GAPS Newsletter: December 2021

22 December 2021

Welcome to both our December newsletter and 2021 wrap up.

It has been an eventful year for the GAPS Team, and as we come to the end of 2021, our team and members are looking forward to taking a break over the holidays to spend time with loved ones and re-energise ahead of January. We are taking this opportunity to outline some of our achievements this year and take a moment to thank all our members and colleagues who have supported our work all year!

At the start of the year, GAPS published research that examined the links between COVID-19, gender equality, peace and security titled Now and the Future – Pandemics and Crisis: Gender Equality, Peace and Security in a COVID-19 World and Beyond. The report was written with the help of 22 partners and is based on consultations with over 200 organisations in 10 countries.

GAPS also published a piece of research titled Defending the Future: Gender, Conflict and Environmental Peace written with the Women’s International Peace Centre and the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security. The research focuses on the gendered impact of climate change and how this intersects with women and girls’ right to peace. The report was launched at a virtual event in February which you can watch here. A policy briefing based on the same report was launched later in the year, which you can also read here.

GAPS became a signatory and catalytic member of the Generation Equality Forum’s Women, Peace and Security and the WPS-Humanitarian Action Compact and signed on certain actions. You can find out more about the Forum and the Compact here.

GAPS released the 2020 Shadow Report which assessed the progress by the UK Government in the third year of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security and outlined recommendations for the implementation for the remaining years.

GADN and GAPS – as co-chairs of Women 7 (W7) – made a joint submission focusing on the UK’s role as the host of the 2021 G7, in the context of the aid cuts in response to a call of evidence on the aid cuts by the International Development Committee. GAPS and GADN also penned a joint response to the G7 communique’s failure to adequate address gender equality concerns and lack of financial support for commitments to gender equality.

Responding to the emergency in Afghanistan, GAPS wrote a public letter to the UK Prime Minister and Secretaries of State for the Home Department, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, and Defence. The letter was signed by over 100 organisations, networks, individuals and academics who works in women’s rights, human rights, peace building, the humanitarian sector. GAPS also sent a follow up letter.

GAPS is grateful for all your support over the year, and we are looking forward to what 2022 will hold.

We hope you have a wonderful festive season and stay safe.

December Reads

Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the Security Council: December 2021

For December, in which Niger has the presidency of the UN Security Council, the MAP provides recommendations on the situations in the DRC, Ethiopia, and Yemen.

Humanitarians and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda during Covid-19

This briefing sets out key themes emerging from a panel discussion among women humanitarians in Myanmar, Kenya, and Lebanon. The briefing demonstrates that the WPS agenda and humanitarian responses led by women and girls are key to truly gender-responsive humanitarian action.

Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding

This brief presents findings from a preliminary research project that focuses on the implementation of gender-mainstreaming in operational contexts, and makes policy recommendations that can help overcome implementation obstacles.

The Women Peace and Security Index: A new lens on forced displacement

This briefing highlights the disadvantages displaced women and girls face in terms of their justice, inclusion and safety and calling for targeted support, and also highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded these disadvantages.