Monitoring Progress on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security releases a series of reports tracking progress made by UN Member States on their commitments to advance WPS. The reports focus on states’ efforts to increase women’s representation in diplomacy and security spaces; funding for WPS-relevant activities; and the implementation of WPS through policy instruments over the past 25 years. Overall, the reports find important progress to celebrate in a variety of areas where WPS frameworks have been strengthened and real steps have been taken to enhance women’s roles in peace and security directly. However, much more needs to be done. Key findings include:
- Women’s representation as ambassadors and parliamentarians, key to high-level participation in line with UNSCR 1325, has doubled over the past 25 years, and the number of women in UN leadership has nearly tripled since 2000. However, women’s representation in the security sector over this period remained low, with women serving as only 13 percent of defense ministers and less than 10 percent of peacekeepers. This is a critical challenge for the full implementation of the WPS Agenda.
- International funding for WPS activities and programs has expanded since 2000, with nearly half of official development assistance tagged in part for gender equality. However, even at its peak, less than 10 percent of aid made gender equality a primary focus, and funding for women’s organizations in conflict-affected settings remains exceptionally low at less than one percent. Severe cuts to development spending and multilateral financing in 2025 are likely to further erode this support and undermine progress on WPS.
- Implementation of WPS through policy instruments to advance women’s central role in peace and security and to mandate gender-sensitive action has grown substantially since 2000: at least 110 UN Member States have WPS National Action Plans (NAPs), a key tool for articulating policies and commitments. However, implementation of these plans has been a challenge, and many WPS NAPs need additional resources and updates to remain effective. Peace provisions that acknowledge the specific impact of conflict on women and support their protection and inclusion in peace processes have grown overall, but their frequency has dipped since a peak in 2013, from nearly half of peace agreements to just one in three in 2023.
- Gender advisors in national, regional, and multilateral peace and security institutions have grown in number since the emergence of the WPS Agenda in 2000. The expansion of these roles in defense, development, and diplomacy has helped embed and mainstream expertise on gender-related issues to make policies and programs more effective, though recent political changes threaten reductions in these posts. Among identified good practices, further institutionalization of gender advisors in staff roles and work to equip advisors with strategic skills and opportunities for meaningful influence are necessary to enable their critical impact on more effective peace and security efforts worldwide
The reports were supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union, and Cooperation of Spain as part of their leadership under the Commitment 2025 (C25) initiative. They were authored by Rachel George, Carla Koppell, Jessica Smith, and Ava Kawamura.
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