Underfunding, an obstacle to fulfilling UNSCR 1325 commitments

Underfunding is still a major obstacle to fulfilling commitments contained in the UN Security Council Resolution 1325(UNSCR 1325) on women, peace and security.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Mr António Guterres said a paltry 0.2 per cent of bilateral aid to fragile and conflict-affected situations goes to women organisations, which essentially support local women’s peace initiatives and indigenous processes for conflict resolution.

“Change is coming at a pace that is too slow for the women and girls whose lives depend on it, and for the effectiveness of our efforts to maintain international peace and security,” he said during the annual UN Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security, last month.

Armed groups

He was concerned about the continued adoption of gender irresponsive peace agreements, despite the resolution calling for integration of special needs of women and girls in the agreements.

He noted the rising number of armed groups capitalising on gender inequality and misogyny to attack women and girls.

He further said the number of attacks against women human rights defenders, humanitarians and peace builders is on the rise.

 “Sexual and gender-based violence continues to be used as a weapon of war, with the survivors of such violence often left without justice or support,” he noted.

Going forward, Mr Guterres has advised peacekeeping and special political missions to provide gender disaggregated information on threats and violence against activists.
 
“Without a gendered analysis, we are operating on partial information and are unable to anticipate and respond to early warning effectively,” he said.

“Failure to act on women’s rights and the principles of the women, peace and security agenda, brings enormous costs,” he added.

UN Women, Executive Director, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka was unequivocal on fast-tracking implementation of UNSCR 1325 commitments.

Funding drought

“The women are trapped in the men’s wars. They have a surplus of supportive words and statements, but they have a funding drought,” she said.

“Our latest figures show that the percentage of funding to conflict-affected countries, that goes to programmes whose principal objective is to advance gender equality, has declined to 4.5 per cent,” she said.

To end the underfunding, she advocated for allocation of not less than 15 per cent of official development assistance to conflict-affected countries, to initiatives advancing gender equality.

“Without investments in women, our talk will remain talk,” she said.