As part of an ASEAN regional programme funded by GAC (Global Affairs Canada) through its Pro-Dem Fund, WFD has been working with political parties, civil society, and the parliament in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, and Thailand since 2022 to remove the intersectional barriers that inhibit women’s political leadership. To date, the programme has led to a public declaration signed by all political party groups in the Indonesian Parliament, trained over 170 women legislative candidates in the lead up to the country’s 2024 elections, and advanced multistakeholder dialogues and partnerships on violence against women in politics. In 2024, WFD launched a Political Inclusion Fellowship programme aimed at creating a network of cross-party champions that will spearhead the structural reform for a more inclusive political landscape. 

WFD applies a multistakeholder approach across all of our programmes. Under all thematic areas, WFD ensures that spaces for dialogues are open and accessible to a diverse audience. Regionally, WFD has played a central role in supporting the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to revitalise the Bali Democracy Forum as co-convenor of the Bali Civil Society and Media Forum since 2018. WFD in Indonesia also led the launch of the Democracy Action Partnership in 2023, where representatives of governments, parliaments, civil society, media, and development partners across Asia-Pacific gather to design innovative solutions to address emerging regional and global challenges. 

The Indonesian Parliament declared its participation in the global open parliament movement in 2018. In December 2018, the parliament published its first Open Parliament Indonesia National Action Plan, which was co-created with WFD and local civil society partners. In April 2019, WFD Indonesia convened a regional round table with parliamentarians and civil society leaders from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In 2020, WFD co-created the second open parliament national action plan with the parliament and local civil society partners. Among others, the open parliament commitments have led to improvements around legislative transparency and information disclosure practices in parliament as well as enhanced collaboration between the parliament and civil society. 

WFD works closely with the Public Accounts Committee of the Indonesian Parliament to improve the ex-post oversight of public funds. Under the IAP (Inclusive and Accountable Politics) programme, WFD helped the Public Accounts Committee to establish a strong institutional framework and robust mechanism modelled after the Public Accounts Committee of the UK House of Commons as well as the UK National Audit Office. Through the UK PACT programme, WFD introduced a green budgeting and audit framework which has since been adopted and institutionalised as a tool used by parliamentary analysts in scrutinising government budget plans presented to the Budget Committee. 

WFD applies an intersectional and multidimensional approach to protecting human rights through our work with political actors and institutions. Using tools such as post-legislative scrutiny and regulatory impact assessment, WFD has been able to strengthen the procedural safeguard that ensures government policies respond to the needs of the most vulnerable groups and individuals. Since 2019, WFD has supported the Indonesian Ministry of Home Affairs to develop and implement a series of post-legislative scrutiny pilot projects in subnational parliaments across three provinces. The projects have led to amendments of local ordinances that infringed on the rights of women, religious groups, gender minorities, and people with disabilities.