GAPS Newsletter: October 2022

31 October 2022

Welcome to our October wrap-up.

This month, the GAPS Director headed to Berlin for the W7 conference, and to New York for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Week at the United Nations. Ahead of the Open Debate, GAPS signed onto an open letter to Permanent Representatives to the United Nations urging them to take action to uphold women’s rights and gender equality, and ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of diverse women in all aspects of peace and security.

As part of WPS Week, GAPS hosted an event as part of the LEAP4Peace Consortium alongside the United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations, The Kingdom of the Netherlands Mission to the United Nations, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), WO=MEN, and the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund which explored women’s participation in promoting and maintaining peace in Colombia and Myanmar. The event launched the Pillars for Peace summary report, which you can read in full on the GAPS website.

At the UN Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security, the UK Government outlined it’s key priorities as:

1. Strengthen the global response to conflict-related sexual violence
2. Continue to support women’s participation in peace efforts
3. Create an enabling environment for women to participate

The Open Debate was also an opportunity to hear from civil society activist Zahra Nader, who focused on the situation of women’s rights in Afghanistan and what action the international community must take to protect women. You can read her full statement here.

GAPS also launched the Listening to Women’s Rights Organisation: The UK’s Gender and Women Peace and Security Practice in Iraq this month alongside the University of Sheffield and Iraqi academic Dr Ilham Makki. The report was launched at the APPG on Women, Peace and Security, where we heard from the authors of the report and women civil society activists in Iraq about how all policy and programming in Iraq going forward should be women-led. You can read more about the event here.

The UK Government has experienced another reshuffle, following the resignation of Liz Truss and the appointment of Rishi Sunak as the new Prime Minister. The Rt Hon James Cleverly MP has remained the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary, with the appointment of The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP as Minister for Development. We are still waiting on confirmation of who will take up the post of Minister for Women, Peace and Security.

In November, GAPS will be following news from COP27, and hopes that it will be a fruitful discussion that meaningfully includes women, girls, youth, LGBTQ+ and other marginalised groups in the path wards 1.5°C. Similarly, GAPS will be highlighting the work of its members and partners during the 16 Days of Activism of Gender-Based Violence, which you can follow on our Twitter page.

Finally, GAPS will be attending and hosting an event at the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative Conference happening in late November and will be anticipating and responding to the release of the UK National Action Plan on WPS which is due to happen at the conference.

October Reads

Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the Security Council: October 2022

For October, in which the Gabon has the presidency of the UN Security Council, the MAP provides recommendations on the situations in Colombia and Libya and the thematic agenda item Women, Peace and Security.

Listening to Women’s Rights Organisations: The UK’s Gender and Women, Peace and Security Practice in Iraq

This joint policy report written by Dr Zeynep Kaya, Dr Ilham Makki and GAPS follows fieldwork in Iraq with women human rights defenders and women’s rights organisations. It offers an in-depth analysis of UK WPS practice in Iraq and provides practical recommendations to ensure that the priorities and needs of women and girls are placed at the centre of all future policy and programming.

Women, Peace and Security: Pillars for Peace Summary Report

The summary report follows on from a report of the same title published last year, and highlights the common themes, barriers and recommendations drawn from case studies in that report which explored women’s political participation in peacebuilding and peace processes in seven countries – Burundi, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Myanmar and Uganda. The summary report is available in English, French and Spanish.

Accelerating efforts to tackle online and technology-facilitated violence against women and girls

This paper provides a brief overview of the existing data and evidence on online and technology-facilitated VAWG, outlining some of the key developments, gaps, challenges etc. and makes recommendations to be considered by a range of actors.

Resourcing change: Supporting women’s rights organisations in fragile and conflict-affected states

The ‘Resourcing Change’ project has provided 21 women’s rights organisations in Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen with flexible core funding, with relatively easier requirements and processes. The briefing paper presents the main outcomes and learning for the project, and sets our recommendations for donors. It can be read in English and Arabic.

Peace and Conflict-Covid-19 Nexus: The Impact on Women’s Inclusion in the Peace Process in Yemen

This report explores the perspectives of women activists in Yemen on the relationship between Covid-19 and the peace process, the direction of negotiations during the pandemic, and how they perceive their own inclusion. It aims to amplify Yemeni women’s voices on how Covid-19 has affected them.

In case you missed it

The Gender Justice and Security Hub are hosting an event titled Afghanistan and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Women’s global agency and diplomacy on Zoom on 9th November from 12:00 – 13:30. Find out more and register here.

SecurityWomen is hosting an event titled Women, Peace and Security: Making it Happen which will discuss the progress being made in implementing the WPS agenda. The event will be held on Zoom on 2nd November at 12:00. Find out more and register here.

The Overseas Development Institute is hosting an event titled From Allyship to Action: How men can step up to end violence against women online on 22nd November from 16:00 – 17:00. You can find out more and register here.