2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). UNSCR 1325 and the nine subsequent resolutions constituting the WPS agenda recognise the important global contributions of women and girls to peace and call for their increased active inclusion in all aspects of peace processes. Despite meaningful progress towards the practical implementation of the WPS agenda globally, peacebuilding efforts by women remain hampered by a number of challenges, including the lack of specialised knowledge, skills and tools that can support the work of female mediators and negotiators at the grassroots. While many young female leaders are eager to take on a more active role in mediation and peacebuilding processes in their communities, they often encounter substantial technical, gender-specific, and institutional challenges that significantly limit their contributions to global peace.
UNITAR is developing a digital solution which targets young women mediators on the African continent to support them when and where capacity-building and development is most needed. A key objective of this project is to elevate the critically important work that a lot of young women and girls are doing in their communities to build and sustain peace.
The project adopts a human-centred and innovative design methodology, which priorities the needs of users in developing digital solutions, while also working collaboratively with youth mediation and peacebuilding networks across the African continent. The project’s goal is to identify needs and inspire innovative ideas to create digital solutions. Important phases of the project include:
- A needs assessment followed by a prioritisation exercise;
- Design thinking workshops;
- Technical development of the digital solution for young women.
Read more about the workshops and some prototypes developed by our participants in the recent newsletter article.
For more information related to our activities in the area of women’s empowerment, please contact the Youth and Women’s Empowerment team at ptp@unitar.org.