The Asia Working Group (AWG) officially launched five small grants in February 2023 in South and Southeast Asia. The five grants were selected in 2022 and are set to begin initial activities in February and March 2023 in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand. 

The AWG fosters collaboration among various international, regional, national and local actors working in South and Southeast Asia with the shared goal of increasing the active collaboration between religious and traditional actors and other key stakeholders in peacebuilding, mediation, and conflict transformation.

Accordingly, the five AWG grants were selected with the goal of enhancing the following: 

• Community-level engagement through processes like confidence-building, inter-and intra-faith dialogue, capacity building and other initiatives aiming to improve female participation in peacebuildingand mediation.
• Enhanced participation into decision-making processes through advocacy activities and building partnerships with local or national level authorities, religious actors and media on the design and implementation of conflict-sensitive policy frameworks,research, strategies and action plans on peace mediation and dialogue.
• Media and strategic communication actions (such as a consultation event) aiming to promote media literacy and critical thinking in efforts to increase and improve interfaith dialogue, this may include also include information sharing mechanisms on peace mediation.
• Formal and informal peace education activities targeting communities affected by violent extremism and aimed at promoting a culture of peace, inter-and intra-faith dialogue and cooperation.

The five grants will complete all activities by August 2023. Events that are open to the public and all online advocacy campaigns will be shared via the AWG Newsletter and the Network’s Asia Facebook and Twitter pages.