Why is the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda so Important?

The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda is a UN framework that promotes women's participation in all aspects of peace and security efforts. It is based on four pillars: participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. Despite significant progress, there are still several challenges to its effective implementation, including a lack of political will, inadequate funding, limited participation of women, insufficient data, and gender-based violence. The WPS agenda is being implemented in various ways around the world, such as women's participation in peace negotiations, women's role in peacekeeping, gender-responsive peacebuilding, protection of women and girls, and the development of National Action Plans. In this episode, Maria Paola Silva dive into a conversation with Maria Luisa Moreira* about the four pillars of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. How does is look today? What is happening in Ukraine? Why is it so necessary?   Listen to the episode and find the answer to many of these questions.   *Maria Luisa Moreira is an Advisor and Programme Manager at PCS, a Lisbon-based think tank, and the Secretary General of WIIS Portugal. She has an MSc in Women, Peace, and Security from the LSE and a BA in International Relations from the University of Essex. Maria Luisa won the first edition of the DGPDN Award in 2021 with an original policy position paper on the implementation of the WPS Agenda in the Portuguese MFA and MoD mandates. In 2022, she was a presenter at the NATO Committee on Gender Perspective Annual Conference and a guest speaker at the NATO Youth Summit. Maria Luisa was previously selected for the OSCE-UNODA Peace and Security Fellowship and has worked at the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security, the Council of the European Union in Brussels, and the British Embassy in Lisbon. Her current research projects address the future of the WPS Agenda within foreign policy and international diplomacy, and she was a guest speaker at the Portuguese Navy's International Women's Day conference in 2023, where she presented perspectives and guidelines for a feminist national defense policy.