The brief has been developed under the ‘Enhancing Access to Justice for Women in Asia and the Pacific’ Regional Programme, jointly implemented by UN Women, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Commission of Jurists, with generous support from the Government of Sweden.

In partnership with the Governments of Australia and the Republic of Korea, UN Women developed a five-year Regional Framework Towards Inclusive and Peaceful Societies, outlining strategies to tackle the most pressing governance and peace and security challenges across the Asia-Pacific region. This brief summarizes key approaches under the framework.

Indonesia recognizes that a stable, just and peaceful society cannot be achieved without acknowledging and highlighting women’s important role in building peace, preventing conflict and addressing emerging security threats such as climate change and violent extremism. Within the global framework of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Indonesia has endeavoured to localize the WPS agenda into a National Action Plan (NAP). In 2014, through a Presidential Decree (Perpres No. 18), the first NAP for the Protection and Empowerment of Women and Children during Social Conflicts, also known as NAP WPS, was launched. It included three pillars: prevention, mitigation and empowerment, and participation of women and children.

Gender equality is a precondition for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and any kind of meaningful and sustained progress, including in laying out the foundation for peaceful and resilient societies. This brief outlines how the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific will support inclusive governance processes in the region for the years to come.

In December 2020, Sustineo was engaged UN Women under the Women in Leadership in Samoa (WILS) Project to lead the design and implementation of Research on Leadership Pathways of Women in Samoa.

The Project Empowering women for sustainable peace: preventing violence and promoting social cohesion in the ASEAN aims to support ASEAN in advancing the implementation of the WPS agenda, including preventing violence against women and promoting social cohesion in the region. This report is a simplified and infographic version of the annual donor report 2021.

This book is a compendium consolidating 8 good practices from ASEAN member states, organized along the four Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 priorities of understanding disaster risk, strengthening risk governance, investing in DRR for resilience, and enhancing disaster preparedness for building back better.

UN Women and UNDP have piloted a training programme on Non-Violent Communication – a method which has found success in international mediation and conflict resolution settings – in Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The project was generously supported by the Government of Australia and the European Union. This brief provides an overview of the approaches used in the pilot project and presents results from the evaluations of the trainings.

This report identifies both the persistent trends and changing gender dynamics of violent extremism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on an expert survey and interview research conducted between July and November 2021. It examined how and to what extent misogyny and hostile beliefs are fuelling violent extremism in the Southeast Asian region during the pandemic, the degree to which misogyny and hostile beliefs in the ASEAN region are fuelling violent extremism, and how these manifest themselves in the offline space.

The Peace Village Initiative, implemented by the Wahid Foundation since 2017 with the support of UN Women and other donors, is an ambitious initiative that aims to address the drivers of extremism among women by mobilizing community members, especially women, to promote social cohesion across Java Island in Indonesia.

The regional project Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN aims to achieve the ultimate goal that ASEAN Member States will advance and strengthen the implementation of the WPS agenda, including preventing violence against women and girls and promoting social cohesion in the region.

The regional project Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace seeks to operationalize a simple but revolutionary idea first introduced in the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) – that peace is inextricably linked to equality between men and women.

A Sex, Age, and Disability Disaggregated Data (SADDD) pilot survey was conducted in three of the most climate-vulnerable districts in Bangladesh: Kurigram, Satkhira, and Cox’s Bazar.

In order to become a Peace Village, members within a community commit to promoting and fostering tolerance and peace within their communities. Starting with making peace within the family, members then agree on guidelines to enhance social cohesion in the community.

Women entrepreneurs have always faced multiple challenges—from lack of working capital to difficulties in coordination of their businesses due to their care and domestic responsibilities. These obstacles have only increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 70% of women entrepreneurs reported being ineligible for credit under the recently launched Government of India’s AtmaNirbhar Bharat economic stimulus package.

This training package on Gender and Preventing Violent Extremism is designed to increase the understanding of the critical role gender can play in understanding, addressing and preventing violent extremism (PVE). It is intended to support women’s organisations and civil society in their ongoing work on PVE, and related fields of women, peace and security. The training package is designed for use in Indonesia and Bangladesh, as well as South and Southeast Asia.

This brief explores key ways that the work of WHRDs has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and how countries can ensure the work of WHRDs is recognized and protected during this time.

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the dire situation of overcrowded prisons and triggered discussions about alternative sanctions that effectively reduces crime rates and recidivism while ensuring health and safety of the prison population.

This brief explores recent research, which examines the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of women and men students of two universities in northern Bangladesh. It found that young women and men in northern Bangladesh identify gender equality and equal opportunities for women and men as the single most critical element for social cohesion in Bangladesh.

The linkages between organized crime, including trafficking in persons, and violent extremism are a global concern. These linkages are starting to receive some attention, but this is limited to specific conflict contexts such as Iraq and Syria. In recognition of the link between violent extremism and trafficking in persons and the gendered nature of both, the UN Security Council adopted its first resolution on trafficking in persons in areas affected by armed conflict in 2016 (UNSCR 2331). But overall, there is little understanding of the relationship between violent extremism and trafficking in persons, or of how gender informs this interaction.