Five Years of Practice Learning Paper looks back on SEAWPM’s first five years, from its origins in a 2019 regional training in Jakarta to the trusted, practitioner-led platform it has become today. With forewords by H.E. Retno L.P. Marsudi and Senator the Hon Penny Wong, the paper draws on the voices of mediators, partners, and collaborators to explore what SEAWPM does, how it works, and why its approach — quiet, principled, and grounded in lived experience — has proven distinctive within regional diplomacy.

The paper also considers SEAWPM’s wider contribution to Women, Peace and Security efforts in Southeast Asia, and what its model offers to mediation practice beyond the region. The paper offers a grounded, first hand account of what quiet, practitioner led mediation looks like in practice, and an honest assessment of both its impact and its limitations.