Welcome to Our Secure Future’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Research Digest, “the done for you” newsletter on WPS. Every month, we curate the latest articles and reports on cross-cutting issues related to women’s rights and international peace and security. This summer, we searched the web for you, and here’s what we found...
Defense and Security
Peace Without Women? Ongoing Peace Talks and War Negotiations Keep Leaving Women Behind (Ms. Magazine)
“From Gaza to Iran, women are bearing the costs of conflict, repression, displacement and economic collapse, even as negotiations over security, governance, reconstruction and political transition move forward without their meaningful participation.”
More Women in Security Decision-Making = Stronger Responses to Europe’s New Risks (European Institute for Gender Equality)
“Security decisions are stronger when they reflect the experiences, expertise and realities of the people they are intended to protect. Evidence consistently shows that women’s participation in conflict prevention, peace processes and security decision-making contributes to more sustainable outcomes.”
Applying a Gender Lens to Security Studies (International Affairs Review)
“Applying a gender lens is vital to security studies because it enhances the understanding of the complexities of conflict prevention, management, and resolution, which in turn strengthens international and national security.”
Economic Empowerment
Women and Jobs: Why the region needs to expand labor opportunities (World Bank Blogs)
“The MENAAP region stands at a pivotal moment, amid shifting global economic conditions, and persistent regional uncertainty, fragility, and profound demographic transformation. Its working-age population is projected to grow by about 220 million over the next quarter-century—close to a 40 percent rise, the second largest across all regions (figure 1). So far, however, MENAAP economies have failed to generate the jobs needed to capitalize on a once-promising demographic dividend.”
Women’s economic empowerment must be daily commitment – Dr. Joseph Wemakor (Modern Ghana)
“Women’s economic empowerment means ensuring that women have equal opportunities, resources, and the freedom to participate meaningfully in Ghana’s economy. It means having access to education, finance, land, markets, technology, leadership opportunities, and the ability to make decisions that affect one’s economic future.”
Technology
OSF Article Highlight!
Fixing AI in Conflict (The Diplomat)
"WPS frameworks – grounded in UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and implemented through National Action Plans (NAPs) in over 100 countries – establish commitments for how conflict and security operations should account for women, protect civilian populations, and include affected civilian communities in decision-making. NATO has integrated WPS into doctrine. The U.S., UK, and most major allied defense establishments have signed NAPs that apply to their operations. Any AI system used by these decision makers should follow these laws. Our Secure Future’s research indicates they do not." Authored by OSF Fellow Moira Whelan and OSF AI Project Lead Jesper Frant
OSF Article Highlight!
Where is Women, Peace and Security in the Debate Over AI Warfare? (Tech Times)
"The Women, Peace and Security agenda offers a practical way to understand conflict, improve security decision-making, and support more durable peace. The white paper by Sahana Dharmapuri and Jolynn Shoemaker, Women, Peace and Security and Technology Futures: What World Are We Building?, considers how this agenda applies to current decisions about technology and security." Authored by OSF VP Sahana Dharmapuri and OSF Fellow Jolynn Shoemaker
AI is Getting Women Wrong as Gender Bias Persists, Data Reveals (United Nations)
"… women remain underrepresented in the industries developing the technology, raising concerns that the future of artificial intelligence is being built without their perspectives reflected in the blueprint.”
Climate
Women Lead Climate Resilience and Peacebuilding Efforts Across Nepal and South Asia (Ecosphere News)
"In Nepal, women continue to spearhead responses to climate-induced disasters, demonstrating their critical contribution to disaster risk reduction, climate resilience, and social stability. Their leadership at the grassroots level is increasingly recognized as indispensable for building stronger and more resilient communities in the face of escalating climate impacts.”
Climate, Peace and Security: Shrinking the Gap between Africa and Europe (Istituto Affari Internazionali)
"Both Africa and Europe have developed policy positions and practices to address this nexus, including on climate risk assessments and sustainable investments. However, there is some divergence as Africa’s approach centers on development, while the EU’s stance is increasingly securitized. Bridging the gap between the AU and EU requires integrated thinking that is solutions-oriented and action-driven, rather than focused solely on the problems.
New Report Finds Global Security Hinges on Climate Action, Health Investment and Peacebuilding (Global Climate & Health Alliance)
"The report finds that such crises (climate change and armed conflict) do not occur in isolation, but rather they converge in a polycrisis, a condition in which multiple global crises such as climate change, armed conflict, economic instability, under-resourced health systems, and an evolving digital landscape interact and amplify one another, generating a significant threat to global public health.”
Investing in women powers climate resilience, spurs local economic growth (United Nations Philippines)
“When clean energy financing is intentionally designed to reach women-led small businesses, it can unlock a powerful pathway toward climate resilience, economic security and local development.”
General WPS
"In the Phalombe and Machinga districts in southern Malawi, women peacebuilders are bringing people together in a different way. They are working alongside traditional leaders and community members to challenge harmful practices - from child marriage to gender-based violence and land disputes, all of which put women and girls at risk of serious harm and limit opportunity.”
International Day of Women in Diplomacy (United Nations)
"Across diplomatic missions, multilateral institutions, and international negotiations, women continue to make invaluable contributions to dialogue, consensus-building, conflict resolution, and international cooperation. Their leadership helps bridge national priorities and global challenges, advancing solutions that promote human rights, security, and shared prosperity.”
Why Women Make Diplomacy More Effective (Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security)
"Having more women in peace talks is proven to make diplomacy more effective and lasting. The world needs diplomats - women and men - who have the strategic empathy to save the world from the horrors of war and stand as a barrier between crisis and catastrophe.”
Women, Peace, and Security at 25: Peacebuilding as a Strategic Capability (Observer Research Foundation)
"Over the past 25 years, WPS actors have cultivated capabilities in community mediation, identifying early signs of violence, building trust, strengthening local institutions, facilitating reintegration, and gathering information that is often unavailable to formal security organizations.”
How Women Build Peace in Somalia, and What We Can Learn from Their Experiences (Berghof Foundation)
“From football pitches to peace marches, mediation tables to acts of maternal defiance, Somali women are not waiting for permission to lead. They are already doing the work, weaving the social fabric back together, thread by resilient thread and demonstrating that peace is not only negotiated at the official table but built every day in communities.”
Upcoming and Past Notable Events
September 23-24, 2026 – Strengthening Policy Coherence on Women, Peace and Security and Climate Change in the Arab Region (Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in Cairo, Egypt)
The Union for the Mediterranean in partnership with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme, will organize the 2nd regional workshop of its Climate, Women, Peace and Security Network.
Click for more
October 8, 2026 – The Challenges Annual Forum (CAF26) (United Nations Headquarters in New York)
Hosted by the Permanent Missions of Sweden and Denmark, the Forum will convene Member States, UN leaders, partners, and experts under the theme “Turning the Tide: Building Momentum for Peace Operations in a Demanding World.”
Click for more
July 7–15, 2026 – High-Level Political Forum 2026 (Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) — United Nations Headquarters in New York)
Under the 2026 High-Level Political Forum’s (HLPF) theme of advancing “Transformative, equitable, innovative, and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for a sustainable future for all”, UN Women is championing gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls as indispensable drivers of progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Click for more
June 23-24, 2026 – Papua New Guinea’s first National Women, Peace and Security Summit (UN Women Asia & the Pacific)
Convened by the Department for Community Development and Religion (DFCDR), through the Office for the Development of Women, the Autonomous Bougainville Government Department of Community Development, the National Council of Women and UN Women, the Summit provided a national platform to recognise the contribution of the women of Papua New Guinea in peacebuilding, community resilience and inclusive development.
Read the press release
June 17, 2026 – Open debate on women, peace and security (UN Security Council)
More than two decades after the adoption of landmark resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security, UN officials, Member States and civil society representatives alike warned the Security Council that women remain sidelined from peace processes despite decades of evidence that their participation makes peace more durable.
Watch here