QUEZON CITY, (PIA) --In an bid to push forward the country’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda in the Philippines, the Women Engaged in Action on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (WEAct 1325) turned over the Participatory Engagement in Assessing, Crafting and Expanding the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (PEACE NAPWPS) Agenda to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) on Thursday, March 30.

The reports were received by Executive Director Susana Guadalupe H. Marcaida of OPAPRU’s Office of the Executive Director for Local Conflict Transformation; and Director Leila A. Halud of the Social Healing and Peacebuilding Office.

The crafting of the PEACE NAPWPS Agenda was spearheaded by WEAct 1325, and supported by the Gaston Z. Ortigas (GZO) Peace Institute, Oxfam Pilipinas and the Australian Embassy in the Philippines in which the OPAPRU serves as chair of the National Steering Committee on WPS (NSCWPS).

WEAct 1325 is a network of CSOs, faith-based organizations, sectoral and community-based organizations, non-government organizations, and academic institutions working on peace, human rights and gender equality-related issues. It has 38 member-organizations nationwide.

The PEACE NAPWPS Agenda aims to strengthen the participation of CSOs, women’s rights organizations (WROs), women, youth, indigenous peoples (IP), and persons with disabilities (PWD) groups.

It was formulated through a series of regional assessments and agenda-building workshops held throughout the country.

Last March 23, 2023, WEAct 1325, GZO, and Oxfam Pilipinas, through the support of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, launched the results of the national consultation on the CSO Agenda on WPS at the Bayleaf Hotel, Intramuro, Manila.

Among the reports that were turned over to OPAPRU included lessons and recommendations drawn from the assessments made by CSOs, WROs and women, youth, IP and PWD groups on their engagements with the previous NAPWPS; the agenda of CSOs, WROs and women, youth, IP and PWD groups that that were integrated into the assessment and recommendations made into the new NAPWPS; and CSOs, WROs, women, youth, IP and PWD groups in conflict-affected and conflict-vulnerable areas, in collaboration with the NSCWPS, that will have a strengthened monitoring and evaluation capacity in light of the implementation of the new NAPWPS.

The WEAct 1325 is proposed as one of the CSO representation that would comprise the Technical Working Group (TWG) that would draft the NAPWPS 2023-2033 which will be led by the OPAPRU. (opapru/pia-ncr)