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End of Year Reflections

  • GIWPS

This year has been particularly challenging for peace around the world, with more deadly conflicts raging now compared to any time in the last 80 years. However, in the spirit of the season, we recall the biblical injunction to be “prisoners of hope.” Despite the state of the world, women peacebuilders continue their courageous work—and we continue to stand with them. Women remain on the frontlines—from Sudan to Ukraine, from Palestine to Myanmar and beyond—facilitating dialogue, negotiating solutions, bridging divides, and resolving conflicts at all levels. We continue to support their leadership and participation through rigorous research, advocacy with decision-making bodies, organizing special events on timely topics, and nurturing the next generation of leaders to advance peace and security.

This is only possible because of your committed collaboration with our work and your generous support. See what you’ve made possible this year. 

New Research: Making the Case for Women’s Inclusion at All Levels of Peace and Security

We released three major research projects this year to further build the evidence-based case, all of which were launched with partners at the United Nations:

Working with Peacebuilders in our Rapid Response Network

We doubled our efforts to work with local peacebuilders at a time of severe cutbacks in international assistance programs. 

Convening Global Women Leaders

We were privileged to yet again organize an annual convening in Bellagio, Italy for top current and former female heads of governments and ministries to grapple with some of the tough issues affecting women’s leadership, such as authoritarian pushback and challenges to democracy. This year, we also launched a companion Women Changemakers program consisting of a cohort of women parliamentarians and other rising leaders for cross-generational collaboration and mentorship. Together, the leaders generated a Bellagio compact for advancing women’s leadership as a central pillar to the renewal of democracy. 

Honoring Women Trailblazers

At the annual Hillary Rodham Clinton Awards, we put a spotlight on courageous women safeguarding democracy: Nobelist Maria Ressa, Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum, women student protesters against authoritarian rule in Bangladesh, and women democracy defenders and political prisoners in Venezuela. We also honored three exceptional women leaders with our Trailblazer Award: the first woman President of Latvia, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga; Japan’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yōko Kamikawa; and Ukraine’s former Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.

Advocating for Climate Security

The nexus of gender, climate and security was the subject of continuing research and participation in global discussions, including at COP30 in Brazil. We also held a pre-COP discussion in New York with the former head of the UN agency on climate, the First 

Lady and gender advisor of Brazil, and other key leaders. Throughout the year we released a series of reports on how the UN Security Council can address this nexus and how countries can integrate climate into WPS National Action plans. 

Growing the Pipeline of Future Leaders

This year, 14 Georgetown master’s students received our graduate certificate in Gender, Peace and Security—the first of its kind—and we welcomed a new cohort of over 19 students — our largest yet.  As one recent graduate said: “Don’t give up doing what you are passionate about…Be proud of being in this field.”

Participating in Milestone Events

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the UN Security Council’s adoption of the WPS framework and the 30th anniversary of the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women that took place in Beijing and adopted a Platform for Action on women’s rights as human rights. We were invited to participate in a series of events to assess progress achieved and the unfinished agenda. We also marked the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which brought together leaders in the anti-human trafficking movement to the Georgetown campus.

Documenting The Historical Achievements of Women

In collaboration with the Georgetown Library, we co-hosted a symposium on women’s rights in Iran. Thanks to Mahnaz Afkhami, who served as the first and only Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran, Georgetown received her collection of papers and documents—the largest archive on women’s rights in pre-revolutionary Iran. We also launched an oral history project on women’s global leadership in US foreign policy in the last 3 decades. Both projects will provide scholars with important source material. 

Champions of Women, Peace and Security

We celebrated the fifth anniversary of our Georgetown Ambassadors program–a dynamic community of 38 women committed to advancing our mission of creating a more peaceful, equitable, and just world. We traveled to Tokyo, Japan, for an immersive learning and partnership-building trip, hosted intimate conversations with thought-partners and peacebuilders, and reconnected in Washington for our Annual Summit.  

We also welcomed a new cohort of distinguished non-resident fellows, including the former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico and former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC Patricia Espinosa; two-time Peabody Award-winning journalist Lulu Garcia-Navarro; retired United States Navy four-star admiral Michelle J. Howard; the fourth and the first woman President of the Republic of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga; investment banker and former Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalie A. Jaresko; former U.S. Ambassador to Angola Donald Steinberg; and former Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice in the U.S. State Department Dr. Beth Van Schaack. 

We wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and “peace on earth and goodwill to all” in the coming year.  

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