Regional Assessment Report: Gender-Responsive Community-Oriented Policing in South and South-East Asia

Community-oriented policing is often regarded as a reframing of traditional policing approaches. It prioritizes trust-building, partnerships and problem-solving strategies, emphasizing a proactive policing approach that should be integrated throughout national police systems.

UN Women, through the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, promotes a shift from a securitized and militarized approach to policing to a more gender-responsive, people-centred security model. Community-oriented policing offers a practical mechanism for effectively implementing the WPS Agenda’s key pillars of participation, prevention and protection.

This regional assessment was conducted by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in collaboration with the Standing Police Capacity in the United Nations Police Division, Department of Peace Operations – with a focus on Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand – to identify:

• Good practices related to gender-responsive community-oriented policing and key elements of success;
• Barriers to this approach among relevant actors, as well as gaps in capacities and skills;
• Potential partners; and
• Key recommendations for governments, police institutions, civil society organizations and community leaders to advance gender-responsive community-oriented policing in their contexts.

The report outlines recommendations for government, police services, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and international organizations and development partners. These are drawn from evidence gathered through practice-based knowledge obtained from interviews with police officers, UN Women and staff from other international organizations, as well as from relevant literature on GRCOP in the four countries. A key conclusion is that in South Asia and South-East Asia, gender-responsive community-oriented policing presents a significant opportunity for security sector reform, particularly given the underrepresentation of women in policing across the region.

The assessment was made possible with the generous support of the Government of the Republic of Korea through its Ministry of Gender Equality and Family as an output of the UN Women project ‘Sustaining Peace in Partnership: Women’s Leadership in Community Oriented Policing in South and South-East Asia’.

UN Women is grateful to all participants from police services and other government entities, UN sister agencies, non-governmental organizations and CSOs who shared their time, knowledge and experiences with the assessment team on this complex topic.