Last week, Secretary Marco Rubio sent Congress a formal notice describing how he intends to reorganize the Department of State, and the Trump Administration followed this with a request to withhold Congressionally approved funds to align with this plan. This vision, if approved by Congress, will have a devastating impact on global peace and security. It would eliminate Women, Peace and Security (WPS) expertise from America’s soft power toolkit, leaving diplomatic and development efforts less effective as a result. It would hurt societies writ large, and it would directly undermine the safety and empowerment of women and girls around the world.
Empowering women decreases the likelihood of political instability and increases the safety, strength, and prosperity of America. Today, the world is enveloped in conflicts, and WPS integration is key for greater effectiveness of U.S. foreign policy. Data shows that peace processes that include women are more likely to succeed and last longer. Georgetown’s Index on Women, Peace and Security shows a correlation between women’s well-being and peaceful and prosperous societies. Women are often the first and last lines of defense against conflict, crisis, and terrorism.
What do the proposed changes mean for WPS? Critically, the proposed reorganization would eliminate the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (GWI). This office leads the Department’s work to protect and support the rights of women and girls worldwide—a decades-long commitment of the United States across multiple administrations. GWI also leads the United States’ efforts to implement the Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017, which was sponsored by then Senator Rubio and signed by President Donald Trump.
The loss of GWI would be harmful to America’s leadership in the world. GWI ensures that the perspectives and expertise of women and girls are integrated throughout the Department’s foreign policies by working across regional and functional bureaus, and with Embassy leadership and staff, to make the Department and the United States more effective in all that it does. Without this dedicated lens, it is more likely that diplomatic efforts will fail to meet the needs and potential of over 50% of the world’s population.
GWI’s WPS work also strengthens efforts in partner countries, fostering alignment on this critical issue. For example, GWI led the government partnerships on the WPS Centers of Excellence, led by Colombia, Kosovo, and the Philippines, focused on helping translate diplomatic and policy efforts to practice at local, national, and regional levels. Without GWI coordinating, providing expertise, and bringing in new partners, these capabilities will be severely diminished.
The proposed termination of GWI is compounded by other cuts. Widespread terminations of WPS programs and staff have already taken place as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been dismantled and its WPS programs terminated, even though USAID has obligations under the WPS Act. USAID’s WPS efforts were critical for the U.S. to integrate this work into humanitarian aid and other development investments. The administration is proposing to cement these cuts, institutionalize the dismantling of USAID, and fold it into the State Department. Secretary Rubio has also proposed to further degrade America’s ability to undertake WPS work by going after staffing and structures in complementary parts of the Department that contribute critical work on the WPS agenda, including Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Conflict, and Stabilization Operations; and Population, Refugees, and Migration.
In recent Congressional testimony, Secretary Rubio said that he is “not abandoning women’s issues,” and noted that the Administration places a strong emphasis on the need to defend and support women and girls. He added that the State Department will “continue to advance opportunities to promote women’s empowerment and their meaningful participation in society.” In commenting on WPS, he assured Congress that the Department will “continue to comply with all applicable requirements under the law.”
Rubio’s plan is to integrate WPS within the Department’s regional bureaus and embassies. Yet, in the absence of dedicated focus, staff, expertise, and leadership, critical issues will be relegated to the margins. Existing GWI experts should be strategically incorporated into regional and functional bureaus and embassies to ensure a genuine commitment to and recognition of WPS’s importance in U.S. foreign policy. Further, WPS priorities should be incorporated at the highest levels to deliver on the mandate and legal requirements going forward.
WPS is a key to the success of so many of the Department’s efforts. The State Department must have the capacity, the staff, and the support at the highest levels to deliver on its WPS mandate and legal requirements going forward. Secretary Rubio should provide a more detailed plan for how WPS will be implemented by regional bureaus and how global efforts, like WPS reporting, will continue in this new structure. All efforts should be made to retain the Department’s WPS experts amidst staffing cuts. Congress should use its oversight role to demand that the Administration fully account for how it will robustly continue to deliver on the WPS Act. Partner nations should also continue making the case (and they already are) as to why the U.S.’s important WPS work matters to them.
As Secretary Rubio knows so well (since he co-sponsored the WPS Act that now governs this work), WPS is critical to America’s national security, prosperity, and its role in the world. We should not shortchange U.S. global leadership, peace, and security by marginalizing the U.S. commitment to WPS.
