The Third Annual Civil Society Dialogue on Women, Peace and Security (Dialogue) was hosted on Thursday October 22nd by the National Committee for UN Women, the Australian Council for International Development (DFAT), the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the ANU Gender Institute.
This year, the Dialogue bought together more than 100 participants from across government, civil society and academia to reflect on the impacts of the women, peace and security agenda as well as the progress of Australia’s National Action Plan (NAP). The Dialogue focused on country-specific panels discussing the implications of the women, peace and security movement and Australia’s NAP in Myanmar and Solomon Islands. The Dialogue also included a session featuring male leaders from Defence, Academia and Civil Society discussing what it means to be a male leader working on women, peace and security and a reflection on individual actions that can be taken to further the agenda.
Small group discussions were held at the Dialogue to capture anecdotal evidence from both government and civil society on the successes and challenges they face while operationalising the National Action Plan and other women, peace and security initiatives. Following the Dialogue, all civil society participants, as well as members of the civil society coalition on women, peace and security have been invited to complete a submission. This submission will form the basis of the Civil Society Report Card released following the event.
The 2015 Dialogue saw the highest number of government representatives attend, with 10 or more representatives from both DFAT and the ADF. Other departments who were represented included PM&C, Veteran’s Affairs, the AFP, ACMC and the Office for Women.
Sessions from throughout the day were recorded and are available via podcast
Photos from the day can be found on Flickr
