Overview
We undertake sustained and comprehensive monitoring, analysis and advocacy on the implementation of the “WPS Agenda” at the international policy level and on its integration in peacekeeping and building operations and in post-conflict strategies.
The “WPS Agenda” is a policy framework comprised of eight resolutions, grounded in international human rights and humanitarian law, which codifies the importance of women’s participation in peace and security processes and advances gender equality and women’s rights in conflict-affected situations.
When the NGOWG was established in 2000, it was conceived as a civil society accountability mechanism that would hold key actors at the international level accountable for the implementation of the WPS agenda. Over the last 17 years, we have stayed true to this original goal and developed a public monitoring program that holds the UN Security Council accountable for its obligations to improve reporting, analysis and inclusion of women, peace and security in its regular work, thus improving peace and security decision-making process and ensuring the rights and concerns of women are reflected in outcomes.
We are the only WPS organization which monitors and analyzes the entire cycle of UN Security Council decision-making – from the adoption of peacekeeping mission mandates in resolutions, to their implementation reports, to presidential statements adopted in response to an emerging crisis – we illuminate the ways in which WPS is being reflected and discussed on a daily basis. We also monitor and analyze the work of the Security Council on 10 thematic agenda items as well as counterterrorism and countering violent extremism.
Methodology
Underpinning our analysis is a methodologically consistent and rigorous gender analytical framework which, by employing both quantitative and qualitative tools, allows us to develop a comprehensive picture of gaps in the Council’s consideration of country-specific and thematic agenda items. We further utilize a feminist perspective to unpack the ways in which international policymaking and discourse on peace and security can be transformed to better reflect the barriers and opportunities for women in conflict-affected situations. Our analytical framework also uses, as benchmarks, the UN Security Council’s own obligations on WPS as articulated in resolutions and presidential statements adopted since 2000, including specifically the commitments made in Security Council resolutions 2122 (2013) and 2242 (2015).
Drawing on this analysis, our regular country-specific advocacy integrates both qualitative and quantitative examples of ways in which the work of the UN Security Council, and the broader UN system, is failing to address women, peace and security.
Scope & Limitations
We monitor the work of the UN Security Council on 26 country-specific and 10 thematic agenda items (including counter-terrorism); we chose to focus on these agenda based on the presence of a UN-managed peacekeeping, political and peacebuilding mission which is the subject of regular and reporting within the UN Security Council; the level of activity of the UN Security Council on the agenda item; and country-specific priorities of NGOWG members. As a result, we do not analyze the work of the Council on international criminal tribunals; non-proliferation; the UN Secretary-General; Iraq / Kuwait missing persons and property; Iraq Oil-for-Food escrow account; chemical weapons; and civil aviation.
Recent Analysis
