Under this regional initiative, we aim to advance gender-inclusive political participation alongside partners in Thailand, Indonesia, and Laos. The programme has convened cross-sector dialogues and learning exchanges, including the high-impact “UNMUTE” forum on online violence against women in politics, co-hosted with a media organisation. In 2025, a Gender Observatory Lab was conducted using Participatory Action Research (PAR) framework, followed by workshops and forums that brought together stakeholders to co-create research, data priorities, and advocacy tools for systemic change. In June 2025, WFD brought Malaysian delegates to take part in a regional dialogue in Jakarta that culminated in a joint pledge among ASEAN women legislators and political leaders to combat violence and discrimination in politics.

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This programme supports a range of reform efforts in Malaysia. WFD convened an electoral reform roundtable with eight political parties and civil society groups and initiated a pilot study on political party transparency with a public university. A national study on the cost of politics is underway, with a gender lens on barriers faced by women candidates. WFD is also working to institutionalise its parliamentary partnership through training and mutual learning exchanges. A pilot study on the internal practices of political parties is currently in progress and may be the first of its kind in Malaysia, drawing inspiration from a model developed by North Macedonia. 

WFD contributed to IDEA’s INTER PARES programme, which focused on gender and the Special Select Committees: the key oversight function introduced as part of the reform efforts that followed the change of government in 2018. Amid continuing Covid-19 restrictions, WFD delivered a gender-sensitive law-making and oversight workshop, helped enhance parliamentary communications and the development of an education programme, and provided support to the Ombudsman bill through exchanges on parliament’s role in the establishment and implementation of an Ombudsman Office.  

How governments respond to the economic crisis, such as the economic shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, has far-reaching consequences for political participation and inclusion. Women are often more exposed as they are more likely to have more vulnerable jobs, to work in the informal sector, to lack social protection and to have less access to financial resources. With the support of COVID-19 response funding from the British High Commission in 2020, WFD created the Gender Responsive Budgeting Toolkit to introduce policymakers to GRB principles and help MPs begin to procure more comprehensive sex-disaggregated data that could better inform the debate around budget allocations in Parliament. In addition to strengthening equitable approaches to funding policies, the programme strengthened the working relationships between MPs and civil society activists. 

WFD worked in the state of Sabah to build communication and leadership skills among women to enable them to get their voices and messages for change heard by decision makers and legislators in a state where women’s participation in formal politics is low; at the time of the programme, there were only six women representatives (out of 60) in the State Legislative Assembly. As part of the broader Commonwealth Partnership for Development (CP4D) initiative, WFD worked with a local CSO to promote gender equality in Sabah and creating linkages with other CSOs as they develop advocacy strategies to raise awareness about gender issues.