STATEMENT BY MARTHA AMA AKYAA POBEE, SPECIAL REREPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
SECURITY COUNCIL BRIEFING ON MONUSCO & MINUSMA
New York
07 AUGUST 2024
I am most grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important debate, and I join my colleague, the Executive Director of UN-Women, in expressing my appreciation to Sierra Leone for bringing this issue to the fore.
Consolidating peace dividends and gains is one of the fundamental concerns and objectives during the transitions and drawdowns of peace operations. A key area where gains must be preserved is that of women and peace and security, in line with our shared commitments under resolution 1325 (2000). Indeed, as indicated by the Executive Director, peace operations have become instrumental in facilitating and promoting women’s leadership and agency, ensuring women’s meaningful participation in political and peace processes, and protecting women and girls from human rights abuses and violations.
Missions’ transitions present challenges but also opportunities for stakeholders to consolidate gains in those critical areas and to sustain peace. Since 2014, the United Nations has managed at least 10 transitions in politically and operationally complex settings. In the past few years, United Nations peace operations have drawn down at an accelerated pace from Mali and the Sudan. A phased disengagement from the Democratic Republic of the Congo is under way. In all those transition settings, the implementation of the women and peace and security agenda has proved to be challenging.
Rushing through a transition process against a background of a tense political climate, persisting security threats and protection concerns, can jeopardize hard-won peace gains, including progress on gender equality. Indeed, national stakeholders could be unprepared to shoulder additional responsibilities, while support from international partners may not be readily available. Unless transitions are well-structured, adequately resourced and gender-responsive, women and girls will be at risk of setbacks. Those could include losing access to essential services, being excluded from new decision-making processes and becoming vulnerable to waves of fresh violence and insecurity, including conflict-related sexual violence. Permit me to share a few examples.
In Mali, prior to the accelerated withdrawal of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), women accounted for 38 per cent of the membership of the Agreement Monitoring Committee. That was transformative and helped to enhance women’s political participation. The drawdown of MINUSMA, however, has negatively impacted peacebuilding programmes focusing on women and girls and on sustaining the gains made in the political sphere.
The recent departures of peace operations from key hotspots in the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to security vacuums, leaving women and girls exposed to attacks by armed actors. Those drawdowns have also diminished the capacity of the United Nations to support stakeholders in addressing conflict-related sexual violence altogether in specific areas, including investigation, reporting and assistance to survivors. That is particularly concerning as the establishment of the monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence is a key request made by the Security Council.
Other challenges relate to limited funding, capacities and capabilities towards the implementation of existing national action plans on 1325 (2000) and which should be a priority throughout the life of the mission, during transitions and post-drawdown.
To achieve more successful transitions, a forward-looking approach rooted on joint planning — involving national authorities, local civil society organizations, the United Nations peace operations and the country team, international partners and Council members — is vital. Establishing a shared vision on women and peace and security can help prioritize United Nations support and direct capacity and resources in the right direction. In that regard, the Peacebuilding Fund can play a crucial role by providing flexible and targeted funding to address gaps and sustain gender equality and women’s empowerment during critical transition periods. For instance, in Liberia, before and since the departure of the United Nations Mission in Liberia in 2018, the Fund has supported increased women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution, strengthened women’s engagement in public spheres and political processes and improved gender mainstreaming in the security and justice sectors.
In Guinea-Bissau, during the transition of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau in 2020, the Government endorsed a common conflict analysis and peacebuilding priorities. They mainstreamed gender equality and promoted the empowerment and effective representation of women in political dialogue and in peacebuilding and development processes.
In the Sudan, during the transition from the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur to the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in the Sudan in 2020 and 2021, a capacity mapping led to a significant enhancement of gender expertise in the mission and the mainstreaming of gender equality priorities in programmatic work.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a multiplicity of measures in 2020 and 2021 have had some impact. Those measures included gender conflict analysis, the integration of gender and women and peace and security in several benchmarks and indicators and joint mission assessments on progress, including the transfer of mission tasks to UN-Women in South Kivu. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) continues to work, in collaboration with the country team, on a new joint justice programme to assist the Democratic Republic of the Congo State institutions in the prevention, investigation, prosecution and adjudication of serious crimes, including conflict-related sexual violence and other crimes. In anticipation of the next phases of the disengagement, MONUSCO is also coordinating with the country team on the continuation of adequate follow-on arrangements on legacy issues, including accountability and victims’ support related to cases of sexual exploitation and abuse.
In all ongoing and upcoming transitions — whether in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq or Somalia, we must act early to ensure our planning, coordination and engagement with partners addresses the full range of women and peace and security work. United Nations peace operations and country teams, national Governments, regional organizations and civil society partners and women networks need to specifically ensure that: first, gender analysis is part of transition processes from inception to completion; and secondly, necessary gender expertise, capacity and resources exist to sustain gains. Furthermore, the Security Council, during its periodic visits to missions, must systematically engage with national authorities and partners on the women and peace and security agenda, particularly in transition contexts.
We must continue to do our utmost to support and enable women and girls to take their rightful place in their communities and to shape in equal measure the destinies of their country