The women who can change
this region’s future are already here.
We build the institution around them.
South Asia is home to some of the world’s most resilient women leaders. Women who run community networks across conflict lines. Women who rebuild entire towns after displacement. Women who negotiate peace at borders that global diplomats fly in to visit once and leave. These women have always existed. What this region has lacked is a permanent institution with the credibility, the research capacity, and the global reach to put them where they belong: at the centre of the peace and security agenda.
The Centre for Women Peace and Leadership (CWPL), housed within the Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies in Islamabad, is that institution. We have spent a decade proving it is possible to build something of genuine global standing from inside Pakistan. We are now taking that work to its full potential.
Dr. Farhat Asif · Founder & President, CWPL and IPDS
Award-winning human rights activist, public diplomat, IWF Fellow, and NPeace laureate. Founded CWPL in December 2015 with a Nobel Peace Laureate present at the founding.
Pakistan's rank out of 181 countries
Georgetown WPS Index 2025/26
Years of research, convening, and leadership programming
Countries reached through Global Women Insight
Readers reached through Women Insight Daily on TDI
Why this institution, why now
The case for CWPL
The global conversation about Women, Peace and Security in South Asia happens largely in Geneva, London, and Washington. The reports get published. The indices get released. The panels get convened. And then those conversations travel home to cities where women in Balochistan, in FATA, in Kashmir, in the Af-Pak border communities are still waiting for any of that to reach them.
CWPL changes the direction of that conversation. We are the institution based inside the reality, producing research from it, training the next generation of leaders within it, and connecting those leaders to global peers who need to hear what they know.
The most important research on this region's women will come from this region. The most consequential leadership in South Asia's peace processes will be built here. CWPL exists to make sure the world is ready for both.
Dr. Farhat Asif · Founder, Centre for Women Peace and Leadership
Programme architecture
Our four pillars
Every programme at CWPL is built around a single conviction: that women's leadership, women's economic agency, women's voices, and women's research are all dimensions of the same thing. Separate them, and you lose the picture. Hold them together, and you build something that lasts.
Research & Policy
Original, publishable evidence on Women, Peace and Security in South Asia. Built for policymakers, embassies, and global research partners who need ground-level data from inside the region.
Leadership Development
Annual fellows programme drawing young women from all four provinces, including religious minorities, transgender women, and women with disabilities. Mentorship. Training. A network that stays active for life.
Global Women Insight
A flagship podcast series putting women leaders from conflict-affected regions in direct conversation with global counterparts. Every episode is a documented case study in what women's leadership looks like under pressure.
Weave for Peace
A digital commerce platform connecting women in IDP and refugee camps to local, regional, and international markets through craft skills. Economic agency and peace are the same investment.
Publications
Institute research and channels relevant to Women, Peace and Security in South Asia.
Two platforms, global reach
Our media presence
Most women's leadership institutions produce research and host events. CWPL also produces media at scale, through two dedicated platforms that reach the audiences who matter: ambassadors, UN agencies, policymakers, diplomatic missions, and civil society worldwide.
International Women Forum Legacy Project
Both Global Women Insight and Women Insight Daily carry the standing of IWF Legacy Projects under Dr. Farhat Asif's leadership. GWI earned Dr. Asif the IWF Fellowship and the NPeace Award for Campaign for Action from UNDP Asia Pacific — placing CWPL's media work among the most recognised women's leadership platforms in the region.
2015 — 2026
Ten years of proof
A decade of building, convening, and proving what's possible from inside the region.
CWPL founded and inaugural congress convened
Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkol Karman signed the foundation stone of CWPL on December 1, 2015 in Islamabad. The First Emerging Young Women Leaders Congress brought together participants from all four provinces, Gilgit Baltistan, and AJK, supported by Hanns Seidel Foundation, Germany.
Second congress — national scale, government partnership
The Second Emerging Young Women Leaders Congress expanded the programme with support from the Australian Government, bringing political leaders, media figures, civil society pioneers, and development professionals as mentors to the next generation.
Regional breakthrough — Pakistan and Afghanistan congress
The Third Congress crossed borders. Pakistani and Afghan women leaders gathered in Islamabad, supported by NPeace Network and UNDP Asia Pacific, to co-develop solutions and propose the Weave for Peace initiative for IDP and refugee women's economic empowerment.
Global Women Insight launched
While the world paused, CWPL built a global media platform. GWI reached women leaders across 30 countries, with Nobel Laureate Jody Williams and leading voices from Myanmar, Nigeria, Lebanon, Indonesia, and beyond. The IWF Fellowship and NPeace Award followed.
Full relaunch — four pillars, global partnerships, formal research agenda
CWPL relaunches with a structured four-pillar programme, annual policy publications, a formal fellows cohort, and active partnership bids with LSE, Georgetown GIWPS, UN Women, and leading global foundations. South Asia's seat at the global WPS table is being formally established.
Recognition & Partnerships
Partnership categories
Who we build with
CWPL brings something to a partnership that institutions in London, Washington, or Oslo simply cannot: a decade of relationships, convening history, and research access inside the countries that matter most to the global Women, Peace and Security agenda. We are seeking genuine peers.
Research Collaboration
Academic Institutions
LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security. Georgetown GIWPS. PRIO Oslo. Co-author the South Asia WPS research the global field is missing. We provide the access, the network, and the data.
Programme Implementation
UN & Multilateral Agencies
UN Women. UNDP. UNHCR. UNICEF. CWPL has a decade of convening capacity, a verified fellows alumni network, and four investment-ready programme pillars.
Diplomatic Engagement
Embassies & Missions
Through IPDS and TDI, CWPL has direct working relationships with diplomatic missions across Islamabad. We co-host, co-publish, and co-programme on women, peace and security priorities.
Funding & Investment
Foundations & Governments
Ford Foundation. Open Society. British Council. Norad. EU. Each of CWPL's four pillars has a proven model, a track record, and a structured funding proposal ready to share.
Events
Regional Coverage
Influential Pakistani Women in Global Leadership →
Pakistani women making an impact in global leadership roles.
The Diplomatic Insight
Women Foreign Diplomats in Pakistan: Advancing Diplomacy and Gender Equality →
How women diplomats in Islamabad shape trade, conflict resolution and humanitarian initiatives.
The Diplomatic Insight
The Invitation
South Asia's women leaders have been ready.
The institution is now ready with them.
Whether you represent an embassy, a global foundation, a research university, or a multilateral agency — if women, peace and security in South Asia is part of your mandate, this is the conversation that has been missing.