During the first week of November, Our Secure Future (OSF) Director Sahana Dharmapuri and OSF Technology Fellow Jolynn Shoemaker spoke at the Institute for Security Governance (ISG) Women, Leadership, and National Defense Course for the Naval Postgraduate School. The course focused on Women, Peace and Security principles and their importance in security and defense institutions.
The course had 23 participants from 17 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and South America. Attendees included senior international military officers, civilians from the defense and security sectors, and civil society and private sector representatives.
Ms. Dharmapuri and Ms. Shoemaker’s presentation subject was Gender and Peacebuilding. They discussed peacebuilding and gender dynamics, the global human rights framework, and the story of WPS and UN Security Resolution 1325. They explained some of the key changes required by the WPS framework, which are gender analysis, gender mainstreaming, and equal participation.
- Gender Analysis: Examine peace and security problems through gender-sensitive lens; affect on women, men, boys and girls? Facilitating understanding of other vulnerable groups.
- Gender Mainstreaming: Reforming decision-making to integrate gender analysis; shaping new types of policies and programs.
- Equal Participation: Ensuring processes and leadership opportunities reflect gender balance.
The presentation ended with a case study that illustrates how to apply a gender analysis framework to a real-world peacebuilding example. In addition to Ms. Dharmapuri and Ms. Shoemaker’s presentation on Gender and Peacebuilding, other topics throughout the week included Institutional Culture and Gender; Gender, Climate Change & National Security; and Gender and Development.
