Assessing UK Government Action on Women, Peace and Security in 2022. In this shadow report, GAPS assesses the 2022 Annual Report to Parliament by the UK Government and considers overarching lessons learned from the 4th National Action Plan (NAP), which ran from 2018 to 2022. It also considers key recommendations for His Majesty’s Government (HMG)’s 5th NAP, which will run from 2023 to 2027.   

This report reflects on a turbulent 2022, where the United Kingdom hosted the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) conference while further reducing Official Development Assistance (ODA) on top of budget cuts made in 2021. The year also included the Russian invasion of Ukraine, continued fall-out from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, visible climate change impacts such as droughts in the Horn of Africa and floods in Pakistan, and multiple changes here in the UK of Prime Minister.  The shadow report provides analysis and concrete recommendations regarding a wide range of policy areas directly impacting women and girls, including the need for dedicated funding, the importance to finally adopt monitoring and learning processes, and stresses the importance of domesticating the women, peace and security agenda to ensure that the rights, needs and experiences of women and girls around the world, including right here in the United Kingdom, are met.  

This report builds on previous GAPS publications (including previous annual shadow reports) which include analysis of, and recommendations for, the UK Government’s work on WPS.