Date: Friday 5 December 2025
Time: 2:00 – 3:30 PM (AEDT)
Location: Australian National University, Canberra

This panel examines gendered insecurities in conflict-affected and displaced communities, using insights from Myanmar’s borderlands as a starting point for a wider conversation that spans multiple geographies. Drawing on fieldwork and remote methods, the panel explores how militarised environments – from refugee camps in Bangladesh to IDP communities in Kachin – become extensions of the battlefield, shaping lived experiences of violence, protection, and aid. Together, the panel offers a diverse view of humanitarian response – from governance to grassroots – and speaks directly to the conference’s themes of aid effectiveness, localisation, and the politics of protection. It invites reflection on how gender and security shape both the vulnerabilities of displaced populations and the systems meant to support them.

This panel is a part of the 2025 Australasian Aid Conference. Follow this link to find out more about the conference.

Chair:

Ruth Citrin

As XCEPT Executive Director, Dr Ruth Citrin brings a rare, proven ability to translate research and analysis into actionable policy. She previously served as director for Syria at the White House National Security Council, policy planner on then Secretary John Kerry’s staff, and senior Levant analyst with the US Department of State. She is the former director of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Middle East and North Africa programme.

Speakers:

Dr Anas Ansar

Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at North South University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and a Research Associate at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, Germany. He earned his PhD from the University of Bonn, Germany. His research explores questions related to migration and displacement, borderland identities, digital diasporas, and transnational resistance to authoritarianism in Asia.

Tasnia Khandaker Prova

Climate Research Lead at the Centre for Peace and Justice, BRAC University, Bangladesh. As a commonwealth scholar, she studied humanitarian crises and ecological justice in conflict situations. She is passionate about uplifting the voices of those disproportionately affected by climate adversities, poverty, and conflict, using non-extractive, ethical and empowering means. Between 2022-2025, Tasnia was part of the X-border Local Research Network facilitated by The Asia Foundation, exploring Bangladesh borderlands and migration trends.

Virginie Baudais

A Senior Researcher and Director of the SIPRI Sahel and West Africa Programme. She holds a PhD in Political Sciences from Sciences Po Toulouse. As part of SIPRI’s Sahel and West Africa Programme she conducts research in the Sahel region, based on a mixed methodology combining quantitative and qualitative research reflecting a bottom-up approach. She is currently conducting research on displacements in Chad, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso.