Women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution still limited – Ban

The implementation of a call by the United Nations a decade ago to have women play a more prominent role in conflict prevention and resolution remains slow, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, releasing a report that outlines measures intended to expedite the process.

Mr. Ban’s report follows a request by the Security Council last year for a set for indicators to be used by UN Members States and UN entities to measure and track progress towards women’s full participation in matters relating to peace and security.

The indicators proposed in the report, which will be discussed by the Council on Tuesday, are the results of a consultative process by a UN inter-agency task force on women and peace and security.

The report says that making the indicators operational will require a pilot phase to develop a baseline data collection method.

“The involvement of United Nations country teams would be critical,” the Secretary-General writes in his report to the Council. “The period of piloting would vary, depending on the indicator, from two to five years and would engage all stakeholders, including Member States, UN entities, regional institutions and civil society organizations,” he says.

The process of preparing the indicators has created a strong momentum in efforts to ensure women are more involved in peace and security issues, the report says, adding that UN entities had, for example, indicated a readiness to collect and monitor some of the indicators.

The report recommends, among other proposals, that the Council urges the UN system to engage relevant organizations and parties with technical expertise in data collection and analysis to facilitate the process.