The Next Decade of Women, Peace and Security: Consolidating National Action, Regional Collaboration, and Global Accountability

Okay, okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. There we go. My name is Harriet Williams-Bright. I am the Secretariat Coordinator of the WPS Focal Points Network and the lead of the Women, Peace, and Security and Humanitarian Action Compact. A warm welcome to all of you joining us in person for this interactive dialogue on the next decade on women with peace and security. consolidating national action, regional collaboration, and global accountability. This event is held in commemoration of the 26th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and is convened by Namibia as Board Chair of the Compact, in partnership with Compact signatories and board and catalytic members, including UN Women, the African Union, Norway, Italy, the Philippines, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. Today's conversation is meant to be forward-looking. We will not cover all areas of the agenda in two hours, but I am sure the discussion will yield strategic insights on moving the WPS agenda forward in a changing political landscape, particularly will inform compact signatories on how to implement their commitments for maximum impact. We will get right into the speakers. Just to say, we've decided and we've discussed that we will keep to time because we want to ensure that we really do have a time for exchange and interaction. So, it is my pleasure to invite His Excellency Penda Nanda, Permanent Representative of Namibia to the United Nations, to deliver welcome remarks. Ambassador, you have the floor. A round of applause.

Thank you, Madam Moderator, Ms. Harriet Williams-Bright. Let me also stand by the protocol as established by the moderator. I warmly welcome all participants here today as we commemorate the 26th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Namibia's history with this agenda is one of leadership, partnership, and conviction. In October 2000, our nation spearheaded the development and adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, working hand in hand with like-minded countries and inspired by women at the grassroots level whose courage and persistence give substance to our democracy. As Chair of the Humanitarian Compact, and as we commemorate this landmark resolution, Namibia remains steadfast in nurturing its growth together with all our partners at the local, regional, and international levels. We welcome the 14 new signatories that have joined the Compact since October last year. This brings the total number of signatories to 254. We particularly recognize the Philippines and Portugal as the newest member states who have joined the compact. We have also welcomed nine additional signatories who have joined from Bosnia and Herzegovina to advance national action plans on implementation. Madam moderator, during the 25th anniversary of 1325, Namibia, in collaboration with the African Union Commission and the SADC Secretariat, proudly hosted the Silver Anniversary of UNHCR 1325 in Windhoek. The event culminated in the adoption of the Windhoek +25 Declaration, a document that celebrates progress while renewing our collective purpose. The declaration acknowledges the leadership demonstrated at the highest political and intergovernmental levels, as well as the steadfast commitment of civil society, grassroots organizations, and community peace builders. It reminds us of the women, peace, and security agenda is only as strong as the systems that connect women at the grassroots level to the decision making tables. where their realities are translated into policy. It further underscores our unwavering commitment to the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in areas of peace, security, and governance across Africa and beyond. Namibia, therefore, calls for the strong safeguarding of the Women, Peace, and Security normative framework within the UN system, including in the context of UN80 initiative. We cannot afford to slack back and lose momentum on progress made in this agenda that is so crucial to ensuring peace and stability across the world, recognizing the strong role of women as agents for peace. Madam Moderator, increasing hotspots and conflicts around the world necessitate more, not less, of women's mainstream participation in all peace processes, including conflict prevention and mediation. We call for the further strengthening and support to regional mechanisms that are closer to the realities on the ground and can better prevent and mediate conflict, including through better capacitated early warning systems. Finally, Madam Moderator, actions 19 and 20 of the Pact for the Future provide key guidelines for us to advance the WPS implementation over the next decade. Let us therefore move forward with great resolve and dedication to the Women, Peace and Security agenda. I thank you, Madam Moderator.

Thank you very much, Ambassador Nanda, and setting us up for a very good discussion here. And just wanted to highlight what you said about the WPS agenda coming alive when we can connect it to women at local level, and also reminding us that going forward, WPS needs to be very much a part of the UN80 process, as well as the implementation of the Pact for the Future. And of course, the role of regional organizations in doing this. So thank you so much for that. Moving on, we have Ms. Paivi Kanisto, Chief of Peace, Security, and Resilience at UN Women, who will now deliver opening remarks. Paivi, you have the floor.

Thank you, Harriet, our esteemed moderator, Your Excellency. Ambassador Pendananda, such a pleasure to be here with you. Excellencies, distinguished speakers, and participants, thank you all very much for joining all of us this afternoon for this much needed conversation on strategizing for the next decade on women, peace, and security. UN Women is very pleased to co-host this dialogue with Namibia and fellow compact signatories. Many thanks to Namibia, Norway, the African Union, OSCE, GNWP, and the Chairs of the Women, Peace and Security Focal Points Network, Italy and the Philippines. I'm sure you've heard this, but now more than ever, women, peace and security community is needed, and this very specific community. 26 years after the adoption of Resolution 1325, We must reclaim and reinforce this agenda at one of the most challenging moments for global peace and security since the founding of the United Nations. Armed conflicts are increasing. In 2025, the number of women and girls living near active conflict rose by 40 million, the equivalent of 110,000 more women and girls every day. And it actually makes almost one-fifth of the world's women and girls now live within 50 kilometers of an active conflict site. And I think we all in this room agree that the world needs more women, peace, and security. It's actually a solution. This year's report of the UN Secretary General on Women, Peace and Security, however, reveals worrying trends across all four pillars of Resolution 1325. On participation, women accounted for just 5% of negotiators across 57 peace processes in 2025, down from 7% in the previous year. Funding for gender equality fell by nearly 3 billion US dollars, from 24.6 billion in '23 to 21.7 billion in '24. Conflict disproportionately exposes women and girls to displacement, disrupted education and livelihoods, loss of essential services, sexual violence, hunger, and poverty. Around 170 million women and girls live in conflict zones and in extreme poverty, surviving on less than three US dollars a day. Meanwhile, UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence nearly quadrupled between 2022 and 2025. But another part of this agenda is too often overlooked: the conflicts that never happen. Military victories are celebrated, while the wars prevented because women negotiated, mediated, organized, and rebuilt trust before violence spread remain largely invisible. Serious studies of conflict show that prevention costs less than war. The Women, Peace, and Security agenda is fundamentally about preventing wars. And Namibia, as originator of this resolution, has so often stressed this one. It's about preventing wars, not simply making wars safer for women. Yet the rising military expenditure alongside declining investment in gender equality and women's organizations reflects a troubling reality. Men who fight wars are valued more than women who prevent them. As we look to the next decade, we need an intentional shift at global, regional, and national levels to realize the full potential of women, peace, and security. This means bringing women, peace, and security into decisions on peace processes, foreign policy, defense, and security, including artificial intelligence, maritime security, counter-terrorism, climate change, and disaster risk reduction. It means aiming for all UN Member States to develop, fund, and implement whole of government Women, Peace, and Security National Action Plans, building on the 118 Member States, 60% of the UN Member States that have adopted them. It means sustaining women's peacebuilding through financing women's rights organizations, drawing on expertise of women mediator networks, and prioritizing conflict prevention, women's economic security, and social protection. And it really means that what happens in communities, villages, homes needs to feel like peace and security for people. And here in New York, every Security Council decision must reinforce that women's meaningful participation in conflict resolution is a global norm. But protecting women and girls is essential to international humanitarian law, and that those who kill, rape, or persecute them must face sanctions and accountability. And I'm so glad to see Security Council members also in the room to enforce this one. To the more than 252 Compact signatories, thank you for your commitment to accountability and for advancing women, peace, and security. And I look very much forward to this discussion today. When I look at the participants in this room, I am so excited on what we can come out of this room at the end of the day today. Thank you very much for being here.

Thank you very much, Ivy. And I'm not going to try and summarize all the things that you have said. But again, across the four pillars, we are seeing a deterioration in advancing the WPS agenda. But Ivy, you've also articulated some steps that can be taken. So all is not lost. And we will have more of that conversation. So, I think this allows us to get into the panel discussion and hear from the panelists, and then we can open the floor for interactive conversation. We'll start with Dr. Yasmin Nario-Galaz. She's the CEO of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, and GNWP is a board member of the Compact. Over to you, Yasmin.

Thank you so much, Harriet. Good afternoon, everyone.

I want to begin with something that has stayed with me throughout our work at the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders. We often ask women to be resilient. We ask them to hold communities together, mediate conflicts, protect their families, and rebuild trust after violence. But how often do we ask ourselves, what are we doing to sustain the women who sustain peace? This is at the heart of the challenges facing the Women, Peace, and Security agenda today. From Gaza to Sudan, from Ukraine to Myanmar, women and girls face displacement, violence, and deepening economic insecurity. Yet women and young people continue to mediate conflicts, provide humanitarian assistance, challenge hatred, and create pathways to peace. At GNWP, we have seen why this leadership must be supported, where peacebuilding happens in communities. In Papua New Guinea, our work has supported communities in developing 14 Women, Peace and Security Community Bylaws in the Highlands. This shows how global commitments can become meaningful when communities translate them into actions they own and sustain. Yet we celebrate women's leadership while women-led organizations struggle for predictable funding. We call for women's participation while decisions are made without them. We recognize women as essential to peacebuilding, but too often treat their work as temporary projects rather than essential infrastructure for peace. We cannot ask women peacebuilders to be the safety net for communities while leaving them without a safety net of their own. This is one of the reasons GNWP helped co-found the WPSHA Compact. To close the gap between our commitments and the realities women experience, we must be more ambitious about what success looks like. First, we must stop treating funding for women peacebuilders as discretionary. We need flexible, multi-year funding that reaches grassroots women-led and youth-led organizations directly, enabling them to sustain their people and work between crises. Second, we must move from inviting women to participate to sharing power with them. Women and young people must meaningfully influence decisions about peace processes, humanitarian assistance, recovery, and reconstruction. Third, We must connect the challenges communities experience as inseparable. Conflict, climate shocks, displacement, and economic insecurity reinforce one another. Our responses must integrate peacebuilding, humanitarian action, and development grounded in local realities. Finally, we must make the Compact a mechanism for accountability. We must ask whether funding reaches women's organizations, whether women influence decisions, whether their rights are protected, and whether their work can continue. As a founder of Compact, GNWP believes its value will ultimately be measured with the difference it makes in the lives and work of women peacebuilders. I want to leave you with a question. Imagine what the world would look like without women peacebuilders. Who would mediate local conflicts, protect communities, keep channels for dialogue open, challenge hatred, and help rebuild trust where violence has torn people apart? What would happen to the communities that depend on their courage, their leadership, and their daily work to keep hope for peace alive? Is that an alternative scenario any of us would want? If the answer is no, We must do more than praise women peacebuilders. We must change the conditions that leave them underfunded, threatened, and struggling to continue their work. Governments must resource and protect them, safeguard civic space, and uphold international humanitarian law. Regional organizations and the UN must recognize, resource, and engage local women-led organizations as essential partners in shaping solutions. But changing the conditions facing women peacebuilders also requires confronting the political choices that allow wars and conflicts to continue, and investing in preventing violence before it erupts. Our responsibility is not simply to help women survive war or rebuild what war destroys. It is to prevent conflicts and wars, protect civilians, uphold international law and create the political conditions for just and lasting peace. The true measure of our commitment to WPS is not how often we celebrate women's resilience, but whether we have the political courage to make such resilience less necessary and peace more possible. That is the promise of the WPH compact, not simply to depend on women's courage, but to sustain their leadership, protect their rights, and resource their work. If we expect women to keep building peace for the world, then the world must finally take responsibility for sustaining them. Thank you.

Thank you, Jasmine. And a question, what are we doing to sustain the women who sustain peace? And a thread that we are seeing here is around prevention and not making wars safer for women and the steps that can be taken to move that forward. Thank you so much for your intervention. We'll now move over to Praveena Makanlaka. She's the associate director of the Open Society Foundations. And Praveena, from the perspective of a philanthropic organization, you've heard Jasmine talk about sustaining women peacebuilders, sustaining the work of women peace and security. What are your thoughts on this?

Madam moderator, Thank you so much, and allow me to thank the co-chairs of the Women, Peace, and Humanitarian Action Compact, the governments of the Republic of Namibia, the governments of Norway, Philippines, Italy, the African Union, the OSCE, the Global Network for Women Peacebuilders, and UN Women for this timely convening and the commemoration of the WPS agenda. As we look on the next decade of women, peace, and security, I want to suggest that this is not a moment for incremental improvement. I think it is a moment to imagine differently. Because if we are to be honest about what the latest Secretary General report tells us, the challenges facing the WPS agenda is not a lack of commitments. It is a crisis of implementation. It's a crisis of political will and increasingly a crisis of imagination, I would think. The Secretary General himself warns us of the growing distance between what states have committed to and the actual state of international peace and security. 25 years after UN Resolution 1325, we have more national action plans, more institutional architecture, more commitments than ever before. Yet the report paints a very sobering picture. Global military spending has reached $2.9 trillion. Nearly 756 million women and girls now live within 50 kilometers of active conflict, the very women, Yasmin, you are talking about who are first respondents and carry the WPS agenda, the highest level since 1990s. Conflict-related sexual violence has nearly quadrupled, which Pavi already alluded to, and women make up 5% of peace negotiations last year, which is a drop in terms of what we had achieved previously. So the question before us is not whether the Women, Peace, and Security agenda remains relevant. The question is, what does Women, Peace, and Security look like when conflict is expanding? When civic space is shrinking, when technology is transforming warfare, and resources for peace are declining? That's the fundamental question before us today. My answer is that we must stop treating WPS as a specialized agenda and start treating it as a framework for how security itself is understood, how it is governed, and how it is financed. First, We must reclaim the agenda's original emphasis on prevention. So I am to agree with you, Yasmin, that prevention needs to become center of what we do going forward. Over time, WPS has often become concentrated around participation and protection. Not wrong and not an indirect or not a focus to have. Those remain essential. But the report reminds us that the architects of UN Resolution 1325 were also calling for reduced militarization. We're also calling for arms control. We're also calling for nonviolent conflict resolution and a culture of peace. Today, that warning is even more urgent as the world spends far more on war than on peace and peace transformation. If prevention is serious, then the WPS principles must shape foreign policy decisions before crisis erupt, not simply humanitarian responses after violence occurs. Second, we need a stronger regional vision for WPS. Many of today's crises do not respect borders. From Sudan and the Great Lakes region to the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and beyond, the effects of conflicts ripple across regions through displacement, through arms flows, through economic disruption, and political instability. So borders do not define conflict anymore. Yet some of the most promising innovations are also regional. Many regional organizations have now adopted WPS policies or action plans and regional women's networks. And Africa really leads in this space in terms of being a trailblazer. And networks continue to play an indispensable role in mediation, early warning, and peacebuilding. The next decade requires moving beyond coordination towards genuine regional solidarity. We need sustained support for women mediators, cross-border peacebuilding networks, Yasmin has already spoken to that, regional accountability mechanisms, and shared protection strategies for human rights and women human rights defenders. Additionally, and thirdly, we must bring women, peace, and security into the governance of emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence is already reshaping information ecosystems, surveillance, conflict dynamics, and decision making. It can amplify exclusion, biases, and disinformation, and we are focused on that in thinking about artificial intelligence. We will miss the opportunity if we continue to focus at that point only. But it is also can strengthen early warning, improve analysis, and support prevention efforts. The question is not whether AI will affect peace and security. It already does. The question is whether women and feminist perspectives will shape the rules governing these technologies. Women's peace and security must become a central lens for AI governance, ensuring transparency, accountability, human rights protectors, and meaningful participation by women in the design and oversight of these systems. The future of security will increasingly be digital. The future of women, peace, and security must be as well. Finally, we need to have an honest conversation about money, and that's the side that we bring in terms of a philanthropy organization. The Secretary General’s report notes that support for gender equality in fragile settings has declined. We know that assistance to women’s rights organizations has fallen sharply. We know that development assistance experienced its largest annual drop on record. Many frontline women organizations are operating with less than six months of funding. while others are being forced to close entirely. And today, when we have the Woman, Peace, and Security Week in New York, we see fewer and fewer women organizations here with us today. As philanthropy, we cannot replace public financing, but we can help change the way funding works. We can provide flexible, multi-year funding. We can support local organizations rather than intermediaries, or a combination of the two. We can invest in networks and movements and infrastructures, not only projects. This agenda cannot be projectized. It will be a missed opportunity if we do that. And we can use our resources to crowd in public and multilateral financing rather than substitute for it. In short, we must not simply spend more. We must spend more wisely. Let me close with this. The Secretary General's report contains both a warning and an invitation. The warning that many of the gains of the last 25 years are at risk, rising conflict, shrinking participation, declining aid, and growing militarization are pushing us backwards. But the invitation is to imagine differently. Not a future where women are invited into existing systems after decisions are being made. But a future where prevention, participation, accountability, solidarity fundamentally reshape how decisions are made. Not a future where the WPS is a side agenda, but a future where WPS becomes the standard by which we judge whether our approaches to peace and security are fit for purpose. It has to be our framework from which we evaluate. Because the next decade of WPS should not be about managing decline. It should be about transforming the way we understand peace, power, and security itself. I thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much, Parveen. So much food for thought in that intervention. I'm going to just highlight what you said, that the WPS agenda cannot be projectized, and we have a crisis of implementation, political will, and imagination. I know that there's a lot of imagination in this room and forward-looking thoughts in this room, but thank you as well for bringing the issue of artificial intelligence and how we can actually address that and get ahead of that as a WPS community as well. Thank you so much for your remarks. I'm now going to turn to my right. We have Dr. Lara Scapita. senior advisor on gender issues at OSCE. And, Lara, you've heard from Jasmine, you've heard from Praveena. What are some of the thoughts that you have, particularly from the regional perspective?

Thank you very much, Harriet, and a warm welcome to all of you. It's really my pleasure to be here. The OSCE is a catalytic member, proudly a catalytic member of the Women, Peace and Security Humanitarian Compact, and that's because we believe that this is one of the key frameworks bringing together regional organizations, international organizations, member states, civil society, is really unique. And I'm being very happy that we are also being able to actually bring members to the compact. So it's really good. And I mean, it's very difficult to speak after such expertise which was brought in because they are on the ground. I just want to perhaps offer some reflections on how do we see the current situation and also highlight some of the trends and recommendations based on our experience. Of course, I sit for an organization which is devoted to security, is the world largest regional security organization. Sorry, the world largest regional security organization, 57 countries participating states and a number of partners for cooperation. And for us, the concept of security, which was very much mentioned up until now, it's what we call comprehensive approach to security, which is not only about disarmament, it's not only about political participation or political decisions, but it's about economic resilience, climate resilience, economic development, and fundamentally also human rights, democracy, and gender equality for us. And I make this as a starting point because this is how we also see the WPS agenda. the gender equality is mainstreamed in every single policies and projects that we have throughout our comprehensive approach to security. So starting from this perspective, the current trends moving on to what we see as being some of the most challenging ones, of course, what we see at the global level, we also have it reflected in the OEC. I was reading the Secretary General report, and I think, without repeating the figures, but to me, we are not speaking of gaps anymore. Here, we are really speaking about a reversal. We are going back. We are going back too fast. So we also have to be blunt about the fact that this is no gap anymore in implementation, but it's really an agenda which is a risk. We also see, of course, across the OECD, many countries are investing more in military spending, and there is less on conflict prevention, less money on conflict prevention, on early warning systems, less certainly on peace building, with all the consequences this brings, because it is the women civil society who are very often doing the work on the ground on peace building. One of the major challenge that we see is technology facilitated online violence. And it's not only a question of AI, it's really something which is really threatening and pushing women out of politics, out of power, out of social life. So if you're talking about bringing women in and supporting women political participation, if we don't tackle technology facilitated online violence, we are not going to have women in politics very, very soon. And of course, this is affecting a lot of women in conflict settings because they don't even have the remedies and the framework to support them. I agree on the fact that the WPS agenda, and I see it is very much also in the discussions that we have, is too much seen as a specialized agenda, too focused on military, too focused on defense. There is not enough of an agenda understood as really as a tool for long-term peace and stability. So we also need to work on communicating what the WPS agenda is. In terms of trends, I want to move on, though, on the more positive side, because we do know the problems, we've been talking about the problems, we need to acknowledge the problems. But I just want to give perhaps some idea of something positive that has been happening, that we see as positive trends. Now, we know that a number of countries which have been championing the WPS agenda globally have been backtracking, have been changing their policies, have been abandoning feminist foreign policies or have been abandoning WPS agenda. But looking at the global level, especially in New York, where you have them all around the table, there are a number of countries which have been actually trying to adopt new national action plan on 1325. There are some countries, and I'm thinking in particular of the countries on Central Asia, in Central Asia, which have been looking at national action plans as tools to meet their commitments on 1325. We have expertise on countries which have been developing action plans in close partnership with civil society, and Armenia is one example of how big partnership with civil society has led a very solid action plan. We also have other countries which are bringing together or at least linking, at least in person, like Italy, and the colleague is here. And I wanted to mention the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the Youth, Peace and Security agenda, looking at how the two agendas are also working together. And we have other countries doing this. So I think this is positive because we have, despite some countries going backward, we also need to look at those countries who are starting to champion it, who are shifting their policies, because in a multilateral context, you need to build new alliances when the older ones are going perhaps not taking the supporting it anymore. And other things that we've been doing at the OECD is also, although we don't have the consensus of all the participating states, Under Finland, a chairpersonship, we adopted a roadmap which now has very firm commitments of 38 participating states out of 57. And of course, it's a voluntary roadmap, but it's a voluntary instrument that can be used to push the Women, Peace and Security agenda forward. Another point in terms of positive trend is more attention to young people and young women, and the importance of leveraging women peace and security and youth peace and security and intergenerational dialogue. I think we need to do more also in investing into young women as leaders. And this is one area where I think it's strategically sound, strategically important to push the women, peace and security agenda. We are also working extensively on engaging men for gender equality. Let's not forget that the women, peace and security agenda should not only be as a woman's fight. We need to have the broader discussion. We need to engage men. Whether it is the defense or in politics, we need to have the buy-in of men. And we have developed a number of tools in the OSCE in order to engage them. A final point which I also wanted to make was about the fact that we also need to indeed focus on prevention, but we should not abandon participation. We should not say, you know, we have a major problem, there are no women in track one negotiations, we don't have women at the tables, but we should continue insisting on women leadership, investing in women leadership, and insisting of having participation of women in track one processes. But this being said, I think our role as regional organizations, but role as an international community, is also to make sure that women are in every single decision-making tables. So not just track one, but also provide them access to influence decisions in all the peace tables, including ceasefires, et cetera. Over to you.

Thanks very much, Lara, for bringing in the intergenerational aspect into this conversation, as well as how we engagement as part of these discussions. I know that you have tried to highlight as well where the opportunities lie, while also talking about the challenges of technology facilitated gender-based violence as well. I hope we can get into that conversation once we start our interactive session. Thanks again. And on my right, I have Ambassador Jarmund Sæther. He's a Special Envoy for Women, Peace, and Security of Norway. Ambassador, you've been here and you've been hearing what is the current state of play and some of the thoughts about how we move things forward. What are your thoughts? Over to you.

Thank you very much. And again, Ambassador, co-ambassadors, co-conveners, thank you very much for giving us this opportunity. I think many of you might know Signe Gil, my predecessor in this role, and she did a lot of work with the Compact of Norway with sharing the Compact from 2022 until 2024. But I will maybe relate more to the discussion in the room, and I agree with everything. But maybe I'll try to give some context seen from my point of view. Again, I don't disagree with anything that has been said. So if we look at the funding crunch, I think we have to make a distinguish. We have to distinguish between those who cut the funding for ideological reasons and the other ones. After Russia invaded Ukraine, in Europe, many countries to change priorities, and I think that's quite natural when your neighboring country are invading another country. Okay, something happened with your priorities. So Norway, we are in a fortunate financial position. We can continue to support aid programs elsewhere in the world. We can continue to support women, peace, and security politically and financially. But We are in a very advantageous position in Europe, and we understand fully that European countries have to make some difficult choices. But again, it comes back to the issue of basic security for your citizen. So I think that's one contextual issue. And I think the time when the world could rely on Western donors, I think that's gone. And I say that, I mean, we are still, we have not reduced our aid allocation. But I think we will have to look for new donors in other parts of the world, too. If you look at per capita income in some of the countries outside the West, you will find that some countries have very high per capita income, but they don't necessarily provide any aid. They have a higher income than many European countries per capita. So again, that's one piece of context. Another piece of context, I think it is a lot of bad news, but we have to also try to look for the good news. I think, Lada, you mentioned it, and I think, Mulamulavi, you had a big party when you launched a strategic plan for the African Union on women, peace, and security, huge support. So, I mean, yeah, some countries have become quite negative to gender equality, to women, peace, and security, but again, other countries are also picking up. And it's true when you make a national action plan, you know, you're not necessarily implementing everything you put up in that national action plan, but it's a start. And when we look at our first action plan, that's about 20 years ago, it has changed a lot. And has also changed a lot in the sense that we have included our own defense sector much more in the recent version of the action plan. And then I think where we go from here, I think we must insist that even if it's difficult, women, peace, and security agenda must also be part of the hottest geopolitical issues. And then I'm also thinking again about OSCE and the important work you do in Ukraine for women, peace, and security, because there is a risk, oh no, this conflict is too big and it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, we cannot have that. We don't have time for that. And quite frankly, you know, sometimes you hear, you get the impression that women, peace and security, that's something that you can deal with in Central African Republic, but not in the Middle East. No, that's not the way we see it. It has to be everywhere, in what we sometimes call the forgotten wars, and also in the most hotly contested geopolitical issues. It has to be there, everywhere you go, so to say. And again, probably I'm looking for a good piece of news, but I think the Peace Building Fund, the Women, Peace, and Humanitarian Fund, there are positive things happening, also financing of grassroots organizations. The UN Women is very much into that. So there are, even if it doesn't reach the headlines, and even if it's not about making a final peace agreement, It's a sustained peace that can prevent conflict or it can build peace. And maybe also coming to the issue of prevention, like Ravina, you rightly put that on the table. And I think, yeah, there are many ways of addressing it. And if we look at the picture from 30,000 feet, at least from our point of view, the best way of preventing conflict is that we actually stick to international law. And okay, obviously for us, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is illegal, it's a violent trampling upon the UN Charter. And of course, Israel, as our political leadership has said many times, they are completely outside the scope of international law in terms of what they're doing with the Palestinian. And also, the bombing of Iran by the US and Israel is also outside the scope of international law. So I think it's also up to every member state to try to be consistent in their support of international law. That's a good way to prevent conflict, and that's a good way also to promote the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, Ambassador. A lot of food for thought there, but thank you as well for bringing the importance of international law into this conversation as well. I know many have thoughts on some of the things that you have shared, and we will get into that. Over now to our last panelist, Ms. Katherine Renee Andela. Chief of the DPPA DPO Gender Unit at the United Nations. Kathy, thank you so much for joining us. DPO is a board member of the Compact, and we would like to hear your thoughts on what has been said, but also on peacekeeping operations and peace processes. How do you see us moving forward into the next decade?

So I think that we have all heard the panelists talking about all those figures and data for the recent published or released SG report on WPS, so I won't come back to those figures. They are so alarming. So I was thinking of complementing those figures with another narrative. of what has worked so far, because we should also look at the lessons learned to be able to project ourselves for the next decade. That's my approach. So let me, first of all, pause. Let me thank the organizers for convening this meeting. So back to my proposal. orient my discussion around four reflections. So the first one, and I will come back, Pravina, to participation. I mean, I agree with Lara that participation is really also at the center to enable all of the other piece of the resolution and recovery. So first, we need really to treat the women's full, equal, and meaningful participation as a strategic necessity, political imperative, strategic necessity. And we have seen that in peacekeeping context. Let me bring you some examples. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we were able to also join force DPPA and DPO. meaning that we were supporting not only the special envoy for the Great Lakes, but also MONUSCO and the women leaders to kind of come with this advisory board to have now the women part of the negotiations. I mean, that's the major milestone with, of course, the presence of the two former presidents from Central African Republic and from Ethiopia. That's a concrete support. It has its own challenges, but let's look at the glass half full. So this is not symbolic participation, this is really what we call better peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Let me bring you another example from Lebanon. We have talked on national actions plan. For this time, I mean, together with UNSCOW and UNIFIL, and again to show you the the coming together of DPPA and DPO in providing advice and support. So we were able to have some, to support the provision of WPS and gender in the national armed forces of of Lebanon, and that's a major achievement. To give you also another example, for example, in Cyprus, in Cyprus, the crisis is the same, being on the DPPA side or the DPO side. So again, with the good offices on one hand, and UNFICYP, we were able to accompany the women across the divide to meet, and it was catalytic for now all the political stakeholders. So let me really remind you all of that and stress that peace agreements may be negotiated at the top, but peace is sustained from the ground up. So we, I mean, my predecessors talked also on localization. That's really important. The SG report brought some figures. Let me bring one aspect that was not covered, the cut, the loss of gender expertise. This is extremely important. We confront that challenge that there is the erosion of gender expertise. At a time when conflicts are becoming more complex, many institutions are facing budget pressures, staffing reduction, and funding constraints. Yet, one of the first casualties is often dedicated gender capacity. And this is something that we have stressed with the member states, with the UN top leadership, so we have really to retain that gender expertise because only by doing so we will be able to continue the fight at proper level, knowing what gains we are about to lose. So no one will do that on our behalf, I mean, on behalf of all the gender expertise that we have across the system. Finally, I'm just skipping through some of the elements because it has already been flagged. Finally, we must really adapt the WPS agenda to new realities. And again, I will repeat what my predecessor said, but climate-related insecurity, displacement, digital technologies, misinformation, violent extremism, Those are the traits that we have to factor when we are thinking about the next phase of the WPS agenda as we move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Kathy, for those great examples. Indeed, as we move into the next decade, where will we be without gender expertise? And what does that mean for the work that is being done across the world? Thank you for those points. I will say, let's move now to Ambassador Mula Mula. because we asked you today to be part of this conversation, to offer some reflections based on the panel discussion, but also from the regional collaboration perspective and the solidarity, and everyone has touched on prevention. where you see the landscape and how we can move this conversation forward. So it is my pleasure to hand over the mic to Her Excellency Liberata Mula Mula, the African Union Special Envoy on Women, Peace, and Security. Ambassador, you have the floor.

Thank you. I think jet lag is setting in. Good evening. Because in Addis Ababa, we are in bed. Yes, let me start by thanking you and your excellency, Penda. You know, in Swahili, Penda means to like or to love. I'm not saying I'm in love with him, but I'm in love with Namibia. Because last year, almost same time as now, We were in Windhoek to celebrate 25 years of Resolution 1325, and now we came up with Windhoek +25 Declaration. So as we look to the next decade of women, peace, and security, I'm carrying with us that important declaration. But I want to thank UN Women. Since I arrived, we started this morning with Sudanese women leaders, thanks to African, I mean, Africa Union, UN Women. But also, i'm so happy because I just signed to the pledge. not to participate in panels that are one gender. So you can see here, we are balanced and I'm keeping up to my pledge. But thank this, I'm also, I'm speaking under the protection and guidance of the African Union delegation in the room. I have representative from the cabinet of the chairpersons. I have famines. I have representative from the political affairs, peace and security. We are also being accompanied. I'm saying being accompanied because they belong to this UN. But then we have the United Nations. There is an office to the African Union. So I bring this warmth from Addis Ababa. So then, as I said this morning, we sat with the Sudanese women leaders, and at midday, we met with the defense ministers and with men and women in uniform. This, I said, this week, it's a really heartwarming week. We bring women power in the rooms in New York. But looking at my colleague, the special envoy, this side here was second or third meeting. But when, just like one of our regent South African singer, she defined women as well-organized men. So I want to recognize men in the room. This was Yvonne Shaka Shaka. But let me now come back to what they have asked me to say. You have asked me to look forward. And the good thing is, when you are within the United Nations rooms, you always associate and agree fully to what has been said. So by looking forward, I picked some key elements, and I was also happy that for the first time, Praveena is among the speakers. She's always moderating us. But speaking from what has been said, I've heard repeatedly, prevention, prevention, prevention. And we saw this during the COVID crisis, that prevention works. So if we invest in prevention, it works. But I've also heard repeatedly about the national action plans, all of us around the table, especially from the member states. We have the national action plans, and some of them, like Norway and others, have gone through various generations. I just came back from Seychelles. They adopted their first national action plan, heading to the 38 now. 38 national action plans by the African member states. But what was so important about this national action plan? For the first time, it was not confined to the ministries of gender. It was cross-cutting. But then the ministries of defense and security. They took it as their agenda. We had the chief of defense forces in the room. We had the ministers from Homeland Security, and this is what this WPS is all about. But also, what I've heard from here is about resourcing. We have this, again, national action plans. My office monitors through the continental ZAT framework. But then most of these national plans are not even budgeted for. So they end up being very good on paper. But what I'm hearing from this discussion, I think it is a call to ourselves, to our partners, that we need to put money where our mouth is. But also, I've heard, how do we make women peace and security agenda? Count in foreign and security policy without militarizing it. We heard about how much is being spent on the military. So when I come by, coming back to the prevention, I said, in Africa, let me talk for Africa. We rarely lack warning, early warning. Women in our communities are often the first to see tensions rising. We consider women as our eyes and ears on the ground. In the markets, in the schools. And they know, because when you engage the women from Sudan, we were in Port Sudan in April. These women, they know who is buying weapons, who is supplying, who is being excluded. But then we see the increasing gap between the warnings and the response or action. But also let me, talking for the African Union, we have the best ever normative frameworks We have the best tools, as I mentioned, the continental warning systems. We have the panels of the wise. We have frame wise. Are you here? Oh, yes, yes. Frame wise Africa. We have the network of women mediators. So as we look to the next decade, our task, therefore, is to make this normative frameworks is women information counting, all be integrating all the systems. It cannot be just like add-on or just being an event. We need, we have been training women mediators. Let's deploy them, DPO. We have, I've been trained almost, I don't know how many times. I've never been deployed. We have ceasefires being negotiated, being monitored, but then without women participation. In DRC, women always reminds me, say the ambassador, those you call rebels, those you call generals, these are our husbands, they are our kids, they are our neighbors. But when it comes to ceasefire, you are looking for some, we can monitor these ceasefires. We live with these people. So this is when we talk of WPS being integrated. You don't go that far. These women who live with this. So let me also say, listening to the second panel, you have all described You have all rightly said, the pushback. I'm seeing my sister, we have been in this game for too long, but we cannot accept this pushback. At the last CSW session, we left here so much frustrated not knowing which direction we are going. Because it was like everything was being redefined. We could not even agree on what is gender. So this is what I'm saying. I mean, in Africa, we're not short of crisis. Whether you look in the Sahel, in the Great Lakes, in the Horn, in Sudan, we see the same. But what we need to to appreciate, and this is what has been some of the interventions that have been made, that we need, of course, this regional approach. No one in this room or representative of any member states to say that they are safe. You have mentioned about the Ukraine. Those days when we were all making noise about our neighborhood. Everyone will say, oh, there's fatigue. Until when Ukraine crisis came, that's when you really appreciated the regional approaches in dealing with this crisis. So I must say, a simple test for the next decade. When a country adopts an action plan, the question we ask ourselves, what has changed in its budget? What has changed in its foreign policy approach? What has changed in its security institutions? What is being negotiated? What accountability system do you have in place? Unfortunately, when I look around, because my office One of his mandate is to monitor reporting and receive those reports. The response, the reports we have, it's just we have documents, we don't have a plan. Because when you have a price not budgeted, not implemented, it just remains a paper. So at the African Union, let me say, we are trying to apply that test to ourselves. this continental result framework. But I must say also thank you to our partners and friends. For the first time, the African Union, through the office of the special envoy, we adopted, which you mentioned, the AWPS strategic plan, so as to do away with this ad hoc basis of dealing with this important agenda. So I'm putting also this to you. This is a strategic plan that runs from this year to 2028. And there's strategic objectives. So we call on all our partners. Because we say, it's like, if you want to tie a lion from that web, we need global solidarity. We need consistency and not selective approaches, especially funding these women-led organizations. They are doing a lot. This morning we heard from the Sudanese women that are running response rooms, they are running community kitchens. in the context of women, peace, and security. They are documenting violations. They are mediating locally while remaining largely absent, unfortunately, from negotiating tables. Let me also pitch. In December this year, before we end the year, the African Union, through my office, is organizing and convening an Inter-Sudanese women's dialogue to help them build shared priorities, come up with a coordinated approach and message to participating in today's Inter-Sudanese peace processes, to help the quintet in the card. Nowadays, it's the Q and Q and Q. So in closing, let me say, we need to safeguard this agenda without militarizing it. I see Irene from NATO. We have this conversation, and I'm glad you have mainstreamed this WPS agenda as we move to the next decade through NATO operations, not through militarization, but through protection, But through ensuring women participation, and more important, through prevention. But to our partners, I said we speak loud and more on participation. But I also want to bring here the pillar, the important pillar, only relief and recovery, which is also peace building. So when we do justice and being honest to the four pillars of Resolution 1325, next time, the next time we meet, I hope we'll have something tangible to show for each pillar. So this is where I want to say what to reinforce and what to do differently. I'll be brief. We must enforce three things. One, as I mentioned, we are not short of normative frameworks. Two, the independence and safety of women to assure the independence and safety of women peacebuilders, whose voices must never be used to legitimize decisions already taken. And three, of course, about the data and the accountability that show we are delivering. And we must do these things differently. Finance prevention, not only response. Measure women's influence and not only their presence. Tokenism. Let's do away with tokenism. And protect women peacebuilders and human rights defenders online as well as offline. As the emerging threats we heard about today. And this one to emphasize, and I want to invite you, we'll be organizing a dedicated session. I don't want to call it side event, a dedicated session on this emerging threats through technology facilitated violence and AI. But we are also organizing another session tomorrow on the legal and documentation. rights of the displaced children, because when I was in Sudan, Port Sudan, we visited the IDP camp. I've never seen it. I come from Tanzania. We have hosted refugees. We have hosted in tenor displaced. It is an IDP for women only, 800 plus, in deplorable conditions. But it's the women with the children. And those children are confined in that camp. They cannot go to school, even if the schools are open, because they don't have any sort of documentation. The women with their children, they cannot prove that these are their children. Because especially in the Muslim system, it's the man who determines whether this is my child or is not. The men are not there. These are women alone. So we have a session on that. We need also to be able to address this problem, which we found was a very serious concern. So in closing, let me say this. Our ambition for the next decade should go beyond preserving this agenda. It should be to make women, peace and security an integral part. of how we conduct our business, our diplomacy, how we shape our security and defense policy, and how we build lasting peace. 26 years ago, the Resolution 1325 ran through Vindhoek for the next decade. Let it run through every capital we represent here. Let it run through every budget that we adopt. and let it run at every peace table. The African Union, let me say in my office, stand ready to walk that road with you, because it's not about the good statement we make, but how we walk the talk. So let me end here before Harriet calls me to order, but I wanted to end by thanking you all. And as we say in Swahili, Asanteni Sana. And to my friends, let me say Shukran Jazil. And to my French speaking, I don't know you, so I didn't finish, but let me say, Merci beaucoup à tous. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ambassador Muller-Muller. And one of the things that you said, which I think runs through the thread of the conversation, this was particularly in relation to NAPs, but even for countries that don't have NAPs, you really highlight, if you decide or you have adopted a national action plan, what has changed in terms of the budget? What has changed in terms of the security approach and the decision making? What has changed in terms of peace tables? And what has changed in terms of the accountability systems as well? So how are we going to measure change? And harnessing global solidarity for the next decade, how do we put all of this into action? You've heard from the panelists talk about financing, the challenges of deploying women mediators, the loss of gender expertise, new countries being part of this agenda, but also having women peacebuilders not accepting the pushback in the midst of rising militarization, and also acknowledging that regional approaches are evident, are useful, and also critical. So a lot of food for thought for our conversation, and happy to say that we have some time for interaction and questions. If you would like to say something, just raise your hand, and you can press the button, the ambassador says. And please introduce yourself briefly before you intervene. Thank you. Okay, we have Italy, oh, Canada, and then Italy. Yeah.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Oliver.

I think who wants to speak? But the floor now is, of course, for Canada.

Okay, thank you. And thanks to all the panelists for your interesting interventions. I'm Elin Miller. I'm the Deputy Director for Women, Peace, and Security Policy at Global Affairs Canada. I just wanted to pick up on something that our Norwegian colleague mentioned about priorities and resources, and the fact that many countries, including Western donor countries, are prioritizing military spending. And I don't, I think it's that what we need to have a discussion about is the concept of security. Everyone today refers to security, our national security, our collective security, but what is that? No one has really defined that. Some people talk about hard security. Okay, so what is hard security then? Is that just guns and equipment? Where do we draw the line? And I think it's the Actually, something that we, all of us in this room need to work at, to work at the narrative of security, because security and women, peace, and security is so much broader than that. And in today's world, especially with hybrid threats, it's very hard to draw the line between hard and soft security, because what is insecurity in the end is about protecting people. Otherwise, it's kind of meaningless. So I just wanted to remind us all that the WPS agenda, although it does improve so-called hard security, our colleagues at the Department of Defense in Canada talks more and more about WPS as a military capability. And we know through the ELS initiative that WPS, more women peacekeepers, improve operational effectiveness in peace operations. but it also improves conflict resolution and conflict prevention. So WPS covers the whole spectrum of security, and I think it's really important to remember. And defense ministers can also support those parts of the agenda. Many defense ministers have budgets for defense diplomacy where they can actually support women's rights organizations. So I just wanted us all to contribute to a more comprehensive idea of what security is and the narrative that WPS applies to all of that. And so it's not a trade-off to fund WPS. It's not either or. It actually improves security across the board. So Canada truly believes that women peacebuilders are security actors. Thank you.

Thank you for that, Elin. Over to Italy, please.

Can you hear me? Yeah. Good afternoon. It is a pleasure being here, and thank you for convening today's event, which we are happy to support, also as co-chairs of the WPS Focal Point Network together with Philippines for 2026. A few points that I took while hearing your interventions. Regarding funding, we are not losing on gender expertise, which is already a shame, unfortunately. It's also civil society that is suffering from this. And as Italy, we believe they are the first peace builders on the ground on a daily basis. They are contributing everywhere to peace. So it's just a question that I have without an answer. So since we have problems with funding nowadays, shouldn't we be looking to new forms of funding, even from the private sector, to keep supporting civil society? Again, I don't have an answer, just some food for thought. Second, I recently attended a course on WPS with colleagues from all over the world. By the way, I'm WPS coordinator for Italy. I didn't say it earlier. And I do believe that to walk the talk on WPS, we really need to think it in a more gender equality perspective because it is very difficult for a country to implement properly WPS when in that country women have problems in general in participating to public life, in representing their country. So I think that we need to use our networks and our actions within international organizations also to support other countries and women in those countries to advance on a more general level, and that will go hand in hand with WPS. Finally, I will echo my colleague Lara from OSCE on two points. As you know, Italy is a leader in YPS2 in youth, peace and security, because we believe it is essential to widen the participation in peace efforts and peace processes, and we believe in the value of the youth in this. And so for the next decade, we would love to see more overlapping between women, peace and security and youth, peace and security, and we are already doing our part in this. And again, if we are keen, second point, I will echo from Lara, in mainstreaming WPS, we really need more men in this campaign, let's see. Otherwise, it really looks as something by women for women, which is the case, obviously, on one side, but everyone at this table, i think, agrees on the fact that it is something that is for the benefit of our entire societies and communities. I don't have personally, again, a precise formula to widen the base of men who are supporting WPS, but I really think it's something worth reflecting upon in the coming years for it to be really effective. Thank you.

Thank you very much, our representative from Italy. And again, if you would like to speak, please request that on the button in front of you. I think we had our colleague here from the European External Action Service. Over to you.

Thank you so much, and thank you for convening this discussion. My name is Sandra Griniards, and indeed I'm on the external action of the EU, WPS advisor there. And in this panel discussion, actually, what I wrote down was like, security today is defined so narrowly, not in this room, but outside this room. And I just wanted to build on what a colleague from Canada say that we need to work on how to broaden that understanding. It's not a new definition or a new understanding, it's just that now we have gone in a very narrow channel in some way. And we are doing quite a lot of work in terms of the gender backlash and how that needs to be also approached from a security angle. And it's, of course, threatens like all these hard-won gains for women and girls, but also open societies, democracy, stability, and peace. And I think that needs to be brought into also those rooms where the hardcore security is discussed, because that understanding is not everywhere. It's here, very present, but it needs to also enhance that understanding and that analysis in spaces where security threats are discussed. And of course, we look a lot of gender disinformation. We see how it's used. to actually push out women from the political space. We see that in our also neighborhood in Europe. So I think that backlash is also linked to extreme violence. And I think this is creating also that space to bring in the gender aspect into those more hardcore security spaces. So from the EU side as well, like WPS remain a priority. We are also looking at a new WPS action plan and also at all these different aspects that came up here. in terms of new hybrid and security cyber threats and how the also mediation and peace process landscape has changed. But we know what works, and I mean, I think we all need to be resilient in our approaches as well, because we know sustained engagement work, we know we need to remain in the communities and have that local approach. And in the long term, that is what will create the results that we want to see. So I think continuing embedding that, we have also a lot of security defense partnerships with the colleagues also around the table here, and WPS is a part of those commitments. So when the sector is reshaping, we need to also be in all those spaces and continue to do so and building this kind of partnership that we have here today. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Sandra. Do we have other requests to speak on this side? Yes, yes. Please go ahead. Introduce yourself.

Good afternoon and thank you for giving me the floor, my facilitator. My name is Kumba, Kumba Fall, and I work for Farm Africa Solidarity. First of all, I would like to thank UN Women for allowing us to be in this room. I would speak maybe from CSO perspective. I actually was very touched by two feeling that I heard in this room, and I think it's It's where really the situation from the CSO perspective is today when we talk about WPS. When I heard men who fight are more valuable than the woman who makes peace, and I think when I heard that from a CSO perspective, it make me think, what are we doing? What are we wrong? And I heard also another woman who said, what do we do to sustain women who sustain peace? There are two elements that I really want us to think through while we're moving into this agenda. Because for a country like us, CSO has been very much involved in peacebuilding, and especially in the preventive mechanism, which no longer is not an area where we emphasize the funding and support. So I'm just making a call to say whenever we're moving within this WPS agenda, we have to think of the women. who have been creating initiatives, peace initiatives in the ground, but who have no other space, who remains sometimes even not recognized as such, because when we say that our work is not taken as valuable as it should be, I know it's real, and I think it's where we need to rethink and relook at the WPS agenda. Where are we going? What building peace means for us? I heard a lot of security, but for me, we need also to really understand what building peace means from a CSO perspective and background. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Fall, for that intervention. I see we have, there's someone in front of you, and then you're next. Please introduce yourself, and please use the buttons as well.

Thank you very much. I am Josephine Welugu. I came from African Union, the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security. There's a new unit that we're part of, Her Excellency's. We came to support her and also, you know, to air our own views. My unit is recently carved out through the African Union reforms. That's the unit of Women, Peace, and Security, Youth, Peace, and Security, and Child Protection. And African Union is now thinking along that side to say that protection of civilians is not just a one side event. It has to, you know, contain these three components. And I've been listening here, and I have one or two points I want to make. Affirmative action that sometimes are designed to help the women in the field sometimes do not actually go through. I may say that participation is not thorough or fully protected. Women are asked, they are told, you can participate in elections, 30% political parties. I'm talking from the African perspective. And when you go to participate, there is a lot of hurdles for the woman to actually get there. You find out the money to buy your tickets may be too exorbitant, you can't afford it. You have the patriarchal system that puts you down every time you raise up your head. You are not allowed. Even it affects the young women. When there are opportunities, especially at the grassroots level, they're not going to ask, where is my brilliant daughter? The family know that you are more intelligent than the boy. But it's always like the boy is given the opportunity to go first. So we've been thinking about this. So apart from all these overlapping things. Policy implementation at the grassroot level is very important. We make the policies, the member states ratify them, but domestication at the grassroot level is never there, or when it's there, it's very, very minimum. And that is what is stopping the move. We could have moved very faster and to reach more people if things were going through. Especially, again, women in leadership or for assuming leadership position, there are a lot of pushbacks. They use words to discourage you, call you names. So this new technology is also another aspect we must look at when defining security going forward, because the women are not allowed. They are called names. And then maybe your husband will say, no, you're a disgrace. Your father will also say that. So those are the things we see at the grassroots, not at the capitals. And women, peace, and security, as I say, it's not just one, it's not something that one person can do. We need the collective action. And that is why I'm very, very happy that this discussion is taking place. Because we need our partners, we need AU, we need member states, we need the people at the grassroots. But we must meet the people and make sure that the impact is felt on the ground if we are to move forward. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for that intervention. And over to you, our colleague, if you would like to introduce yourself as well.

Sure, thank you very much. I'm Raquel Beagle representing Henfami Colombia today. Thank you very much to the co-conveners and the co-facilitators. I am always humbled when I'm in rooms like this with this particular configuration of leaders and practitioners. My question, i hope, will tie together many of the elements that we discussed over the past hour. As you know, this is also International Law Week, and there was a discussion here in this very room earlier today Looking at how we can achieve complementarity with the Rome Statute and national legal systems, and looking at how core legal tenants that are shared across national systems can apply to international disputes. So, my, the Ambassador Mula Mula, thank you very much for your presentation. You mentioned the example of the Seychelles and how their most recent iteration of their NAP was de-siloed from the Ministry of Gender and is now implemented through the Ministry of Defense. So, to that point, I'd like to know what other developments are you seeing at the national level to integrate NAPS more holistically across all aspects of foreign relations and domestic affairs where applicable? And also, given that the 10 resolution framework of WPS constitutes soft law and has clear alignment with international law, the Rome Statute, Vienna Conventions, and so forth, How can we achieve positive complementarity with WPS, international law, and criminal law? Where are the inroads and where is the momentum? Thank you.

All right, thank you very much. I think let's turn back to our panelists to weigh in on some of the comments that have been made here. I know that one thing that has come up is what is the definition that we have of security. It would be good to hear from you. Do you find our definition now of security too narrow or too expansive? And what does that mean for the WPS agenda within how we define it? And then we've also heard about looking ahead and for more coordination between the WPS and the YPS agendas. How do we see that into the next decade? We are also reminded about how does civil society define building peace, and how do we ensure that the work that we are doing really has impact where it should have. And on the discussion around engaging more men in these conversations. How do we do that in the context as well of a whole of government, whole of society approach? If we are having a whole of government approach to our national action plans, are we not including men? Or what are we doing to ensure that we specifically do that outreach to engagement in this agenda. So maybe we'll start with you, Yasmin, because you were the first to go, and we can take it in that round.

Thank you very much, Harriet. You know, as early as 2012, GNWP has been training the security sector on women, peace, and security, and we first did it in the Philippines. And I remember in the open forum, one of the police officers told me, "Ma'am, you will be very proud of us because we have trained women as snipers. Now we have so many women snipers in the military." And, you know, for a long, I was quiet, you know, for a bit of time. And I was like telling myself, "Is this what I trained you for?" Because that was not the, you know, the reason, you know, for actually engaging the security sector on the WPS agenda, we actually brought the Women, Peace and Security agenda into the security sector because we wanted women there in the police and in the security sector to be able to suggest ways to be able to resolve conflicts more constructively and peacefully. That was our rationale. But there are some people who pick it up differently. And I think that's what we have to discuss amongst ourselves, you know, not just in this room, but in many rooms. I don't know how many of you here were in the Manila conference last year. I was in the panel then, and I told everyone in that panel that there's like a white elephant in the room, something that we have not really discussed, you know, as WPS advocates. And I was really referring to security. Because of the dichotomy of the definition, because there are many of us actors in the women, peace, and security agenda who really think of it as traditional security, and that there are more and more defense agencies coming into the picture because they think of security in the women, peace, and security as the security of the governments, the national borders of the territories. So what I would like to say there, you know, what Herman said a while ago just struck me about, you know, countries really just basically protecting their citizens. That really hit me, Jeremiah, and I was telling myself that I was probably too extreme as well, you know, because for me, the security in the women peace and security is human security. It's collective security. It's common security. It's not the security of the borders or the governments, you know, so that they can continue to exist. But hearing you, you know, I realized that it can be a marriage of both. that, you know, but my bias being civil society would be the soft security, the human security, the collective security, you know, it's the prevention of conflict, it's the prevention of war, that you want the security sector to be engaged, you know, because we want actually more people in the security sector thinking of ways to be able to prevent war and not to engage in war. So that is what we You know, we engaged the security sector for at least for GNWP. So what I am, I want to say right now is that I think it should be both, that we should think of traditional security, the protection of borders, because that's very basic, the protection of citizens, that's very basic. And in the human security framework of the United Nations, the personal security counts, and that's one, the traditional security, right? But we don't forget the other aspects of the human security agenda. And that is, you know, community security, the political security, the food security, the environmental security, that when we actually, you know, like engage the defense sector in what we are doing, that we let them remember, that we make them remember that this is not just a security that we are fighting for, not just personal security, but common, but collective, but, you know, comprehensive security. Let's not forget that. Otherwise, you know, the Women, Peace and Security agenda will be a different agenda and not what we really worked for and not what we really asked for from the very beginning. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Jasmine, for those thoughts. Really illuminating there. Parvina, what are you thinking?

I'll add my voice to the point on exploring new forms of funding, and I think, yes, I think it will not be enough for one sector, like whether it's governments or development partners. And Ambassador, you rightly said those ideas of, you know, the West is going to be there and it's going to have all the funding and development funding is going to be the answer has long passed. I think there's a whole paradigm shift on that. So I think we're going to have to look for beyond the traditional and normal suspects of funding, and the private sector then does offer a good area in which we need to start exploring, especially in countries of conflict, where private sector is so involved in critical minerals, is involved in the in the business communities in promoting, using the markets of countries in conflict, and to ask what is your contribution? What is your social responsibility for being in those communities? And I think we haven't explored that, and that's definitely an area that has to become a focus on the agenda as we move forward. So that's one point I will make. The second is on the woman, peace, and security, the YPS-WPS nexus. And I think that it's important to see that the way society is involved, it is not a dichotomy of YPS and WPS. I think we're talking about a multi-generational spectrum here, and that it becomes important to consider all of that in it. And I think one And the caution I would sound around it is that the YPS does not become a copy and paste of what the WPS sector is. And sometimes it does seem like that it has not allowed itself to reimagine the space differently, rather than just follow the playbook as we know it. So I think the time is to look at that as well, as not just following one playbook on the issue. I'll stop there. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Praveena, for that. Lara, yes, you wanted to go?

Security. Well, I belong to an organization or represent an organization which is built for the past 50 years on the very same concept of comprehensive security. So looking really at all dimensions, and integrating gender equality throughout. And one, of course, very important pillar is integrating in a perspective in the entire conflict cycle. And prevention and conflict prevention is, of course, fundamental. And I'm actually very happy that we are having these discussions regarding comprehensive security, because we need to also Stop using words like soft security and hard security, because soft security means women's issues, as if women had issues. I don't have any issue. As a woman, everything that happens around the world is an issue that concerns me. But I'm saying this because also, moving on to the next, how do we engage men? Well, until we keep dividing between soft security and hard security, the people we're going to have around the table are going to be women on one side and men on the other. And I think it would be very important to make sure that women are taking a seat in the hard security issues, if you want to divide it like this. And men are also taking part in all the discussions around health, education, and food security, which are all issues that concern men as well. But on this particular topic on engaging men, I think one area, and this is very long term, and thank you to the Italian colleague that she mentioned, we need to, yeah, we need to message, and we are doing it at the OIC. We are changing the language. This is not about women's rights. Women, peace, and security is about what kind of, and gender equality, is about what kind of society we want. And we are working more and more and more also with students and young people, because we need to create that change that It takes time to build. So, investing more in the young generation, and here come to the last point, on the young generation and the link between the WPS agenda and the youth peace and security agenda. I think it is fundamental to leverage, to link the two agendas. One, they are separate. But they have very strong elements in common. And one of them is, of course, the fact that you are working and you can engage young women leaders. And this is the question of participation of young women. And I think leveraging women mediators networks. And we've been working a lot with them, and we spoke a lot about them. But women mediators networks can serve as a really important tool for intergenerational exchanges. And some very important people also say, jet lag, apologies, co-leadership to talk about the fact that Women of an older generation and young people, young women, can lead together. So I would say that's a very practical way for linking the two agenda and learning from each other.

Thank you so much, Lara, for your thoughts. Ambassador, over to you. Yeah.

Thank you for a great discussion and a lot of insights have been provided, and I thank you. Ambassador Mullah Mullah made a great summary. Just one aspect I want to pick up that has been mentioned by several. Yeah, we want to implement the four pillars of 1325 in its totality, and it's basically about gender equality. I agree very much. So, but in a way, I'm new to this field, so, i mean, you will know better. But in a way, I feel that in some setting, it's easier to come with the Women, Peace and Security agenda than to come with the whole gender equality agenda as an entry point. So I think we free maybe a challenge to ourselves, but how can we, by using the Women, Peace and Security agenda as an entry point, also kind of defend the wider gender equality progress that have been made, defend against the backlash? And I think again, coming back to You know, the new countries that are picking up on the women, peace, and security agenda, I think that's, yeah, there's a job for us to make sure that that is also entry point for why the gender equality work.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Ambassador, and Kathy.

Briefly about security, so obviously, talking about DPO and peacekeeping missions, we do have uniformed personnel that are responsible for that physical security to be very, if we are talking about protection of civilians. But of course, we have different type of peacekeeping missions, you know, that it can be from monitoring some border or monitoring ceasefire. So it's not just the multi-dimensional peacekeeping mission that we know with a specific Women, Peace and Security mandate. There are other peacekeeping missions that have different kind of mandate. But notwithstanding, we make sure that wherever it is relevant, And I am using that carefully, wherever it is relevant. We also, of course, put the WPS agenda at the core of the mandate and the work of the specific mission. And maybe also just quickly on that legal aspect and international legal disposition. Just wanted to tell you that this morning we had a symposium about the linkage of WPS and gender justice. So I'm not very conversant in gender justice. But this was also UN Web TV recorded, so you will find it when you go home. We had really very prominent legal advisors from the International Law Commission and advisors that are working on the Sixth Committee. So you will have exactly the responses to your query about not being in silo, but how gender justice at international level can also factor WPS.

Yeah, one minute.

Because nobody responded to your question about the civil society definition of peace and impact, so I think I'd like to address that very quickly. And I think, you know, like after the exchange, you all realize that for us, peace is not just the absence of war, but also the presence of justice, of human rights, of gender equality. and about the impact, I hope that he's not self-serving, Harriet, but I think, you know, compact in itself is a very, you know, useful mechanism to be able to determine our impact, you know, because of the nature of compact. So we get to know our impact through six themes, and, you know, very, very easily, we will be able to see, you know, where we are making an impact, what aspect of, you know, the pillars we are making an impact. So my invitation is for member states to join the compact, for civil society organizations to join the compact, so that together we'll be able to see what impact we are making in that kind of peace that we are envisioning. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Jasmine. And we're about to hand over for closing. And Nina, you have a very burning 30-second intervention.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I just wanted to.

Mention on the last, a couple people mentioned the gender justice, and maybe it shows I'm a dinosaur in the system, but believe it or not, in 2004 and in 2005, UNIFEM and ELAC from Sweden hosted two major gender justice conferences. And the reports each went to the Security Council and to the General Assembly, and were issued as official documents. And those conferences made women stakeholders in leading judicial and legal roles in conflict-affected countries. We brought them from 12 areas. I was seconded to UNIFEM. to get this off the ground, and it was amazing because for three days in New York, and then the next year, two days in Sweden, you heard from women that have gone through it, were in those positions. This is the 98-page publication we produced at the end of the 2003, and the report of the council's in there. And so I was a bit taken aback that people really, the next year was partnerships focusing on gender justice as a follow-up. And so, sorry, so it was It was a little bit shocking to me that in a long discussion on gender justice, the entire system was represented in those conferences. Member states were in all the panels, donors were on the panels, civil society representatives were on the panels, and international legal representatives. The first conference was led by Pile and Zeyad Raad. So I just wanted to just mention the two references to the documents if anyone wants to look at them. The first one is S/2004. And the next year is A/60/444-S/2005/669, because the second document went to both the GA and to the Security Council. So, it's kind of sad, I think, that since 2003 and 4, we've sort of forgotten that gender justice was very much intertwined with the WPS agenda. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Nina, and for bringing that recollection into our conversation. I think we've had a robust conversation. I'm looking at the time, and I think we are just right on time for closing remarks. And I will now hand over to Ambassador Nanda for your brief closing remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Moderator, distinguished delegates. Colleagues and partners, let me first of all assure Ambassador Mula Mula that as chair of the African Group for the month, I can guarantee you that you are in good hands. Thank you. As we conclude today's dialogue, allow me to, on behalf of the Republic of Namibia, and in our capacity as Chair of the Women, Peace and Security Humanitarian Action Compact Board, as well as all the partners and colleagues, to express our sincere appreciation to all the participants for their thoughtful contributions, constructive engagement, and unwavering commitment to the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Our discussions have reaffirmed a fundamental truth: the Women, Peace and Security agenda is not a peripheral concern. is a central pillar of international peace, security, development, and human dignity. We have had a clear and consistent message that meaningful progress will require stronger national ownership, deeper regional and international cooperation, and enhanced global accountability, which translates into the need to respect international law. We also heard that the central action is prevention. early warning and making resources available to close the gap between the warning and the conflict, and to train women negotiators. We acknowledged that the challenges confronting women and girls continue to evolve. Emerging security threats, protracted conflicts, climate-related insecurity, humanitarian crises, and new technologies, including AI, require innovative responses that remain firmly anchored in the principles of inclusion and underline prevention, protection, and participation. Importantly, today's discussion underscored that the future of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda depends on preserving existing commitments and on accelerating their implementation. The commitments contained in Resolution 1325, the Windhoek +25 Declaration, the Pact for the Future, and related frameworks must be translated into concrete action, measurable results, and adequate financing. We also reaffirmed the indispensable role played by women peacebuilders, women's organizations, youth leaders, and civil society actors. They are leaders Their leadership, expertise, and lived experiences must continue to inform our policies and shape our collective responses. As such, in the implementation of the National Action Plans, domestic resource mobilization becomes very critical, and hence the need for the inclusion of the private sector in our efforts, as aspects of security should be addressed a collective or comprehensive manner. It's about inclusivity. Namibia remains committed to working with all signatories and partners to strengthen the compact as a platform for action, accountability, solidarity, and partnership. Finally, Madam Moderator, I encourage each one of you to leave this dialogue with renewed determination and a shared sense of responsibility The future of the WPS agenda will be defined not by the challenges we face, but by the actions we take together to address them. Let's not forget about the need for global solidarity and consistency in coming up with the coordinated approaches to ensuring that women participation and prevention is realized. I thank you all for your participation and wish you very success in the important work that lies ahead. And lastly, we often forget to thank those who are assisting us in having our meetings successfully completed. And here I wish to thank the technician who made sure that our meeting is conducted in a most peaceful way. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Ambassador. I saw a thumbs up from the technician. I also just want to thank the Namibian and UN Women teams who have been working behind the scenes to make this happen. And thank you all to our panelists. This seems like a group of friends, but thank you all for being here and for this conversation. And I wish you the best for the rest of WPS Week.