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GAPS Newsletter: April 2023

GAPS April Newsletter 

Welcome to GAPS April wrap-up. 

On Tuesday 25th April, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace and Security (APPG-WPS) and GAPS hosted the UK Government’s Oral Report to Parliament in 2022 on the UK National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security. This annual event offered an opportunity for Parliamentarians and Civil Society to monitor and scrutinise the UK’s progress on Women, Peace and Security over the past four years as we came to a close on the UK’s 4th National Action Plan (NAP). It also offered an opportunity to reflect on its commitments and recommendations for the implementation of the 5th NAP, which will run from 2023 to 2027. The event included interventions from Baroness Fiona Hodgson, Co-Chair of APPG-WPS; Sarah Taylor, the Director of the Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation at FCDO; Joanne Crouch, Assistant Head of the MoD Human Security policy team; and Eva Tabbasam, Director of Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS). If you would like to find out more, please check out our live tweeting that we did at the event here.  

As GAPS does every year, we also launched the Shadow Report to the Report to Parliament, Assessing UK Government Action on Women, Peace and Security in 2022. 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.   

The final evaluation of the 2018-2022 NAP was also published by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Ministry of Defence. The evaluation outlines achievements relating to the UK’s role as a global leader on Women, Peace and Security influencing spaces such as women’s protection and sexual and gendered based violence. However, the evaluation also highlighted domestication, lack of deliverables, lack of a Monitoring and Evaluation framework, and lack of resources as key challenges. 

GAPS launched a briefing, Beyond Women, Peace and Security – Developing a Feminist Vision for Foreign Policy, where we explore the concept and framework of Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP). This briefing is the first part of a series exploring the linkages between FFP and Women, Peace and Security and how to understand and realise a vision of FFP across thematic and geographical contexts. You can find out more here. 

We celebrated the first year of the WPS Helpdesk! GAPS is a partner on the helpdesk alongside Saferworld, Conciliation Resources, Women’s International Peace Centre and the University of Durham. Be sure to check out the Helpdesk website for recently commissioned reports on all things WPS. 

Finally, we are aware of and monitoring developments in Sudan, and urge all international responses to include and centre women and girls at all stages. Many of our members have published helpful information on how to better understand what is happening, including the distinct impacts on women and girls. To share a few, please find here public statements from Saferworld, Amnesty and Mercy Corps, an analysis from Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), an explainer from International Rescue Committee and posts on family separation and rights of girls from Plan international.  

April Reads

Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the Security Council: April 2023

For April, in which the Russian Federation has the presidency of the UN Security Council, the MAP provides recommendations on the situations in Haiti, Libya, and Somalia. 

 

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.     

 

Women, peace and security in the Pacific region 

This report provides gender-specific analysis that builds on findings provided in a Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability (JACS) covering the Pacific region, which was recently commissioned by the UK Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation (OCSM). The countries included in the initial JACS analysis were Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. 

 

A Climate of Insecurity: How Militarism Has Impoverished the African Continent Placing it at the Epicentre of the Climate Crisis 

In this report, Edwick Madzimure, WILPF Zimbabwe’s President, analyses how conflict, militarism, and the climate crisis are intertwined on the African continent, illuminating the issues with many case studies from a diversity of African countries. 

 

 

In case you missed it

We published the third episode of ‘Mind the GAPS’. In this episode, we discuss the domestication of WPS in the UK, with a specific focus on Northern Ireland and the UK’s refugee and asylum policy. You can find out more about our podcast here.

Ahead of G7 in May, GAPS, as an advisor to W7, fed into the W7 Summit which took place on 16th April and into the W7 Feminist Peace Communique, which focuses on intersectional calls for participation, economic justice, bodily autonomy and resourcing. 

The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund is seeking two new international or regional non-governmental organizations partners for the WPHF rapid response window on women’s participation of peace processes and the implementation of peace agreements. The deadline for application is 5th May. 

 

Job Board

Womankind Worldwide

Consultancy: Development of a report and policy brief on women’s participation and leadership, Apply by 18 May.

International Alert

Assistant, (The Hague, Netherlands). Apply by 28 May.

International Rescue Committee

Learning Coordinator, (Multiple Locations). Rolling deadline.

Knowledge Management & Program Development Officer (Livelihoods), (Multiple Locations). Rolling deadline.

Oxfam

Project Coordinator – Gender Justice, (Flexible). Apply by 16 May.

Research and Policy Advisor, (Beirut, Lebanon). Apply by 10 May.

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