Gender mainstreaming
Engaging women in the negotiations, although challenging, was and continues to be, a priority in the peace process and in its supporting institutions. To ensure a gender-sensitive approach, the Peace Process is guided by relevant national and international frameworks that cover women, peace and security interventions, such as the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, adopted unanimously in 2000, and the National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security (2018-2022) which is aligned with the objectives of the Southern African Development Community Regional Strategy on Women, Peace and Security (2018-2022).
The UN Secretary General’s commitment and strategy to achieving gender parity across the UN system considers that parity at any level is reached when the gender distribution is between 47 and 53 percent for that level, within the entity. Currently, within the PPS (Peace Process Secretariat), headed by the UN PESG for Mozambique, 48% of staff are women, with 71% female representation on the senior management team.
Out of the 5,221 ex-combatants that will go through the DDR process, 257 are women. PPS has developed a Gender Analysis tool to inform the development of activities in the operationalisation phase of the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) process which is helping to ensure that the peace process is not gender blind and that the NAP on Women, Peace and Security (2018-2022) is considered and valued. It is crucial that the current DDR process is gender sensitive, and that preventive and mitigation measures are adequately taken.