Presents a pragmatic guidance for the inclusion of women peacebuilders, and offers proactive steps to broaden participation.
Preventing extremism by promoting rights, peace and pluralism. Enabling strategic collaboration between women peacebuilders.
Provides a mechanism for regular high-level civil society-government dialogue on issues related to preventing extremism.
Provides grants and technical assistance to partners to support local solutions in promoting peace and countering extremism.
Programs Updates
Global Solutions Exchange Updates
GSX Workshop “Peacebuilding in the Age of Corona: What it Means and Why it Matters”
A Global Solutions Exchange Workshop "Peacebuilding in the Age of Corona: What it Means and Why it Matters" As the Coronavirus pandemic sweeps across conflict affected and fragile states, women-led peacebuilding organizations have been the first responders in their...
Global Solutions Exchange (GSX) workshop convened by ICAN and UNDP to address the disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration of women and girls associated with violent extremism
This week more than 40 peacebuilders, researchers, and policymakers—including members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL)—will convene in Oslo, Norway to discuss the gendered aspects of disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration, with a focus on programs for women and girls associated with violent extremist groups and the policies that affect them.
Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership Updates
A restart on the WPS Agenda
At a time of significant global foreign policy challenges, the Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues is stepping up their game with a focused effort on the implementation of the U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and the U.S Department of State Plan to Implement the U.S. Strategy on WPS. Ambassador-At-Large for Global Women’s Issues Kelley E. Currie joined a weekly Zoom meeting with the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) on August 27, 2020.
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.
Better Peace Initiative Updates
Better Peace Animations now available in Ukrainian
During the pandemic we have been busy translating our materials and tools into new languages. In 2020 we launched a number of animations in Russian and Swahili, and we are excited to at this time share three of our existing animations in Ukrainian: Gendered Devolution: Why it matters, how to do it, Gender Responsive and Inclusive Ceasefires: Why it matters, how to do and Gendered Transitional Justice: Why it matters, how to do it.
ICAN Trains the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth on Gender Responsive Mediation
During three weeks in December the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), provided an 18-hour training on Gender Responsive and Inclusive Mediation to 16 members of the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (WMC), a network hosted by Conciliation Resources.
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.
Recent Briefs
Funding Women Peacebuilders: Dismantling Barriers to Peace
Recognizing the value and need to channel equitable resources to local women’s peacebuilding organizations (WPBOs) have been constant stipulations of the value of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda since its inception at the turn of the 21st century. From the United Nations to its 193 member states, the desire and intent to support such organizations has increased over the years. But the chasm between donors’ good intentions and their political, financial, and administrative constraints has hampered the flow of funds to the grassroots women who need them the most.
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.
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.