Martha Rubiano Skretteberg, director of Norwegian NGO FOKUS, reminded the
participants of the UN-INSTRAW and FOKUS international conference of the need
for NGOs, government ministries, UN officials, militaries, researchers to
establish a common language and understanding to exchange good and bad experiences
to reach our goal for the full implementation of the UN Security Council
Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 on women, peace and security. The
bridges built at the event “Putting Policy into Practice: Monitoring the
Implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions on Women Peace and
Security,” which took place in Oslo, Norway from 11 to 13 November, resulted
in strong contextual developments, where participants called for context
specific actions as well as in specific policy recommendations.
Gry Larsen, State Secretary of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
opened the conference by speaking about the importance of full protection,
prevention and promotion of the rights of women in line with the Resolutions.
The conference resulted in several recommendations from the over 140
representatives of international women’s organizations, networks, the United
Nations and governmental organizations who participated in the event. One
recommendation emphasized the need to develop global indicators that could be
used by partners at all level to monitor the success of the full
implementation of the Resolutions on Women Peace and Security. Participants
worked in small groups to identify actual indicators for women’s protection,
representation and participation at national, regional and local levels.
In addition, participants suggested key resources, challenges and capacities
that would improve the on the ground ability to implement the resolutions.
Key among these identified needs were:
• Improved networking collaboration and information sharing
mechanisms;
• Greater emphasis on capacity-building for national-level
reporting instructions;
• Integration of gender as a cross-cutting and
multi-sectoral issue;
The event addressed the need for local level actions to back up international
commitments. Representatives from several of the 16 countries who have
publicly released National Action Plans (NAP) on Resolution 1325 shared their
recommendations for improving the scope and function of the plans. UN-INSTRAW
presented a forthcoming study documenting good practices and lessons learned
in developing these National Action Plans. The participants in the
discussions of NAPs placed emphasis on garnering resources for developing and
implementing plans in a way that is inclusive, collaborative and widespread.
Several attendees note that an NAP is only useful when it is known and
owned by the members of the community and throughout the government. This is
one step towards improving on the ground implementation of international
commitments.
“By bringing together actors across countries, institutions and backgrounds
we can begin to address the crucial link between policy developed at
Headquarters and its full implementation at the local and national levels,”
highlighted Kristen Cordell of the Gender Peace and Security Programme at
UN-INSTRAW.
The upcoming tenth anniversary of SCR 1325 next year will be a watershed year
for evaluating the process on security for women around the world.
“As SCR 1325 floats upwards and into the haze of bureaucracy and language of
governments, we must take care not to lose the most important elements of the
Resolution. To me, the issue of widening peace processes to include non-state
actors as partners in the process is profound, fundamental and
world-changing,” said Sanam Anderlini, of Massachusetts institute of
technology and the International Civil Society Action Network.
The event will have several next steps, as suggested by the participants
themselves, such as improved and dynamic information sharing with input and
resources for improved monitoring. A new platform for exchange, hosted by
UN-INSTRAW, will allow sharing of best practices, and improved planning of
collaborative efforts. As a response to the request for improved lobbying
materials for Monitoring and Indicator work, FOKUS and INSTRAW will produce a
fact sheet to inform stakeholders on the importance of improved evaluation
processes. Finally a full conference report will be available at the end of
December and available on the INSTRAW website.