons of counterparts from the Philippines and Indonesia who are now decision-makers and activists forging new futures in post-conflict contexts. 

Women from the Philippines and Indonesia were inspired by Myanmar activists, journalists, and artists who used art to advocate messages of justice, peace, and security to key policymakers. 

“Back home, we are still very much faced with multiple layers of … structural violence or gender-based violence,” Yasmira Monar, assistant professor at Mindanao State University in the Philippines, said. “What is happening in my home region is a microcosm of the global challenges faced by many women and girls.”  

Together, participants identified key strategies, needs, and actions for their work in their own countries and contexts that can build solidarity across generational, ethno-religious, and even political divides.  

Such convenings exemplify the potential of regional collaboration to accelerate and inform progress on the WPS agenda across Southeast Asia.   

“I hope that this workshop provides a new energy for all of us,” said Ruwaida, an activist from Aceh, Indonesia. “I hope it also helps sustain the Women, Peace, and Security movements.”