The Global Monitoring Checklist on Women, Peace and Security is a pilot project that aims to contribute in a small way towards the international understanding on women, peace and security efforts. It does so by highlighting examples of activities to support UNSCR 1325 at the local and national level by women, civil society, national governments and the international community.
The Checklist examines five of these conflict contexts: Afghanistan, the DRC, Nepal, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. The countries were selected for this research as they encompass a range of contexts, including a conflict situation, negotiation situation and post-conflict/reconstruction situation; and secondly, on the basis that GAPS member organisations (who carried out the research) were sufficiently active in the region and have partners or programmes at the local level.
Key findings and recommendations:
National governments lack broad and deep understanding of substantive issues covered by UNSCR 1325, such as women and SSR, women and governance, women and legal reform, and women and peace negotiations.
Recommendation: The number of gender advisors within national-level administrative systems should be increased to provide more and better gender and conflict analysis trainings to a wide range of national government stakeholders, including parliamentarians, ministers, civil servants and ambassadors.
The impact of UNSCR 1325 implementation is difficult to establish given the lack of mechanisms to measure, monitor and evaluate progress on women peace and security.
Recommendation: Ensure that clear gender-sensitive benchmarks, indicators and lines of responsibility are integrated into all policies and action plans on peace and security, development, gender equality, women’s human rights and UNSCR 1325.
There is an absence of political leadership at all levels in advancing the women, peace and security agenda. At the national level, this results in responsibility for UNSCR 1325 being marginalised to under-funded gender ministries, rather than being led by ministries working on peace and security issues.
Recommendation: Develop clear lines of responsibility at high political levels for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and appoint an ambassador for women and gender equality.
Dedicated budget allocations for UNSCR 1325 across national government departments are limited and funding for CSOs working on gender, peace and security and women’s issues is inadequate.
Recommendation: Governments and donors should: 1) tie adequate financial resources to the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and to gender mainstreaming in broader peacebuilding and development strategies; and 2) ensure special funds are available in each region for CSOs working on gender, peace and security-related work.
There is very little reliable and accessible official data on women’s human rights, especially on the prevalence of SGBV and the number of widows.
Recommendation: Governments and donors should financially support the consolidation of data on women and girls in conflict and post-conflict societies, and include this data in their public reporting on UNSCR 1325.
Women remain unable to meaningfully participate at all levels of public and political life. In particular, they continue to be excluded from high-level political discussions, such as peace negotiations.
Recommendation: As a temporary special measure, ensure quotas of at least 33 percent women in negotiation teams, constitutional drafting committees and national and provincial parliaments; and secondly, provide financial support and training to female candidates in national and provincial elections, as well as training to women across national government administration.
Levels of SGBV and impunity remain extremely high and there is a lack of coherent, well-funded national strategies to tackle these problems.
Recommendation: National governments, with the support of international donors, should ensure: 1) the full implementation of VAW legislation, as well as prosecution and conviction of perpetrators; and 2) provide more and better training to government officials, the judiciary and police on the security and human rights of women, and on how to provide support to women survivors of SGBV.
