background on policy

UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security

The last two decades have seen heightened global advocacy, policy, and programming efforts to empower women. In 2000, the UN Security Council adopted its landmark resolution on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325). The resolution reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, and post-conflict reconstruction. UNSCR 1325 also stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

U.S. Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017

In 2017, the U.S. Congress adopted the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Act —with bipartisan championship from Senator Shaheen and Senator Capito— which affirms women’s political participation as essential to peace and security. The law was developed based on over two decades of best practices from research and programs. The goal of the law is to promote the participation of women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution, and post-conflict relief and recovery efforts. However, the implementation of the act has been slow.

WPS & the Global Fragility Act

It is important that the WPS is integrated into the Global Fragility Act (GFA), the Global Fragility Strategy, and subsequent country/regional plans. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by fragility and conflict—and are often an overlooked part of stability solutions—and so gender experts, academics, and civil society must become familiar with the new GFA and push for meaningful gender-informed implementation. AfP and Our Secure Future published an addendum to the Global Fragility Act Implementation Report entitled Recommendations for the Global Fragility Act: Gender Companion.

WPS Congressional Caucus

The Women, Peace and Security Congressional Caucus, led by Rep. Frankel and Rep. Waltz, is an initiative to ensure that Congress meaningfully works to ensure the goals of UNSCR 1325 and US WPS Act of 2017 are incorporated into U.S. foreign policy and national security. It also provides an opportunity for civil society focused on WPS to engage with the U.S. government to cooperate on the WPS agenda.

Improving Gender Programming and Policies

Gender programs must be resourced. We need better evidence to ensure gender programs are creating meaningful impact. To hold our programs accountable, we must correlate this evidence with better programming and policies.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) maintains that gender equality and women’s empowerment isn’t merely a part of development, but the core of development. For societies to thrive, women and girls must have unfettered access to education, healthcare, political processes, and technology. They must be able to thrive free of coercion and violence. And they must have equal rights and equal opportunities as breadwinners, peacebuilders, citizens, and leaders.

There is still a significant amount of work to do even in our own peacebuilding organizations to ensure diversity and women’s empowerment. Women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in development and subject to violence even in organizations that are supposed to represent WPS values. The backlash of the breakdown of the patriarchy systems all over the world means more challenges to women’s efforts to assert their rights, from the arrest of women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia to the public vilification of American women who come forward to report sexual abuse.

The good news is that women are becoming more empowered all over the world, and values-driven organizations are working to ensure that diversity and gender are a critical part of their internal structure and culture. But we need to do more.

AfP Publications on Women & Peacebuilding

Women & COVID-19

Resources on Women & Peacebuilding

With the Women, Peace, and Security Act, Washington Could Be a Model for the World, Foreign Policy

What Do Sweden and Mexico Have in Common? A Feminist Foreign Policy , The New York Times

CIPP Gender Analysis Report, Mercy Corps