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11-Point Civil Society Women, Peace and Security Agenda

In 2007, a civil society-initiated consultation process, through a Preparatory Committee that included the government, particularly the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace process (OPAPP), now Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) and the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), now Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) as well as CSOs, was undertaken to formulate a national action plan on women, peace and security, in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (1325. 1820, 1888, 1889 and the like). The output document was adopted by the government in March 2010, which resulted in the first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAPWPS) in Asia.

With the NAPWPS in place, the civil society organizations (CSOs) that participated in the consultation process banded together to form Women Engaged in Action on UNSCR 1325 (WE Act 1325), a national network of peace, human rights, and women organizations to continue to coordinate with government on implementation of the NAPWPS.

WEAct 1325, both individual members and as a network, took on various initiatives through the three (3) generations of NAPWPS under different Presidential administrations. The network was also involved in advocacy on the first Regional Action Plan on WPS (RAPWPS) under the newly established Bangsamoro government.

The crafting of a new NAPWPS under the current administration has provided an opportunity for CSOs to regroup and develop a common agenda on women, peace and security; and present it to the National Steering Committee on Women, Peace and Security (NSC WPS) for possible adoption by government.

WEAct 1325 in partnership Oxfam Pilipinas through the Participatory Engagement in Assessing, Crafting and Expanding the NAPWPS (PEACE-NAPWPS) supported by the Australian Government, initiated a consultation process that involved 23 community- level FGDs, 5 area agenda building consultations and a national conference. A total of 114 groups participated, including 36 CSOs, 35 WROs, 17 youth groups, 11 indigenous peoples groups and 15 persons with disability organizations. A total of 16 regions out of the 17 regions in the Philippines was reached through completed participatory assessment of the 2017-2022 NAPWPS and CSO-WPS agenda-building consultations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The CSO agenda envisages that any action points identified in the NAPWPS will only serve to strengthen the protection and prevention mechanisms for vulnerable groups during armed conflict, improve monitoring, evaluation, and social accountability, and that the inclusive nature of the process for the development of the new plan will not be overlooked.