ASEAN launches guidelines for member countries to adapt women, peace and security policy

Phnom Penh, Cambodia – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) outlined today specific steps its 10 Member States can take to adapt to national contexts a plan to promote women’s leadership and participation in making policy on peace and security.

The Localisation Toolkit and Guidelines for the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on Women, Peace and Security was launched at an event in Phnom Penh. It came on the first anniversary of the launch of the regional plan.

The 67-page document is aimed at helping ASEAN Member States develop national action plans that effectively implement the regional policy and respond to the new peace and security challenges in the region, including climate change, cybersecurity, pandemics, rising conservativism and extremism.

Among ASEAN Member States, Indonesia is implementing its second national action plan on women, peace and security. The Philippines launched a new national action plan with a rigorous monitoring and evaluation framework. Viet Nam and Thailand are drafting their first national action plans.

Implementation of the regional action plan is overseen by the ASEAN Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security, which Cambodia chairs.

“Women, Peace and Security Agenda is critical for the promotion of gender equality. Advancing WPS needs more than a regional commitment. We need to develop national plans of actions to ensure that the regional commitment is translated into practical actions at national and local levels. Cambodia as the lead country for the development of the ASEAN RPA on WPS and now for the WPS Localisation initiative  is committed to enable the regional commitment to become a reality for all women and girls in ASEAN,” emphasized H.E. Ing Kantha Phavi, MD, Minister of Women’s Affairs of Cambodia.

The ASEAN Committee on Women Cambodia led the development of the toolkit and guidelines in consultation with the ASEAN Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security. UN Women provided technical support as part of its project, Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace: Preventing Violence and Promoting Social Cohesion in ASEAN. The project is supported by the Governments of Canada, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

“We have seen unprecedented momentum among ASEAN Member States in the development of action plans on women, peace and security. This toolkit aims to support their efforts to integrate the women, peace and security agenda into their national policies and amplify synergies of continuing efforts at the regional level,” said Alia El-Yassir, Regional Director of UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Representatives of all ASEAN Member States are scheduled to gather in August 2024 to discuss the toolkit and exchange country-level experiences and good practices.

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The toolkits can be accessed and downloaded here.

For more information

ASEAN Women, Peace and Security website: https://wps.asean.org

Media contact:

• wps.asean@unwomen.org
• Yoomi Jun, Communications and Advocacy Analyst, UN Women Indonesia: yoomi.jun@unwomen.org