IFOR Women Peacemakers Program Asian Consultation 2011

Greetings of Peace to you!

The IFOR - WPP Asian consultation was held in the Philippines recently and I was blessed to have been invited for this event. I was truly honored to be in the midst of some amazing Brothers and Sisters of Peace. I am in admiration of their work, commitment, passion and dedication for social activism. My gratitude to the IFOR - WPP team for this opportunity. Here is a brief of what IFOR - WPP is all about:

The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) believes that without peace, development is impossible, and without women, neither peace nor development can take place. Given that women and girls begin from a disadvantaged position, women's empowerment is a key step towards gender equality in peacebuilding. While there has been progress towards women’s empowerment, much work still remains.

IFOR's Women Peacemakers Program (IFOR/WPP) has been established in 1997 to support and empower women peace activists. We actively advocate for the recognition of women’s experiences of war and conflict and the integration of a gender perspective in peacebuilding processes.

Mission Statement and Objectives

IFOR/WPP’s mission is to support the empowerment of gender-sensitive women and men for the transformation of conflict through active nonviolence.

This is done through the following core activities:
- Providing gender-sensitive nonviolence education and training;
- Networking and regional and global capacity building
- Gender mainstreaming the peace movement

WPP’s work includes lobby and advocacy for the implementation of important UN Security Council Resolutions in the field of women, peace and security (WPS); UNSCR 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960. The WPP believes the women, peace and security agenda needs to be debated and analyzed with a critical lens. This involves looking at gender beyond a narrow focus on women in order to understand and address its relational aspects, which necessitates further exploration of the masculinities perspective. It also requires asking critical questions about the link between gender and militarism, and advocating for a security concept from a feminist perspective.

The upcoming years, the WPP focus will also include a focus on the constructive role faith-based peacebuilding can play in countering religious fundamentalism and armed conflict, and the need for a gender perspective in this as well.