Women‚ Peace and Security

This program focuses on two streams of work:

1. Realizing the Promise of SCR 1325

Since the adoption of UNSCR 1325 in 2000, the field of women, peace and security has grown dramatically. Normative frameworks have been extensively developed, and there is a deeper global understanding of the centrality of women to the establishment and maintenance of global peace and security. But more research and evidence-based recommendations are needed. Resources like the Global Study on SCR 1325 (2000), launched with fanfare at the 15th anniversary of the resolution, have still largely not been taken up by governments and the UN in the same manner as the other UN studies that year, (e.g. HIPPO and Sustaining Peace). As we approach the twentieth anniversary of SCR 1325 in 2020, the continuing ad hoc nature of WPS implementation and accountability undermines efforts to ensure the full promise of the women, peace, and security agenda is realized.

To help address this challenge, IPI is planning research and recommendations for ways forward on the core issues of the women, peace and security agenda, including those raised in the AGE report on peacebuilding, the “HIPPO” report, and the 1325 Global Study. In this stream of work, we will build on IPI’s expertise and rigorous research methodology to analyze and evaluate challenges and successes in these areas. Potential areas of examination include core issue areas such as women in peace operations; women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution, as well as political transition; women’s leadership, rights, and service provision needs in humanitarian settings; post-conflict rebuilding that supports inclusive societies; women, peace and security in the UNSC; and financing. This stream of work also seeks to explore emerging and urgent issues, which could include UN reform; sexual exploitation and abuse; preventing violent extremism; and migration/refugee issues.

2. IPI’s Women’s Leadership Forum

Despite two decades of women, peace and security policy development and commitments, women’s participation in “all levels of decision-making” lags due to structural barriers, lack of access to political arenas, and even threats to women who attempt to participate in these processes. In efforts to build and sustain peace, there remains a widespread neglect for the expertise of local-level women peace builders, and formal peacemaking efforts continue to be resistant to women’s meaningful participation and to women’s rights.

To address these barriers, governments and the UN have recently been taking steps at the national and regional levels on women’s leadership, including launching networks of women mediators and of women leaders, and highlighting feminist foreign policies. The UN has also launched a gender parity strategy in an effort to address structural barriers to women’s advancement.

For these important initiatives to be effective, there is a need for coordination and coherence. To that end, IPI is developing a stream of work to provide “connective tissue” for these initiatives. This connectivity will include new research and analysis of how momentum on women’s leadership can be a part of lasting institutional change at the local, regional, and international levels. It will also emphasize the necessity of supporting and connecting with local women leaders.

As IPI builds this stream of work, we will highlight women’s leadership in public events and policy discussions, convene key actors who are able to support and facilitate the work of women leaders, and conduct research as necessary.

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