Building Community Resilience: Civil Society Perspectives from South and Southeast Asia
Honoured to join the online panel discussion “Building Community Resilience to Combat Organized Crime in South and South East Asia: Civil Society Perspectives” on 29 September 2026, organised by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), together with the Centre for Human Rights (CFHR).
The discussion brought together civil society perspectives from South and Southeast Asia to reflect on changing organised crime risks and, importantly, the ways communities are responding and building resilience.
AHRA was pleased to contribute from the harm reduction and public health perspective, sharing experiences from the Southeast Asia Harm Reduction Association (AHRA) and the importance of community-led approaches in identifying emerging risks, protecting people from harm and strengthening local responses.
One message AHRA highlighted is that communities are not only affected by organised crime and changing risks, they are also among the first to see changes, understand what is happening on the ground, and develop practical responses.
Through our work, including community-led early warning approaches such as DEWS, we see the value of connecting community knowledge with harm reduction and public health responses.
For us, resilience is not only about communities being able to cope with harm after it happens. It is also about having the information, tools, resources, support and space to identify risks early and respond together.
Thank you to GI-TOC, CFHR and the other panelists for creating space for civil society voices, particularly those working directly with communities and people most affected by rapidly changing risks.
Continued support for communities and frontline civil society is essential if we want to build safer, healthier and more resilient societies across South and Southeast Asia.
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