Invitation to the Challenges Forum Webinar: WPS 2020 – How can A4P be a catalyst?

On 11 February 2020, UTC+1 13:00-14:30 (local time Stockholm), the Challenges Forum International Secretariat, and this webinar’s co-host Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA), invites Challenges Forum Partners, experts and practitioners to an open webinar to discuss how A4P can advance the WPS agenda in peace operations, and what needs to be done in order to ensure this?

The Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) reform initiative includes commitments by member states to implement the WPS agenda with a focus on supporting women’s participation in peace processes, integrating gender perspectives, and increasing the number of women in peacekeeping. The inclusion of these commitments serves as a reminder to member states that further action is needed if any progress is to be made in meeting the obligations to implement the WPS agenda.

Points have been made that the international community are seeking to include women in structures that are not set up to allow them to make a difference. That we need to start thinking outside the box, and change the model of inclusion. How do we bring about this change?

A number of experts have been invited to lead the discussions:

Lisa Sharland, Challenges Forum Senior Advisor and Head of the International Program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Australia

Njoki R Kinyanjui, Chief of Gender Unit & Senior Gender Adviser, Department of Peace Operations, United Nations

Fabrice Ramadan, Senior WPS Specialist, Women, Gender and Youth Programme, Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden

To join the webinar live you need to register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HTfoKmcqQculgLm-dKLuWQ

Registered participants will be able to follow the panel in an online video stream in their smartphone, tablet or computer and will not be visible. Participants watching the video stream will be invited to chat in comment and questions through Q&A in the webinar platform Zoom.

Recommended background reading for this webinar is Challenges Forum Policy Brief 2019:7 by Lisa Sharland. We welcome different perspectives and invite participants to share innovative ideas and thoughts.

UN PHOTO/HARANDANE DICKO