SMF Regional Roundtable: “Reimagining Youth Activism: How Youth Can Create Self-empowered Movements In Southeast Asia”

Published on 30. January, 2026

Organizer: Vietnam Rise; Co-organizers: CALD Youth, CSO Academy

SMF 2025 Regional Roundtable occurred on the 3rd of November 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. SMF Regional Roundtable was a regionally focused, offline portion of the Social Movement Festival (SMF). SMF is an annual event launched by Vietnam Rise in 2022 to create space for community organizers and movement builders to connect, celebrate grassroots successes and actions, exchange tactics, and collaborate on strengthening social movements across Southeast Asia. The theme was “Reimagining Youth Activism: How Youth Can Create Self-empowered Movements In Southeast Asia”.

Participants examined how Southeast Asian youth movements have driven change, despite the distinct challenges and operating environments in each country. The session explored how these movements can inspire one another and offer valuable lessons for future action, strategies for optimizing resources, sustaining morale, and safeguards for both team members and target communities from political scrutiny. The discussion centered youth activists' perspectives on effectively engaging marginalized communities. The event’s overall objective was to help a diverse range of activists openly participate in learning about each other’s realities, build relationships (with potential areas of collaboration) and drive constructive dialogues about sensitive topics. Through peer-to-peer exchange, participants shared tactics and experiences drawn from their regional experience to see what could be transferred to other cultural contexts.