NEWS: Funding for Women's peacemaking roles

WOMEN'S ROLE IN PEACEMAKING GETS MULTIMILLION DOLLAR SUPPORT

A former US ambassador has announced a multimillion-dollar pledge to support a UN resolution calling for women to be included in decision-making positions at all levels of peacemaking and peacebuilding.

Swanee Hunt, a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the Institute for Inclusive Security, which she chairs, would provide $2m (£1.2m) each year to advance women's participation in peace efforts, as called for in the 2000 UN resolution.

Hunt said roadmaps to accelerate women's role in peacemaking have been adopted by the US and 37 other countries but there was not enough progress.

"When it comes to the value of women's strong participation in securing lasting, just peace, there's no longer a debate," Hunt said. "Instead, there's a need for meaningful action." Hunt announced the pledges during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York which ended on Tuesday.

The new funding will be used to deploy experts to work with government officials, legislators and civic leaders on issues including strategic planning and adding women to negotiating teams.

It will assist watchdog groups to track governments and hold them accountable. Initiatives to bring women into decision-making involving war and peace will also be assessed. Fewer than one in 40 signatories of peace agreements since 1992 have been female, says a Unifem report.

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Good to see that the UN is finally paying attention to its pledge that it made 12 years ago! But how far will $2million actually go? When I worked in London, my team alone has a budget of £6million to look after underachieving schools JUST in London. Maybe that budget was excessive, but $2million for the entire peacemaking agenda across he world seems pretty minusule...

Rachel