The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is more relevant than ever in humanitarian action, as the sector grapples with funding cuts and the ‘humanitarian reset.’
The WPS agenda promotes women’s participation in conflict-related decision-making; protection from gender-based violence; and crisis response, all while supporting women’s rights and local peace initiatives. The 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325—the resolution that brought about the WPS agenda—comes at a pivotal time for the humanitarian sector. The number of people affected by conflict and requiring humanitarian assistance is increasing, with more state-based conflicts taking place in 2024 than in any other year since World War II. Globally, more than 305 million people need humanitarian assistance. Yet funding to meet these needs is decreasing, especially in the areas of gender equality and protection.
The abrupt withdrawal of humanitarian and development funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in January has thrown the sector into chaos. Meanwhile, other traditional donors are reducing their funding to humanitarian, development and peacebuilding programs while increasing defence spending.
A humanitarian reset is now underway, promising a reimagined and more efficient humanitarian system, though the results remain to be seen. As the sector grapples with these changes, the WPS agenda offers a framework for locally led responses that value the experiences and leadership of women and women-led organisations, address gender inequalities and bridge humanitarian-development-peacebuilding siloes in a way that doesn’t undermine humanitarian principles.
Women and women-led organisations often lead humanitarian and protection efforts at the grassroots level, providing essential services, addressing gaps in formal responses and ensuring the needs of diverse women and girls are met. However, following USAID’s funding cuts, many of these organisations will struggle to keep their doors open: 90 percent of women’s organisations surveyed in 44 crisis-affected countries reported that reductions in foreign aid had hindered their work. More than 60 percent had reduced their services, including emergency health care, gender-based violence services, economic assistance and shelter.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, research by the Humanitarian Advisory Group and UN Women found that women and women’s rights organisations were playing critical roles in Covid-19 response and recovery efforts, yet they were underfunded, underrepresented in humanitarian response decision-making forums, and their knowledge and expertise often went unrecognised. The WPS agenda provides a framework to elevate the leadership of local women-led organisations and networks and draws attention to the importance of crisis response and recovery efforts adopting a gendered lens.
The work of women-led organisations—like other local organisations—often bridges the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding nexus. Donors and the international system frequently divide programming into siloes such as humanitarian, development, peacebuilding and human rights. In contrast, women-led organisations and networks often take intersectional approaches, addressing the needs of diverse women and groups in a holistic way that supports immediate needs and strengthens the foundations for peace.
Research exploring intersectionality in humanitarian responses in Myanmar, for example, has highlighted how women-led networks navigate the intersectional issues of gender, ethnicity, displacement and statelessness to advance protection and peace for diverse communities. For example, a local gender group recognised the multiple vulnerabilities facing ethnic minority Kachin women in camps for those who had been displaced. They incorporated these complex realities in their humanitarian and livelihood programs, improving access to services and protection.
Women-led organisations’ deep understanding of oppression and discrimination is important for promoting peacebuilding and reducing the chances of future violence. Such intersectional approaches offer a way to analyse the social, political and economic drivers of conflict such as those in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Building partnerships with women-led organisations and networks that have expertise in specific social and identity factors can strengthen the integration of intersectional approaches within networks and coordination forums, as well as in humanitarian, peace and development programs and sectors.
However, there are concerns that the humanitarian reset will further marginalise the voices of local communities and responders, especially women. The WPS agenda provides a framework that emphasises women’s leadership and participation in peace-making, supports local women’s peace initiatives and further strengthens gender-sensitive approaches to relief and recovery efforts.
As the humanitarian sector prepares to transform, we need to resist the tendency to centralise and solidify only the role of international actors. Instead, we should look to elevate locally led responses, including the leadership of women-led organisations that prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable and already work in interconnected ways. Instead of being one of the many frameworks and reform priorities that falls to the wayside, there is now a chance to recommit to the WPS agenda as the sector looks to radically shift how humanitarian assistance and protection are delivered.