Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 09 Sep 2016 02:43 AM PDT
It's time to #MoveTheMoney. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in 2015 global military expenditure was USD1.6 trillion. But gender equality and peace remain drastically under-funded. Only two per cent of aid to fragile states in 2012-2013, for example, targeted gender equality as a principal objective, according to the Global Study on UN Security Council Resolution 1325. In 2000, the United Nations Security Council formally acknowledged through the creation of Resolution 1325 (UNSCR1325) the changing nature of warfare, in which civilians are increasingly targeted and women continue to be excluded from participation in peace processes. UNSCR 1325 addresses not only the inordinate impact of war on women, but also the pivotal role women should and do play in conflict management, conflict resolution, and sustainable peace. But as the 2015 Global Study on UNSCR 1325 found, there is a "consistent, striking disparity between policy commitments to gender equality and women's empowerment, and the financial allocations to achieve them". In an attempt to counter this, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has now launched a toolkit to boost action on women, peace and security financing. WILPF has just launched a toolkit to boost action on women, peace and security financing with graphics and other resources that you can start sharing now on your social networks. The aim aim to raise awareness and stimulate civil society and putting pressure the UN and national governments to shift the money from war to peace. WILPF, a non-profit peace organisation with national sections in 33 countries, produced the toolkit to address this striking disparity between military funding and peace and gender equality funding around the globe. Available to download here, it includes a 'motion graphics explainer video' – available in five languages – case studies, fact sheets, social media graphics and media guides. Surveys carried out by WILPF affirm the pressing need – and desire – for resources to help strengthen women, peace and security financing. In one such survey, almost three-quarters of the respondents said strengthening finance on peace and gender justice was "very important" (8-10 on a scale of 1-10). More than 63 per cent of the respondents said they were in need to technical support to secure funding on gender and peace work. "Our toolkit shows that instead of funding war, the UN and member states should invest in gender-responsive budgeting, transparency in defence budgets, National Action Plans on Women, Peace, and Security, and civil society-inclusive UN funds," Abigail Ruane, director of WILPF's Women, Peace and Security programme, Peace Women, said. "We reject the idea that there is no money for gender justice. "If the international community wants peace, it needs to invest more in gender equality and social justice policies.” This interactive toolkit forms part of a larger Women, Peace and Security Project run by WILPF, which also consists of an event for government actors, a civil society workshop and a series of surveys. Find more information here – and ask your government to #MoveTheMoney The toolkit was launched at the AWIDForum currently taking place in Brazil. AWID's 2016 Forum is a process and space for re-imagining and co-creating futures free from oppressions, injustice, war and violence and to develop concrete strategies for people and planet based on our shared humanity. Nearly 2,000 participants from a broad diversity of movements and sectors – from women's rights and feminist movements, to peace, economic justice, environmental, and human rights movements, and others – will collectively strategise for #FeministFutures. Many of the AWIDForum events are being streamed online: click here to join in.  |
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