Gender in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding                                            

The global commitment to gender equality in the context of armed conflict is reflected in the Beijing Platform for Action^[1] from 1995 and in the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325^[2] on Women, Peace and Security adopted in 2000. The latter marked the first time the Security Council addressed the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women, recognized the under-valued and under-utilized contributions women make to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peace-building, and stressed the importance of their equal and full participation as active agents in peace and security.

At global, regional and national levels, women's networks continue to work since the adoption of 1325 to ensure that gender equality and women's human rights are integrated in all areas of conflict prevention and peacebuilding work, and to engage women and advance their role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Notably, there also exist initiatives and networks that focus on engaging men in working towards gender equality.

Commitment of GPPAC

GPPAC's commitment to gender equality is reflected in its guiding documents and the global governance structure. As stated in the GPPAC Charter: "We recognize that women's equality is a cornerstone for sustainable peace and justice". The GPPAC Global Action Agenda also stresses the importance of including gender-based indicators and gender-sensitive response strategies in the capacity building of CSOs (Global Action Agenda, 4.1.2.b). In 2007, the ISG took the decision to mainstream gender in the network. However, these commitments still need to be translated into practice. Due to the size of the network and its complex structure, an incremental approach is needed. It starts with a mapping of expertise, organisations and activities on gender in GPPAC regions in order to assess the different situations/realities in GPPAC regions and take into account varying levels of expertise and different needs for support.

GPPAC's approach to integrating a gender perspective into its work

The key of GPPAC's approach will be to develop and implement a gender policy and implementation plan at the global level, as a guiding document for planning at regional level to support GPPAC members in implementing the policy commitments in their work. For GPPAC, it is important to have a gender expert with strong links to both the GPPAC network and the work in the regions, who represents gender in GPPAC; who can be approached as a resource person on gender; and who coordinates cooperation and takes a lead in gender mainstreaming throughout the network. In Davao 2009, the ISG appointed an ISG Gender Liaison to provide strategic leadership; monitor the inclusion of gender aspects in the GPPAC agenda; and advise and inform the development of gender mainstreaming and potential UNSCR 1325 actions at the global level. To support the work of the Gender Liaison and work towards achieving consistency across the network, aprocess is currently underway to identify and nominate gender focal points in each GPPAC region. Future work will focus on achieving consistency on gender throughout the network, through engagement in the following core areas:

• Strengthening Gender Focal Points (GFPs) in all GPPAC regions to become part of GPPAC's programmatic work in the regions. The GFPs will work on building gender capacity within the regional networks, sharing regional gender perspectives with other regional networks and the global network in order to progressively incorporate a gender perspective in GPPAC.
• Develop and implement a gender policy and implementation plan for GPPAC which takes into account the nature and working structure of the network as a whole as well as regional realities. The implementation plan will also address the question of how to mainstream gender into GPPAC's programmes, reporting mechanisms and evaluation tools and how to develop gender-sensitive indicators for GPPAC's M&E system.
• Establishing long-term cooperation with networks such as the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) to: cooperate on specific gender and conflict prevention activities by adding GPPAC's global perspective; and to use valuable input from networks that work specifically on gender to support the inclusion of a gender perspective in GPPAC's work

The recently established Gender Equality Community on the Peace Portal is foreseen to provide a forum for communication and engagement of Gender Focal Points and gender experts to further develop and coordinate GPPAC's gender mainstreaming efforts.

How Will GPPAC South Asia Integrate a Gender Perspective into its Work?

The Regional Steering Group has a several members that specifically work on issues pertaining to women, peace and security in South Asia. As a network, GPPAC South Asia, has explicitly adopted Gender Mainstreaming process by clearly articulating Gender as its cross cutting theme. Therefore to abide by this principle GPPAC South Asia will ensure that at least one Gender Focal Point is involved in every GPPAC South Asia activity from the planning phase to the implementation phase where it will be ensured that the issues discussed also have a gender perspective/are gender sensitive; that gender issues are identified and addressed with due priority; that there is a equitable participation with the objective to achieve equality. The Gender Focal Points will not only work together in each of the activities as co-partner, but will also facilitate gender mainstreaming process as expert, monitor and trouble-shooter to address the problems and challenges that will be faced.