For the final episode of season 3, our host Detmer Kremer - Policy Advocacy and Coordinations Coordinator - is joined by Shelagh Daley, Team Lead for Policy and Advocacy, and Lewis Brooks, UK Policy and Advocacy Adviser, both at Saferworld. Assessing the volatile times in the UK and around the world, this conversation provides a critical look at WPS: where it stands now and where the UK could provide innovative and genuine leadership on moving the agenda - and therefore gender justice - forward.

Resources

GAPS Shadow Reports: https://gaps-uk.org/category/policy-resources/themes/uk-national-action-plan-nap/

Beyond Consultations: https://beyondconsultations.org/

WPS Helpdesk: https://wpshelpdesk.org/

People Power Conference: https://www.saferworld-global.org/resources/news-and-analysis/post/1080-power-people-and-peace-reflections-from-the-2025-people-power-conference-

Ongoing conflict and fractured governance are immense challenges in Libya. In this environment, Libyan women human rights defenders and women’s rights organisations play an essential role in fostering social cohesion and providing crucial support and relief, such as disaster response to the devastating floods in Derna – whose severity was a direct consequence of the climate emergency. However, this crucial work is challenged by deeply entrenched patriarchal norms and discriminatory laws, exposing women and other marginalised groups to alarming levels of gender-based violence and significant barriers to meaningful participation. This episode emphasises the urgent need to advance the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda through a comprehensive and integrated approach—one that ensures women’s participation is not only encouraged but protected at its core. 

In this episode, we joined by Catherine Turner, Professor of International Law and Deputy Director of the Durham Global Security Institute and Noura El Jerbi, a dedicated advocate focused on addressing online violence against women in Libya. Our guests explore the ecology of risk associated with women’s participation in Libya and identify opportunities for the WPS agenda to counter such harms, to advance a locally owned agenda. 

Resources

Creating Enabling Environments for Women’s Participation in Libya: https://www.ipinst.org/2023/07/creating-enabling-environments-for-womens-participation-in-libya-paper

Middle East Eye reporting on Derna floods: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/libya-floods-derna-women-invisible-needs-neglected-aftermath

This episode was recorded on the 29th of January and reflects the situation in DRC at that time. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a multi-ethnic, bio-diverse and resource-rich country. Yet the legacy of Belgian colonialism and other western influences have contributed to prolonged and protracted violence. The majority of the current violence, fought between the Congolese army and a wide range of armed groups, including those like M23 who are backed by foreign powers such as Rwanda, the ADF and CODECO, is fought in the eastern part of the country. This has causes mass displacement, high rates of gender-based violence, and plundering of resources. Regional efforts towards peacebuilding have had limited success, and appear largely exclusive of the communities affected most. We are joined by Solange Lwashiga, who called in from Bukavu prior to the town being taken over by M23. Here she heads up South Kivu Congolese Women's Caucus for Peace (Caucus des Femmes Congolaises du Sud-Kivu pour la Paix). We were also joined by Karolina Sklebena, who is a global crisis analysis consultant with Mercy Corps.

Resources

MercyCorps’s Researchhttps://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/rapid-gender-analysis-kanyaruchina-displacement-site-goma-north-kivu-woman-has-do-anything-provide-her-family-march-2024

Statement from PeaceDirect on violence in DRC:https://www.peacedirect.org/statement-on-the-violence-in-north-and-south-kivu-drc/

Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14452174/

MSF’s reporting on sexual violence in DRC

https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msf-reports-unprecedented-number-sexual-violence-cases-dr-congo

Evidence shows that peace processes are more likely to be stable and resilient when women and other marginalised groups are included in negotiations. Yet, we continue to witness their exclusion and conflicts around the world are rising. This episode follows a successful event held in the UK parliament entitled ‘Promoting Inclusive Peace’, hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace and Security, which GAPS is secretariat to, in collaboration with the Foreign Policy Centre and University of Birmingham. We are joined by Associate Professor in International Security at the University of Brimingham, Giuditta Fontana, and co-founder of Justice Impact Lab, Fatiha Serour to consider how the needs and experiences of marginalised groups should be integrated into peace processes, to ensure local ownership and consideration of the often-forgotten root causes of conflict. Drawing on contexts including Afghanistan, Liberia and Sierra Leone, our guests guide us through the barriers to women's involvement in peace processes and avenues to subvert and move past ‘representation for representation’s sake’. Instead, we consider, how can we build the table around local expertise, including women, to establish inclusive and sustainable coalitions of peace. 

Resources mentioned:  

• Women’s Participation And A Better Understanding Of The Political, UN Women. 

• Learning from Failure: Tackling war recurrence in protracted peace processes 

• Facts and Figures: Women Peace and Security, UN Women. 

On the fourth of July, 2024 the British public voted and elected a new government. After 14 years of rule by the Conservative party, a Labour government under Keir Starmer was sworn in. It campaigned under a banner of change as it secured it a large majority in parliament. The election also saw significant inroads for many smaller parties which ran on more progressive platforms, including clear support for Palestine including calls for full suspensions of arms sales with Israel. Another party that made significant gains, although at a smaller scale than many had predicted, is the Reform party. Rallying around an explicit anti-migrant, anti-climate and anti-rights agenda, it has catapulted itself into parliament after years of public and political debate aiming to increase and leverage a divided and polarised UK including by deepening its racism and transphobia. This means the political landscape in the United Kingdom now looks very differently than it did before, and in this episode we are joined by Claudia Craig, Senior Advocacy Adviser on gender justice at CARE International UK and Richard Reeve, coordinator of the Rethinking Security network, to check-in with where the government stands now, since it has been able to stretch it legs and whether it is upholding promises made, and as we look ahead to the next few years, what might we be able to expect?

Resources

GAPS’s WPS recommendations for the first 100 days of government: https://gaps-uk.org/the-first-100-days-of-women-peace-and-security/

Since April last year the conflict in Sudan has raged on between the RSF and SAF, supported by foreign powers including the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. As a result, tens of thousands have died, millions have been displaced within Sudan and forced to flee across borders, the country now faces the largest hunger crisis in the world, and racist mass atrocity crimes are being committed by both warring groups, including in Darfur. Women and girls face specific risks, and documented cases of gender based violence, inclusive CRSV, are widespread and well documented. We are joined by two incredible Sudanese activists, Reem Abbas and Hala Alkarib, who guide us through WPS in the country-context of Sudan. Amidst the crisis of conflict, hunger and displacement, Sudanese women and girls face their own unique challenges. Yet, women continue to provide the backbone to essential services whilst challenging the patriarchal and colonial dynamics in their country. This episode invites us to consider the conflict dynamics at play, how the international community is currently responding and what is most urgently needed.

Resources mentioned:

Assessing UK Government Action on

We are back for season 3 and bringing you directly into the beating heart of Women Peace and Security! Hosted by our very own Eva and Sangeetha, the episode takes you to the launch event of our latest publications on best practice on improving the participation of women in politics. The launch event features interventions from May Sabe Phyu, Director of GEN Myanmar and member of the Leap4Peace consortium, Kay Soe representing the Women’s Advocacy Coalition and Tonni Brodber from the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. Our Director Eva Tabbasam shares her reflections on the Secretary-General’s latest report on the implementation of the WPS agenda, and we will hear brief interventions women working in Iraq, Palestine, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Resources mentioned:

Leap4Peace paper series on Burundi, Myanmar, Colombia and the

Pillars for Peace: https://nimd.org/theme-brochures/women-peace-and-security-pillars-for-peace/

In the finale of the second season of Mind the GAPS: A Woman Peace and Security Podcast, GAPS staff members Lottie Kissick-Jones, Sangeetha Navaratnam-Blair and Detmer Kremer join in conversation. It is a reflection on

Sources mentioned in this episode

2023 Annual Shadow Report: https://gaps-uk.org/assessing-uk-government-action-on-women-peace-and-security-in-2023/

Bridging the GAPS blog: https://gaps-uk.org/home/bridging-the-gaps-a-blog/

The First 100 Days of Government and WPS: https://gaps-uk.org/the-first-100-days-of-women-peace-and-security/

The climate emergency is an existential risk to the planet, and it is already affecting every corner of the world. Climate change is a risk multiplier meaning that it interacts with and compounds existing risks and pressures in any given context, and can increase the likelihood of instability or violent conflict. Those least responsible, especially women and girls in fragile and conflict affected states, are affected most. Indeed, every year the world gathers for a COP but transformative inclusion of gender in climate action remains lacking. In this episode we bring together the WPS agenda and climate action by speaking to Payvand Seyedali, Afghanistan Country Director at Women for Women International and Esther Hodges, Senior Gender Adviser at Conciliation Resources. Both draw from recent publications that not only make clear how the climate emergency impacts women and girls, but that women and girls are critical experts in ensuring effective, affordable and sustainable climate action. The conversation is chaired by GAPS team members Eva Tabbasam and Detmer Kremer.

Sources

Conciliation

Gender Action for

Gender Action for

Women for Women

Women Peace and Security, or WPS, is an international agenda that has come through a series of resolutions adopted at the United Nations Security Council. Much of the analysis of WPS therefore focuses on the Security Council. However the international architecture is sprawling, with many different mechanisms, treaties, fora, and institutions. Some of these overlap and are set up in complementary ways with WPS, whereas others are fully separate and appear to have few linkages.  It can be a confusing maze, but it also provides different avenues for change to advance gender, peace and security objectives. In this episode, we are joined by Kseniya Kirichenko, United Nations Programme Manager at ILGA World and May Sabe Phyu, Director of Gender Equality Network (GEN) Myanmar. Gen Myanmar is a member of the Leap4Peace consortium. Kseninya and May bring years of experience of engaging with different multilateral systems, including treaty bodies and special procedures.