Diverse police forces that reflect the populations they serve are better prepared to carry out mandates for the prevention, detection and investigation of crime, the protection of persons and property, and the maintenance of public order and safety. As an illustration of that, in United Nations peace operations, women police have been challenging traditional gender […]
Read moreWomen‚ Peace and Security
Despite over two decades of policy development and commitments to supporting women and girls affected by armed conflict, 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. Efforts to build and sustain peace continue to neglect the expertise of local-level women peacebuilders, and formal peacemaking efforts continue to resist women’s meaningful participation and women’s rights.
IPI’s women, peace, and security (WPS) program seeks to build connections between the international community in New York and women and gender experts globally. To advance its goals, the WPS program conducts evidence-based research projects and strategic convenings and maintains global, national, and grassroots relationships and partnerships. In addition to its standalone program, IPI’s WPS team supports the mainstreaming of gender and WPS across the organization’s work.
The WPS program at IPI is focused on the future of the WPS agenda. Rather than only reflecting on the past, it looks ahead at opportunities to expand the WPS agenda and to make it more inclusive in order to reach its linked goals of gender equity and peace and security for all. By using an inclusive definition of “gender,” IPI seeks to move beyond using it as a stand-in for “women.” A broad gender analysis—one that acknowledges the spectrum of masculinities and femininities and how these ways of being affect all aspects of peace and security—ensures that IPI is pursuing an innovative, inclusive, and effective WPS research agenda.
IPI’s WPS program focuses on three main streams of work: (1) gender and peace operations; (2) gendered insights into peace and conflict; and (3) strengthening the WPS agenda and women’s leadership within the UN and among UN member states.
Gender and Peace Operations
UN peace operations will not be successful in building sustainable peace if they continue to marginalize women’s contributions and ignore gender dynamics within the UN and in the contexts where the UN operates.
Since 2019, IPI has analyzed and evaluated challenges and successes in increasing women’s substantive participation in peace operations. Calls to increase the number of women in peace operations (whether peacekeeping operations or special political missions) are increasingly intersecting with expectations of what women will “do” in these operations, covering everything from participation in female engagement teams to mediation. These expectations are, in turn, confronting the challenges women face in the security sector. Research on the unintended consequences of various policy and programmatic interventions, on incentives, and, crucially, on what women in uniform want from these initiatives remains nascent. Likewise, research on gendered definitions of security is lacking, and security concerns—both of host communities and uniformed women themselves—are often narrowly defined and not well addressed.
IPI’s project on gender in peace operations seeks to fill that gap. It builds on the organization’s expertise in UN peace operations and rigorous research to analyze and evaluate challenges and successes in increasing women’s substantive participation in peace operations. By working with the UN, governments, and civil society partners, IPI provides concrete policy guidance on what policies and programs are necessary to substantively improve women’s participation in peace operations.
Gendered Insights into Peace and Conflict
IPI will continue to analyze and evaluate the challenges and successes of the women, peace, and security agenda and offer recommendations on the way forward. IPI’s research on WPS not only examines areas that are already part of the WPS agenda and resolutions but also seeks to identify new intersections between gender, peace, and security. This workstream stems from the belief that using a gender analysis will lead to a better understanding and more effective strategies for building peace and addressing insecurity. An essential component of this workstream includes educating and training others in why and how gender analysis is useful.
As part of this research, IPI considers topics such as masculinities, preventing and countering violent extremism, gender-based violence, the climate crisis and the environment, and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR).
Strengthening the WPS Agenda and Women’s Leadership within the UN and Member States
As the WPS agenda approaches its 25th anniversary (marked by the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1325), it faces challenges in terms of implementation, especially in relation to one of its key pillars: promoting women’s leadership. IPI’s WPS program seeks to strengthen the implementation of the WPS agenda broadly as well as through understanding and working to overcome the barriers to women’s leadership. Dedicated, annual events bringing together key stakeholders and policymakers provide much-needed opportunities to talk through creative and practical solutions to the core challenges facing women, peace, and security. To that end, this workstream focuses on three primary areas: (1) connecting protection and participation; (2) strengthening member-state commitments; and (3) engaging feminist leaders.
Staff
News, Events, Publications
-
-
The United Nations agendas for Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and for Protection of Civilians (POC) both deal with protecting vulnerable populations. The comparison of these two agendas and opportunities to enhance protection were the focus of a November 1st IPI-Canada roundtable discussion, held under the Chatham House rule of non-attribution.Discussants expressed concern that protection […]
Read more -
The international community’s role in supporting women as vital stakeholders in an inclusive and enduring peace in Afghanistan was the subject of an October 30th IPI policy forum cosponsored by Cordaid, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and the NYU Center for Global Affairs.Rina Amiri, Senior Fellow at the NYU center and longtime […]
Read more -
The UN Security Council adopted the landmark resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security (WPS) in 2000 and since then, the international community has made notable strides toward implementing the WPS agenda through member state commitments. However, in recent years, the world has witnessed backsliding on these commitments and a backlash against robust attempts at […]
Read more -
Nineteen years after the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which reaffirmed the important role of women in peace and security, the international community is reflecting on the impact of this commitment and how to fulfill the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda. IPI’s WPS program hosted a staff meeting with the US […]
Read more -
As the twentieth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace, and security (WPS) approaches, the ad hoc nature of and limited accountability for implementation of the WPS agenda are undermining its full promise. This is despite increasing recognition that efforts to build and sustain peace are dependent upon the full participation […]
Read more -
Women’s rights are increasingly facing pushback with global trends towards populism and shifting centers of power. This pushback is also occurring at a time when preparations are being made to mark the anniversaries of key international commitments to women’s rights in 2020, including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and Security Council Resolution 1325 […]
Read more -
The United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) almost two decades ago, and over 80 countries have implemented national action plans to carry out the WPS agenda, yet despite these commitments, the status of women’s roles and rights globally are under threat. In conflict resolution processes, for instance, mediators […]
Read more -
For two decades, the women, peace, and security agenda has been the subject of policy development internationally, regionally, and nationally. But by many indicators, the global status of these commitments to gender equality is under threat. In the multilateral system, a growing number of states are questioning established standards of women’s rights, while international policy […]
Read more -
On April 18th IPI held an evening event, co-sponsored by Monash University and Griffith University, to discuss the intersection of policy and promise towards achieving the transformational potential of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda with an eye on the 20th anniversary next year of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the first dedicated to […]
Read more