DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION of National Action Plans ...

PrefaceOn October 31, 2000, Security Council Resolution 1325 was unanimously adoptedbased on the recognition of the disproportionate impact of conflicts on womenand girls and their various experiences in the area of peacebuilding. Since then fourother complementary resolutions have been adopted – UNSCR 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960to address the gaps identified in UNSCR 1325. The core mandates of these resolutions arecondensed into 4 pillars (Ps) - participation of women in the peace processes, protection ofwomen in war and peace, prevention of conflicts and prosecution of perpetrators of sexualand gender-based violence.The United Nations Security Council recognized that the national implementation of UNSCR1325 and related resolutions is an important mechanism for furthering the women, peaceand security agenda. Thus, the United Nations Security Council Presidential statements of2004/40 and 2005/52, called to member states to implement the resolution 1325 includingthe development of NAPs or other national level strategies such as peace policies, genderpolicies or medium/long term development plans and has consistently recommendedthat member states accelerate the development of both national and regional action plansfor the implementation of resolution 1325. The development of national action plans bymember states unfortunately has been very slow such that 12 years after the adoptionof UNSCR 1325, only about 42 countries out of 192 countries have so far developed theirnational action plans. Lack of technical know-how, one of the reasons cited for this slowpace necessitated the development of this guideline.In writing this guideline, it is recognized that there is no one-size-fit all and as such thepurpose of the guideline is to provide a generic template – a simple step-by-step guide to theformulation and implementation of NAPs that can be used by all national governments andgovernment institutions, regional organizations, non-state actors and institutions interestedin the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda. It is also recognized thatthe context within countries differ and this will determine which of the pillars the NAP willfocus on.The Guideline is divided into five sections. Section 1 deals with the introduction whichprovides information on women, peace and security, UNSCR 1325 and related resolutions,importance of NAPs in the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the purpose of the guideline.Section 2 focuses on the processes of developing the guideline including the inception,context/situational analysis, stakeholder mapping and their roles, establishment of acoordinating mechanism, enabling stakeholder participation, through defining content ofNAPs, identifying opportunities for resources mobilization, drafting of the NAPs, validation,finalization and launching and dissemination of NAPs. This section also spells out the stepsinvolved in the formulation of NAPs. Section 3 focuses on the implementation arrangementswhile Section 4 was concerned with monitoring and evaluation – defining the terms; whoshould do the M & E and the reporting systems and feedback. The challenges associated1