| Abstract | Within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the empirical data confirm the gap as the IFRC’s Everyone Counts report (IFRC, 2024) shows that the proportion of women on National Societies’ governing boards remains less than 25 per cent in Africa and the Middle East & North-Africa, and less than 45 per cent in the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe-Central Asia. Although the Asia Pacific region has shown incremental improvement, progress toward gender balance remains slow and uneven across regions, In Asia Pacific region, as of 2025, women held 37 per cent of governance and leadership positions. This is still far below the Movement’s Hanoi Call for Action (HC4A) commitment of 50 per cent women in National Society governance and management. This study emerges from the internship of Women as Humanitarian Leaders (WaHL) in Asia Pacific initiative, to examines the barriers and enablers of gender-responsive statutory revision in the Cruz Vermelha de Timor-Leste (CVTL), using a feminist institutionalism lens to understand how formal rules, informal norms, and power relations shape gender outcomes. CVTL has revised its Statute to strengthen women’s participation in governance and embed gender considerations more systematically into its institutional framework. Methodologically, the study uses a qualitative, multi-method design combining document review of the CVTL Statute, four HC4A webinar summaries, and in-depth interviews with CVTL senior staff and observation from the internship. Findings show that the most important enabler was visible and committed leadership, which translated statutory intent into practical action. Active male allyship, and formal gender provisions such as quotas and PGI roles also supported progress. At the same time, the study identified persistent barriers, including patriarchal norms, low confidence among some women, weak monitoring and accountability, inadequate resource allocation, and intersectional disadvantages affecting women from rural branches, younger volunteers, and women with disabilities. The study concludes that statutory revision is a necessary but insufficient first step as formal gender provisions can create a foundation for change, but sustainable transformation requires institutionalized accountability, adequate resourcing, and sustained cultural change, underlining the importance of binding statutory language, gender-responsive budgeting, and intersectional approaches to leadership and inclusion in the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. |
