The peacebuilding work of women's organisations is still largely invisible to the eyes of the world’s policy-makers and media. The momentum and level of interest generated by UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) creates a unique opportunity to place women firmly at the centre of contemporary international peace and security discourse.  However, unless the moment is seized, the opportunity will pass. 

It is vital to examine and understand how international and national commitments relating to women, peace and security can be implemented and how women contribute to peace processes. 

Analysis of their efforts and documentation of lessons learnt is needed. It is important both to record women's peacebuilding efforts as evidence to policy makers, the media and others and also to ensure that women themselves are able to analyse their experiences, identify weaknesses and challenges, highlight successes, learn from each other and ultimately strengthen their approaches.

The Gender Peace Audit is one of the Gender & Peacebuilding's main projects. It aims to bridge the gap between policy and practice by developing an effective means of monitoring, through local organisations, the implementation of national and international commitments to support issues relating to women's peace and security. It examines whether the peacebuilding and security programmes of international institutions are gender-aware and responsive to women’s needs. It deepens existing partnerships with local organisations by supporting their efforts in developing regional and country specific advocacy strategies to enhance capacity to influence national, regional and international processes and commitments. It also involves developing and field-testing a know-how framework to research, document and analyse the peacebuilding work that women's organisations are doing. 

The consultations for the first phase of the Gender Peace Audit have been conducted in the Caucasus, Nigeria (West Africa) and Nepal (South Asia). The project focuses on how Resolution 1325 in particular can be used as a tool to support the peacebuilding activities of women and to address issues affecting their peace and security. Potential security issues that will be focused on include those relating to security sector reform, gender and peace support operations, the impact of small arms on women, integrating gender into conflict early warning and early response systems, internally displaced person, the participation of women in peace negotiations and the address of violence against women in situations of armed conflict. 

The project is divided into three parts:

• Monitoring and Accountability: Developing a monitoring framework and indicators through national and regional consultations, monitoring the commitments and obligations made by governments in national, regional and international instruments and producing policy recommendations informed by both consultation and monitoring.
• Women’s Peacebuilding Know-how: Documenting women’s peacebuilding activities and identifying examples of better practice.
• Toolkit on Women, Peace and Security: Consolidating the key lessons learned from both the know-how and the monitoring into an accesible manual for advocacy work on peace and security issues. The toolkit is primarily intended for use by women’s organisations engaged in conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities and that undertake or want to undertake advocacy work at national and international levels. 

To download a summary of our findings in the Caucasus, please click here.

To download a summary of our findings in Nepal, please click here.

To download a statement from our South Asia consultation, please click here.

To download the full report from the South Asia consultation on Resolution 1325, please click here.

To download the latest report on Women Building Peace Sharing Know-How, please click here.

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