News and Updates
A Better Peace for Afghan Women
An Op-Ed by Malalai Habibi and Helena Grönberg discussing the ongoing Afghanistan peace talks, and the international community’s obligation to ensure an inclusive and gender-responsive processes.
Protecting Women Peacebuilders: The Front Lines of Sustainable Peace
Despite 20 years of policy, practice, and evidence of impact, there is still a persistent gap in recognition of, support to, and protection for women peacebuilders. This brief distills and builds on decades of women peacebuilders’ experiences navigating the dangers women peacebuilders face to provide an overview of the contextual factors and realities that create and exacerbate their insecurity. It then presents the range and sources of threats, analyzes the strengths of and gaps in existing protection mechanisms, and concludes with operational guidance for states and multilateral institutions to protect women peacebuilders.
Amplifying Voices for Peace: Women at the Peace Table – The New Norm
“Amplifying Voices for Peace: Women at the Peace Table – The New Norm” concluded that meaningful inclusion and participation of women in peacebuilding processes is instrumental to ensuring sustainable outcomes. The virtual event was spearheaded by the German Federal Foreign Office and the International Civil Action Network (ICAN) and co-organized with the Foreign Ministries of Finland, France, Italy, Norway, UK, Spain and Sweden; the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediator Networks; and the European External Action Service.
The occasion, which brought together women peacebuilders and mediators with governments and multilateral mediation units, kickstarted the 20th anniversary celebrations of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325).
Recognizing Women Peacebuilders: Critical Actors in Effective Peacemaking
Drawing on two decades of desk and primary research and interviews, policy development, and experiences in advocacy and Track One mediation practices, “Recognizing Women Peacebuilders: Critical Actors in Effective Peacemaking”, delves into the motivations and factors that propel women to become peacebuilders in the face of violence and conflict and the activities they engage in that bridge the local and the global arenas.
The brief explores how the lexicon and labels in the policy arena hinder or help women’s greater inclusion in peace processes, and factors that capture the complexity and commonality of WPBs’ experiences in relation to and distinct from other forms of socio-political activism.
Hope versus Extremism: How Women are Using Peacebuilding in the Covid-19 Crisis
While violent extremist groups take advantage of the vulnerable and national governments continue to fail their citizens, women peacebuilders embrace hope, foster interconnectedness, and uphold values of peace and justice. Canadian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Rob Oliphant observed the hope that the WASL partners put forth during the weekly WASL community check-in on 3 September, recognizing that “hope and extremism are on a teeter-totter. You can’t fight extremism with military or violence; you can only fight extremism with hope.”
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ICAN launches Better Peace Animations in Kiswahili
In time for the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, we are delighted to launch two of our Better Peace Initiative (BPI) animations in Kiswahili. These are the first animations to be translated into Kiswahili and we hope they will be valuable for a variety of stakeholders engaged in mediation at various levels and committed to inclusive and gender responsive peace and security processes.
As intra-Afghan peace talks kick off, ICAN launches Better Peace Tool in Farsi
With the intra-Afghan talks just kicking off, there is still an opportunity to rectify past oversights. The onus is on the international community to ensure that more peace builders than the few remarkable women on the government delegation are at the peace table. We owe this to the women of Afghanistan who in a recent “Letter to Allies” clearly stated: “We seek accountability in the process: accountability from Afghan leaders but also from leaders like you, who can use your influence to shape a better outcome and help ensure its implementation.” We owe this, as the parties that take little or no responsibility for protecting populations will continue to resist the participation of those who represent the real concerns and experiences of communities enduring violence.
ICAN’s Better Peace Tool is now available in Farsi.
ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund 2020 Halfway Mark
Our fund disbursed $1 million in grants to 24 partners across 17 countries from Syria to Somalia, Colombia to Cameroon, Iraq to Indonesia & more Investing In Trust
Check out this 📽️ to see how ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund supported women peacebuilders’ COVID19 response.
A Date to Remember: The UN Security Council in Conversation with WASL, the United Nations of Women Peacebuilders
“Twenty years ago, we as women peacebuilders invited the Security Council to join us in the basement of the [UN] Church Center in New York,” said ICAN’s Founder and CEO, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini in her welcoming remarks. That conversation was a steppingstone towards attaining UNSCR 1325 on women, peace and security (WPS). “The peacebuilders that we have with us here are risking their lives every day to bring peace,” she added. “We want to have a genuine exchange, between the UN’s Security Council and our partners in WASL, who are a united nations of women peacebuilders. We each have questions and answers for each other. I hope we can challenge ourselves about what we can do differently together to ensure sustainable peace now and for the future”, said Naraghi Anderlini.
The Impact of Recognition and Security on Women Peacebuilders and their Work
During our weekly community check-in calls, WASL partners have been discussing the dynamics of recognition and protection of peacebuilding work, as well as the effect that international policies have on the lived experiences of peacebuilders on the ground.
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ICAN’s Annual Report 2019
ICAN’s 2019 Annual Report is here!
Producing it in the midst of the pandemic felt like reminiscing over distant memories. But it was a reminder of how much our team and our partners achieved. We consolidated our programs and sustained our dual focus on advancing global policies on women, peace and security, and sustaining local women’s peace work. This dual strategy enabled us to pivot quickly to address the additional challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
I’m privileged to work with a dedicated and professional team and a supportive board. The trust of our peacebuilding partners in WASL and those of our financial partners internationally is humbling. Together they inspire and enable us to do our work while remaining creative and cutting edge.
Click here for more details and highlights of our breakfast with the UN’s Secretary General and annual forum with HRH the Countess of Wessex, and H.E Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, Norway’s Foreign Minister.
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE
Sanam Naraghi Anderlini’s Remarks at the 7th Biannual Review of the UN Counter Terrorism Strategy
“Stop the rhetoric on promising rights, development and gender equality, and deliver on that promise. If your promises stay empty, you lose the trust of the people,” warned ICAN’s Founder and CEO, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE, during a high level session of the UN’s 7th Biannual Review of the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy.
Ms. Anderlini spoke alongside Professor Ni Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN’s Special Rapporteur Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl, Switzerland’s Permanent Representative to the UN and Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière, Permanent Representative of France to the UN in a session on “Protecting and promoting Human Rights as a cornerstone of building resilience against terrorism”.
Read Ms. Anderlini’s full speech.
The Ever-Present Cycle of Conflict and Peace Making
Around the world, women peacebuilders are working within their communities to de-escalate violent conflict and prevent the recurrence of conflict in post-conflict or transitional environments. However, their work is made increasingly more difficult by the framing of conflict resolution as a linear process. WASL partners suggest that conflict is actually a cycle and that most countries will experience multiple phases of the cycle, simultaneously.
In the 14th virtual WASL call, peacebuilders discussed the ‘cycle of conflict’ and how it affects their work on conflict prevention, de-escalation, and peacebuilding.
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The Importance of Global Connectivity in Peacebuilding
The concept of interconnectedness is one that ICAN has directly addressed through the formal establishment of WASL, meaning “to connect” in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. In the 12th weekly call, WASL members shared their stories of what this alliance means to them as a family and community of support.
“ICAN and WASL offer moral and political support to women. They energize us and empower us to raise our voice.”
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Secondary Impacts of COVID-19 and the Role of Development Aid
As COVID-19 has exacerbated existing gaps in services on the ground, and many women peacebuilders pivoted their work during the pandemic to deal with urgent humanitarian response, the question of whether development aid reaches local communities arose. Members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) highlighted the need for change so that development aid can reach local communities and provide the basic services of food, healthcare, and education.
Canada’s Minister of International Development, Karina Gould, and Canada’s Ambassador for Women, Peace and Security, Jacqueline O’Neill joined WASL members in the conversation.
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