FINANCING OF THE WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY AGENDA

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Despite the wealth of evidence highlighting the benefits that investing in women can bring in terms of conflict prevention, crisis response and peace, the failure to allocate sufficient resources and funds has been perhaps the most serious and persistent obstacle to the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda over the past 15 years.


Key messages

  • The failure to allocate sufficient resources and funds has been the most serious and persistent obstacle to implementation of women, peace and security commitments over the past 15 years.
  • Data shows that official development assistance to gender equality in fragile states and economies is on an upward trajectory, although only a tiny proportion of all aid to fragile states and economies addresses women’s specific needs.
  • Despite the crucial contribution of women’s organizations to conflict resolution and peacebuilding, these organizations remain underfunded, receive primarily short-term project support and spend a disproportionate amount of their time on donor-related activities such as preparing funding proposals and reporting results.

Facts and figures

  • Only 2 percent of aid to peace and security interventions in fragile states and economies in 2012-2013 targeted gender equality as a principal objective.
  • Between 2011 and 2014, less than two percent of all humanitarian programmes in OCHA’s Financial Tracking System had the explicit goal of advancing gender equality or taking targeted action for women and girls.
  • OECD data shows that in 2012-13, only USD 130 million of aid went to women’s equality organizations and institutions — compared with the USD 31.8 billion of total aid to fragile states and economies over the same period.
  • Regarding UN entities, only 15 (24 percent) out of 62 entities reporting data to the UN-SWAP in 2015 currently have systems to track resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Among those, Departments of the UN Secretariat making up about 40 percent of all UN entities lag behind with very few entities tracking their resources spent on gender.
  • UNDP’s proportion of allocations targeting gender equality as a principal objective in conflict and post conflict countries has largely remained constant since 2011, standing at 4.2 percent of funds in 2014.

Key recommendations

  • Donors should adopt the UN’s 15 percent target (the percentage of funds which should be earmarked for programmes that further gender equality and women’s empowerment in peacebuilding contexts) within their own aid flows to conflict-affected contexts, with this percentage being the first, not final, target.
  • Increase predictable, accessible and flexible funding for women’s civil society organizations working on peace and security at all levels, including through dedicated financing instruments such as the new Global Acceleration Instrument on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action.
  • Allocate USD 100 million or a symbolic 1 percent of the value (whichever is higher) of the total budget for peace operations to the Peacebuilding Fund; and ensure that, of this contribution, a minimum of 15 percent is allocated to peacebuilding approaches that promote gender equality.
  • Achievement of the SG’s 15-percent target (for peacebuilding funds devoted to should be written into the SG’s performance compacts with senior UN leaders, in mission and non-mission settings.

FULL RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Set specific numerical targets such as the UN target of allocating 15 per cent of peacebuilding funds to projects whose principal objective is to address women’s specific needs and advance gender equality.
  • Establish systems across all financing actors to promote transparency and accountability, by tracking whether financial allocations further gender equality in a fully comparable manner, including in peace, security and emergency contexts. To achieve this, build the capacity of all actors to monitor and evaluate the impact of funding.
  • Increase predictable, accessible and flexible funding for women’s civil society organizations working on peace and security at all levels, including through dedicated financing instruments such as the new Global Acceleration Instrument on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action.
  • Support women’s participation in donor conferences to ensure interventions appropriately target the needs of women on the ground.
  • Build the capacity of national governments in fragile and conflict-affected settings to undertake gender-responsive budgeting and ensure coherence of national planning with gender equality objectives.
  • Undertake participatory gender and conflict risk analysis (including vulnerability analysis) to inform the design, costing and implementation of all
  • Adopt the UN’s 15 per cent gender-funding target for peacebuilding interventions within their own aid flows to conflict-affected contexts, with this percentage being the first, not final, target.
  • Improve coordination of donors’ aid activities to ensure a more even distribution of gender equality-focused aid across all fragile states and economies.
  • Significantly increase allocations to dedicated financial mechanisms that promote gender equality, women’s human rights and empowerment, such as the UN Fund for Gender Equality, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, the UN Fund for Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) and the new Global Acceleration Instrument on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Engagement.
  • Revise the structure of budgeting from being ‘project’ based to be aimed at long-term capacity building, not only of State entities but also of non- State entities.
  • Accelerate efforts to attain and then surpass the Secretary-General’s 15 per cent ‘gender marker’ for financing of peacebuilding approaches that promote gender equality. Its achievement should be written into the Secretary-General’s performance compacts with senior UN leaders on the ground, in mission and non-mission settings, and backed up with an enhanced system for monitoring and tracking achievement.
  • Allocate US 100 million or a symbolic 1 per cent of the value (whichever is higher) of the total budget for peace operations to the Peace Building Fund;78 and further ensure that, of this contribution, a minimum of 15 per cent is allocated to peacebuilding approaches that promote gender equality.