Climate breakdown is accelerating across Asia and the window to act is narrowing. Real change on energy, land and emissions only happens under sustained, organised public pressure. So we train activists to build it.
But that pressure only works when it is led by the people already carrying it: frontline and marginalised communities who bear the worst impacts. Often the women and gender-diverse organisers doing much of this work are the ones facing the most barriers to leadership. We put campaign and organising skills directly in their hands.
None of this holds without a strong, accountable civil society — at a moment when civic space is shrinking across the continent. AktivAsia builds the organising capacity that keeps institutions answerable to communities. That work sits within the UN Sustainable Development Goals on climate action, reduced inequalities, gender equality, and peace, justice and strong institutions.
Building Power, Winning Campaigns
Our goal is to reach 10,000 activists across Asia by 2027, equipping them to lead high-impact, people-powered campaigns for a just energy transition and environmental justice. Since 2018, AktivAsia has reached approximately 6,500 activists:
As of 2025, AktivAsia provides tailored, locally led programs in Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Pakistan, alongside regional training including in Taiwan and Thailand. We deliver:
- Strategic campaign training and political education
- Facilitation for national movements and coalitions
- Train-the-trainer programs
- Leadership training and coaching
- Curriculum, research and movement tools
Two Connected Focuses
Build Skills — what we teach. Foundational and advanced campaign training, training of trainers, and feminist and leadership programs that grow the capability of individuals.
Build Movements — how we work. Locally led and co-designed, needs-driven and adaptive, rooted in organising and strategy, and accessible: around 99 per cent of participants pay nothing.
Our 2025 Annual Impact
Nearly 500 participants completed one or more of AktivAsia’s training programs in 2025. They are not statistics – they are union organisers, researchers, students, community leaders who already are – and will continue to – shape campaigns for years to come.
Demand is outstripping supply. We received 832 applications for 487 places — almost two applicants for every seat. To close that gap we are changing how we work: equipping more alumni to deliver training in their own countries, and seeking additional partners so the collective impact of this movement grows further.
“Behind every figure is an organiser who arrived looking for clarity, left with strategic plan, and built a community that is stronger as a result. These numbers capture the scaling power of our collective advocacy, but stories behind the numbers where the real impact comes to life."
— Alex Ryan, Co-Founder and Managing Director
A Region-wide Movement
From local grassroots efforts to regional symposiums, our movement bridges borders, languages and faiths. In 2025 we trained, connected and supported activists in six countries and territories — our widest reach yet.
🇮🇩 Indonesia
AktivAsia Indonesia develops leadership and strategic capacity for systematic, just and equitable change. In addition to our Regional Campaign Strategy and Organising Training (CSO), we provide four tailored progressive training programs in Indonesia:
- Belantara (‘wilderness’) equips emerging activists to navigate complex environmental and social challenges.
- NEXT deepens strategic and collaborative skills for alumni.
- Katalis multiplies local capacity.
- Alumni Gatherings sustain learning and connection.
“Pelatihan dari AktivAsia telah membantu saya membangun kepercayaan diri, memperluas wawasan, serta meningkatkan keterampilan dalam menyusun kampanye yang lebih strategis dan berdampak. Pengalaman ini membuat saya lebih siap menggerakkan komunitas dan mendorong perubahan, sehingga saya sangat merekomendasikan pelatihan ini untuk anak muda lain yang ingin berkontribusi bagi lingkungannya.”
“AktivAsia’s training helped me build confidence, broaden my perspective, and strengthen my skills in designing more strategic and impactful campaigns. This experience has made me more ready to mobilise my community and drive change, and I highly recommend this training to other young people who want to contribute to their environment.”
— Indri, Indonesia Belantara training participant
🇵🇰 Pakistan
AktivAsia’s work in Pakistan is built on the foundation of enabling power and leadership in people. In 2025, people already familiar with the Leadership, Organising, and Action Framework through training facilitated by Center for Social Innovation in Developing Countries (CSIDC) were further trained to deliver and facilitate the same kind of learnings in their own communities.
Through a training-of-trainers (ToT) model, two intensive facilitator programs were run, one in North and one in South Pakistan. This built the capacity of local facilitators who can now deliver campaign strategy and organising training in their own languages, in their own regions, without us in the room. It is a small cohort by design.
Out of the 26 facilitators trained in 2025, 18 went on to train 215 community members post-ToT in their localities.
Alongside CSO, this new model also sits alongside foundational and the Pakistan People’s Climate Collective programs, two different kinds of immersive training supporting campaigners working on climate, water and energy justice at community level.
“For one of WaterAid’s FCP country-focus projects, I helped people in Badin design community-level campaigns at the grassroots — first at the union council level and then at the district level — to achieve open-defecation-free (ODF) status.”
– Nusrat, Pakistan People’s Climate Collective
🇵🇭 Philippines
AktivAsia Philippines works with coalitions, community organisations and local networks to strengthen campaigning on climate, energy and disaster resilience. It was our largest cohort of 2025. Alongside the regional CSO training, we deliver:
- Pamitinan, our flagship three-day foundational training on campaign strategy, organising and leadership.
- Pandayan, shorter foundational trainings co-delivered with partners and local coalitions, from Baguio to Calbayog.
- Sanayan, a facilitators’ skill-share that grows the local training bench.
- Tailored partner programs, including work on ecosystem-based adaptation, young women’s leadership and disaster resilience.
“The facilitation skills used were so useful in engaging my clients. It influenced my work down to the barangay [district] level.”
— Sol, REalTalk: A Movement Building Workshop on Renewable Energy (Mindanao leg)
🇰🇷 South Korea
AktivAsia Korea works with environmental organisations and networks to build a shared strategic language for campaigning. 2025 was the year Korean alumni started designing the work themselves. Our programs included:
- Pado Power Fellowship (PPF), our flagship multi-session fellowship for Korean campaigners, which reached its fifth cohort in 2025.
- Tailored CSO sessions and skill practice with partner organisations including Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) and Green Korea United.
- Peer learning sessions and facilitation workshops that keep alumni connected and building between fellowships.
“The training I received was transformative in helping me move from feeling inadequate as a climate activist to actively engaging in more strategic and effective campaigning.”
— Harin, Pado Power Fellowship
Regional: Taiwan, Thailand and Across Border
Some of the most useful things an organiser learns come from someone working two thousand kilometres away on a problem that turns out to be the same problem. Our regional work exists to make those conversations happen.
In 2025 that meant a Campaign Strategy and Organising (CSO) Fellowship in Taiwan, a Leaders’ Training in Taiwan and a campaign strategy training with Greenpeace South East Asia in Thailand.
Regional cohorts are deliberately small and deliberately senior. Nearly half of 2025’s regional participants were seasoned campaigners with 7-plus years of campaigning behind them — people who take what they learn straight back into national networks.
“Creating a value-based coalition and partnership are powerful tactics to achieve your campaign goals. This concept was abstract to me at first, but from this training I learnt and applied the specific approach and theory that allowed me to understand the people in my coalition better, and ultimately helped me exceed my campaign goals.”
— Nabila, Regional Campaign Strategy and Organising (CSO) Training
Measuring What Matters
Numbers tell us how far we’ve reached. Stories show the difference our alumni have made. This section lifts the lid on what actually changed, for whom, and how our cohorts are built to last.
Learning Impact: Accelerating Leadership
Reach is only half the story. We ask participants to rate their confidence in core skills before and after training, so we can see whether real change is happening, not just attendance. The results show clear, consistent growth across every skill we measure.
Six Months on: The Ripple Effect
We walk alongside our alumni as they implement change, well after the training itself. Six months on, the following four alumni alone had between them shared what they learned with 83 more campaigners:
“Bengkel Hijrah Iklim 3.0 benar-benar membuka wawasan saya tentang bagaimana isu krisis iklim bisa dikaitkan dengan kerja-kerja kampanye yang lebih strategis dan berdampak. Melalui pelatihan di BHI 3.0, saya belajar banyak tentang pentingnya membangun strategi kampanye dan memberdayakan komunitas. Pendekatan yang ditawarkan tidak hanya menekankan pengetahuan teknis, tetapi juga praktek serta nilai kolaborasi dengan komunitas lain. Setelah mengikuti program ini, saya merasa lebih percaya diri untuk merancang kampanye yang lebih inklusif, kreatif, dan relevan dengan konteks lokal. Saya sangat merekomendasikan Bengkel Hijrah Iklim bagi siapa pun yang ingin memperkuat kapasitasnya dalam isu lingkungan”
“Before this program, campaign planning felt like something I could only learn ‘over someone’s shoulder’ or by relying on gut feeling, because no one could quite pin it down for me. This training changed that, making everything so much sharper. Even vague areas like project planning and campaign language became much clearer. I’m looking forward to seeing how much more I can achieve with these tools as I grow and gain more experience.”
— Athiyah, Indonesia — shared learnings with 25 campaigners others
“Before joining PPF Batch 4, campaign planning felt intuitive but unstructured. This training completely changed that by providing sharp, clear frameworks, giving me the tools I need to achieve greater impact.”
— Yujin, South Korea — shared learnings with 8 campaigners
“The Pandayan Foundational Campaign Training helped me refine my communication strategy, significantly enhancing both my writing and public speaking engagements.”
— Jasper, Philippines — shared learnings with 20 campaigners
“Seeing firsthand how knowledge empowers individuals to step up as leaders and mobilise their communities has reinforced my core belief: developing local leadership is the ultimate key to building stronger communities.”
— Riaz, TOT–Karachi, Pakistan — shared learnings with 30 campaigners
Who We Trained: Building with Intention
A lasting movement doesn’t happen by accident. We deliberately bring in young leaders and gender-diverse organisers, and build stronger ties with experienced campaigners, tracking this mix across age, gender and experience to keep our leadership base wide, inclusive and durable.
Bridging the generational gap
Movement building has no age limit. By training campaigners across every generation, we build local capacity that keeps knowledge, and momentum, alive for years to come.
A diverse and balanced cohort
Our strength lies in our diversity. We are committed to breaking barriers in climate advocacy, building an inclusive space where leaders of every gender and background can thrive.
Experience at every level
Strong movements need leaders at every level. Our cohorts mix newer activists with seasoned organisers across a range of roles, so mentorship flows in both directions and skills spread further than any single training session.
What' Next: AktivAsia in 2026
2026 is about depth. 2025 showed us we can reach people across six countries and territories. The question now is what happens after the workshop ends.
Three priorities shape the year ahead.
1. More training led by alumni
The most resilient investment we make is in people who go on to train others. Korea showed us the model when two alumni asked us to bring our tools to their region and then co- delivered the program themselves. Pakistan’s two training-of-trainers cohorts created a facilitator bench that can now work without us in the room. In 2026 we want more of our programs to start this way — initiated by alumni, delivered in local languages, designed for local campaigns.
2. Follow-up that lasts
A single workshop builds skills. Sustained accompaniment builds capacity. We are expanding Peer Learning Circles (post-training spaces where alumni and campaign peers reassess their skills, share practical tools, and collaborate directly on active campaigns through mutual, peer-to-peer learning) and structured follow-ups so that alumni keep working together after the training ends, rather than returning to their campaigns alone.
3. Growing to meet the demand
We received 832 applications for 487 places in 2025. That gap is the clearest signal we have. Meeting it means new partnerships and additional funding — not to change what we do, but to do more of it.
Those priorities are already becoming reality. As of mid-2026 we have already:
- Conducted more than 15 training and movement-building sessions across five countries, remaining dedicated to strengthening skills and empowering movements to achieve our goals.
- Started a new Gender Equity Leadership Program with KONEKSI in Indonesia, with plans to adapt and extend our gender leadership work to Korea later in the year.
- Partnered with Market Forces to co-design a new climate finance campaign training program, equipping campaigners with the skills to influence financial institutions and strengthen climate action across the region.
- Began rolling out Peer Learning Circles to help alumni continue learning and collaborating long after the workshop ends.
- Together, these initiatives reflect our shift from delivering training to building lasting leadership, stronger networks and sustained movement capacity across the region.
Here’s to more building power and winning change in 2026.