The Intel

The short answer is: with courage and clarity. Across the Indo-Pacific, we are seeing worrying regressions in gender equality and civic space. The Trump Administration’s weaponisation of DEI is further emboldening others who are threatening feminist movements and promoting anti-rights narratives. This is playing out in our region through tightened restrictions on women’s rights organisations, shrinking funding, and increased scrutiny of gender justice actors—particularly in Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, new laws regulating NGOs are increasingly used to restrict the work of women’s rights advocates. In Myanmar, the political situation continues to deteriorate, with women activists facing heightened risks of detention, harassment and violence. In Indonesia, rising anti-LGBTQI+sentiment is being weaponised to undermine broader gender equality initiatives. These developments are not just ideological—they are strategic efforts to rollback hard-won gains.

But pressure can also sharpen clarity. At IWDA, we see this as a call to double down—not dilute—our feminist commitments. It is an opportunity to be more deliberate in who we fund, how we partner, and how we show up in solidarity. It reinforces the importance of long-term, flexible support to locally led feminist movements and organisations who are navigating frontline risks with extraordinary courage.

Australia must avoid watering down its commitment to gender equality because of global pushback. Our development cooperation must remain principled, grounded in human rights, and it should be unapologetically feminist. This is not just the right thing to do—it’s strategic. Supporting intersectional feminist movements strengthens inclusive democracies, counters authoritarianism, and enables more just, resilient societies.

Now is the time for Australia to lead with values and listen deeply to those on the ground. Investing in movements, protecting civic space, and embedding DEI in both policy and practice is not a luxury—it’s essential for sustainable development in our region.

Days away from an election, discussion on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in Australia remains notably absent. Yet, progress on treaty has stalled, gender-based violence is escalating, and violent rhetoric is rising. Australia has an inclusion problem. We face significant challenges in promoting sustainable, inclusive, and ecologically secure peace and development—both nationally and regionally. Geopolitical divisions are deepening, and gender, race, and social inclusion initiatives are being weaponised, often by traditional allies, with implications for development, peace, and security.

To engage effectively in DEI efforts, Australia must navigate strategic complexity across its national security, development, and resilience policies while upholding commitments to human rights, gender equality, and inclusive peace as ethical imperatives and strategic necessities. DEI fosters innovation, strengthens communities, and dismantles systemic barriers that exclude individuals from public and private life, and exposes people to structural violence. Yet resistance to DEI persists, with entrenched bias and outdated power structures hindering progress.

Recent policy shifts in the United States have restricted DEI in workplaces, education, the military, and in public programs, while a UK Supreme Court ruling excludes transgender women from legal protections, heightening vulnerabilities for women in all their diversity. This continuum of violence, from discrimination to extreme harm, highlights the intersections in social policy with global peace and security, and international development efforts. It deepens social divisions and fuels distrust in democratic institutions, when weaponised it creates the conditions that threaten regional security and undermine inclusive development.

In response, Australia can strengthen international partnerships, integrate DEI into governance frameworks with strong accountabilities, and leverage legislative and regulatory frameworks to amplifyDEI. Most critically, it must address the strategic risk of regressive policies that weaponise exclusion because the cost of failing to act is too great. One key step to do so is to address the capability gap in inter sectional analysis as a basis for designing policies and programs that effectively strengthen DEI.

Australia has a golden opportunity to champion inclusion in our region and increase our influence by building a coalition of human rights defenders and civil society advocates as a bulwark against the spread of autocracy, shrinking civic space and the dismantling of human rights protections globally. Australia should seize this opportunity.

The 2025 Freedom in the World report, assesses that global political rights and civil liberties have narrowed for the 19th consecutive year. Anti-rights and anti-democratic movements in our region, emboldened by the US withdrawal of funding for inclusion, are growing. These movements seek to eradicate progress on ideals that Australia has long championed at an international level: gender equality; disability equity; and access to health care. More recently, Australia has also championed First Nations engagement in foreign policy and LGBTQIA+ human rights, appointing Australia’s inaugural Ambassador for First Nations People and funding local LGBTQIA+ rights organisations.

Australia must continue to champion human rights and inclusion on the global stage to bed down and protect hard-won gains. This is an opportunity to entrench support for civil society organisations in the Asia-Pacific region and strengthen their work in advancing human rights and safeguarding civic space. Locally-led initiatives are the most effective and sustainable as well as resilient to accusations of Western bias or external imposition - a criticism sometimes levelled against DEI efforts, which calls for a re-examination of approaches not principles. Local civil society actors are uniquely placed to defend human rights, advocate for improved legal protections, support those working on the frontline of rights protection and assist Australia to build networks of allies – within governments and communities – across the region.