Advancing equal societies through women’s political leadership

This project supports improved equality and the right to exercise leadership at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional and national levels for politically active women in Thailand Malaysia and Indonesia. Project activities include: (1) conducting research on barriers to women’s political leadership and participation in ASEAN in collaboration with regional academic institutions; (2) conducting trainings and workshops with women political leaders women’s commissions and civil society organisations to address key challenges to women’s political leadership and participation; (3) developing local policy advocacy strategies to advance necessary changes in the legal framework and implementation of existing regulations; (4) conducting Regional Action Labs on women’s political leadership and participation; (5) engaging with regional advocates to advance policy agenda at ASEAN level; and (6) convening a regional conference on barriers to women's political leadership and participation in ASEAN.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased interaction with the evidence base on the barriers extent sources factors actors and impact of violence against women in politics (VAWP) among policy- and decision-makers and leaders of government; (2) increased number of effective and transformative solutions developed by political leaders which support women’s political leadership and participation in three countries of focus; and (3) increased levels of collective political advocacy at country and regional scale by leaders and representative groups on issues related to women’s political leadership and participation.