5 November 2025

Background 

Twenty-five years after United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the Women, Peace and Security agenda faces existential threats as UN peace operations confront unprecedented reform and financial crisis amidst the worst global rollback on gender equality in decades. Hard-won gains in women's participation, protection from conflictrelated sexual violence, and gender-responsive peacekeeping risk rapid erosion as missions downsize and budgets shrink against a backdrop of waning commitment to gender equality and accountability. Critical questions emerge: will the international community defend these commitments as integral to peace and security and central to mission effectiveness - or allow them to be redefined out of existence? Will protection commitments — particularly hard-won gains in combatting conflict-related sexual violence —be treated as optional or subject to fiscal convenience? Will persistent taboos and stigmas facing women peacekeepers finally be addressed, or will cultural barriers continue undermining operational capacity? 

The credibility of the UN's global leadership depends on demonstrating commitment within its own operations—at precisely the moment when that commitment faces its greatest test. 

Objectives 

• Assess how UN reforms and liquidity crisis have (or will potentially) concretely constrain or deprioritise Women, Peace and Security (WPS) implementation across peace operations and identify corrective measures. 
• Examine threats to the Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) prevention and response mandate. 
• Address cultural barriers facing women peacekeepers.  
• Identify strategies for strengthening participation, prevention, and protection in constrained environments. 

The event

Key issues discussed

The panel examined how UN reform and liquidity crisis threaten WPS implementation in peace operations. Key discussions covered: impacts of Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs - Department of Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO) restructuring on gender programming; resource constraints affecting CRSV prevention in United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA); cultural barriers facing women peacekeepers; and the role of networks like the Military Gender Alliance in advancing WPS commitments. Speakers emphasized the risks of deprioritizing protection mandates during downsizing and budget cuts amid global rollback on gender equality.

What is being done/to do about them

Panellists identified corrective measures, including: strengthening professional networks for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building; documenting operational realities to inform resource allocation; identifying enabling factors for WPS sustainability during institutional transitions; advancing research on meaningful participation of uniformed women; and developing strategies for maintaining participation, prevention, and protection commitments in constrained environments despite fiscal pressures and competing priorities.

What implications emerged for the UNSC and UN HQ

The discussion highlighted the urgent need for UN leadership to demonstrate commitment to WPS within its own operations. Implications include: ensuring protection commitments remain mandatory rather than optional during mission transitions; addressing capability and resource gaps that undermine CRSV mandates; integrating gender perspectives systematically across reform processes; and maintaining accountability for WPS implementation as central to mission effectiveness and UN credibility during unprecedented challenges.