Security

South Sudan emerged as an independent nation in 2011 after decades of war. One year later, Alert presents the findings of a wide-ranging Peace and Conflict Assessment. Commissioned by Pact and funded by the Department for International Development, the assessment looks beyond the immediate problems faced by South Sudanese, and proposes a long-term approach to building peace. This means for example working on conflict prevention instead of just conflict resolution, designing economic development strategies which promote peace, giving greater priority to reconciliation, tackling impunity, and promoting a positive and peaceful national identity for the new country born out of war. Engaging women and young people is critical.

This report reviews different approaches to the implementation of international Women, Peace and Security frameworks, focusing particularly on UN Security Council Resolution 1325. It focuses on how the resolution can be incorporated into concrete policy guidelines and programmatic initiatives and highlights good practices and lessons learnt over the last decades. It is expected that the information and examples contained in the review will support and advance the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of more and stronger Women, Peace and Security action plans that will turn Resolution 1325 into a living reality to improve the situation of women affected by conflict.

Sexual and gender-based violence is one of five key security challenges currently facing Nepal. Left untackled, such violence, plus the increase in armed groups; proliferation of small arms and light weapons; rises in crime and political strikes pose a serious risk to the peace process. This paper provides insight into how to strengthen security and justice responses to the principle risk for women in post-conflict Nepal, sexual and gender-based violence. Three broad recommendations are proposed to international donors, particularly the EU.

These ‘snapshot’ briefings are part of a longer-term initiative by International Alert to help address the current gaps in knowledge and understanding between those actors at the district level and those in Kathmandu. Each briefing aims to outline current security and justice needs and challenges in a particular district, and advance constructive recommendations for ways in which national and international actors could address these challenges. The briefings are based on research undertaken as part of Alert’s work for the Initiative for Peacebuilding project. This snapshot focuses on Bara, a district in the central Terai where the activities of armed groups are contributing to feelings of insecurity.