Despite the expansion of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, this report argues that it has not been integrated into the financing and decision-making systems necessary for safety. While women have historically developed effective mechanisms for early warning, mediation, and survivor support, their work often remains unrecognized, underfunded, and excluded from formal authority.

Archives from the past 25 years reveal four persistent patterns:
Representation without Power: Women have secured more seats in government but lack influence over budgets, security decisions, and negotiations.
Policy without Financing: While many countries have adopted National Action Plans, they are rarely matched with dedicated, enforceable budgets.
Outsourced Governance: When formal institutions fail, women’s networks absorb critical governance responsibilities without remuneration or official mandate.
Institutional Collapse: Formal WPS mechanisms often fail during crises, whereas women-led networks remain durable and effective.

Five Pillars for 2025–2050

To achieve a feminist future, the report outlines five pillars for reform:

1. Financing Feminist Peace: WPS must be treated as core national security expenditure, with at least 0.5% of defense budgets earmarked for local peacebuilding.
2. Accountability and Legitimacy: Implement Feminist Peace Indicators (FPIs) to track power transfer and budget allocations, while granting formal legal status to women mediators.
3. Partnerships and Collaboration: Partnerships must redistribute decision-making authority to community-level organizations and be designed to survive political and funding shifts.
4. Technology, Communication and Narrative Power: Governments must prosecute online violence and include women in AI development and governance.
5. Foreign Feminist Policy: International engagement should prioritize predictable, multi-year core funding and use diplomatic influence to enforce gender

Download Publication.

This 53^rd edition of Women’s World highlights the experiences, good practices, and lessons learned by the Just Future civil society partners in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and South Sudan advancing inclusive peace, people-centred security, and access to justice.

From Burundi, we share the peacebuilding experience of L’association des Femmes Rapatriés du Burundi (AFRABU) a women-led non-governmental organisation focused on strengthening access to justice for women, youth, and vulnerable groups. The DRC write-up presents the experiences, achievements, challenges, and lessons learned in the role played by civil society organizations (CSOs) such as Reseau pour la Réforme du Secteur de Sécurité et Justice (RRSSJ) in the implementation of security sector reform processes. The article also proposes recommendations likely to mitigate the obstacles that undermine the effectiveness of the envisaged reforms. The work of SOS- Information Juridique Multisectorielle (SOS-IJM) and Dynamique Des Femmes Juristes (DFJ) in the implementation of legal clinics in North and South Kivu in the DRC offers key lessons on legal aid services for alternative dispute resolution in a complex conflict-affect context dealing with multiple challenges within the judicial system.

The experience of Eve Organisation for Women Development in South Sudan offers good practices to consider when working with the security sector, to address sexual and gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence of the South Sudan Law Society illuminates the critical role of civil society in advocating for transitional justice and their involvement in the implementation.

Womens’ World 53_English

Through this 52nd edition of Women’s World, women from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda share their thoughts and findings on the situation of women’s current and prospective participation in political and peace processes associated with elections. This Women’s World also challenges patriarchal norms and the practice of relegating women’s position and contributions to the private sphere, excluding them from deliberative dialogues in political and decision-making spaces across electoral processes.

We invite you to appreciate the perspectives and experiences of women as voters, candidates, political leaders, advocates for peaceful elections and key players in all electoral processes.

Womens’ World 52_FR 

Womens’ World 52_EN

À travers cette 52ème édition de Women’s World, des femmes du Burundi, de la République Démocratique du Congo et de l’Ouganda partagent leurs réflexions et expriment leurs points non seulement sur la situation de la participation dans le contexte du moment, mais également sur l’implication et la participation des femmes aux processus politiques et de paix associée aux élections. La réflexion de ces femmes expérimentées met en exergue sur les normes patriarcales et la pratique consistant à reléguer la position et les contributions des femmes à la sphère privée, en les excluant des dialogues délibératifs dans les espaces politiques et décisionnels à travers les processus électoraux.

Telecharger: Monde Des Femmes 52

Dans cette 2e édition de la Série Paix féministe, nous nous revenons sur la façon dont les femmes, les militantes féministes pour la paix ont réagis aux conséquences directes et indirectes de la COVID-19 et développons les implications pratiques et théoriques pour la paix féministe. Chacun des auteurs réfléchit sur les implications de la pandémie mondiale ancrée dans le local et le personnel – et encadré par leurs conceptions de la paix féministe. Dans cette mesure, cette collection ouvre de nouvelles possibilités épistémologiques, politiques et intellectuelles enrichissant les connaissances féministes.

Nous espérons que vous apprécierez la lecture de notre deuxième édition de la Série Féministe sur la paix.

Télécharger: Feminist Peace Series, 2ème édition

In this 2nd edition of the Feminist Peace Series, we focus on how women and, in particular, feminist peace activists are responding to the direct and indirect consequences of COVID-19 and elaborate on the practical and theoretical implications for feminist peace. Each of the authors reflects on the implications of the global pandemic grounded in the local and personal – and framed by their conceptions of feminist peace. To that extent, this collection opens up new epistemological, political and intellectual possibilities enriching feminist knowledge.

We hope you enjoy reading our second edition of the Feminist Peace Series.

Feminist Peace Series 2nd Edition_EN

Feminist Peace Series 2nd Edition_FR