Advancing Local Women’s Leadership for Peace and Security in Asia’s Conflict-affected Communities
By Carla Natan, Chair of WPP Asia Network Mother Board
As Chair of the WPP Asia Network, Carla Natan attended a Regional Advocacy Strategy Meeting on advancing women’s leadership, held in Bangkok from 8-9 February 2014. The meeting was a joint initiative of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP) and Women’s Leadership for Peace and Security Program of Cordaid.
Upon invitation of Cordaid, the WPP Global Office in the Netherlands recommended me to participate in the Regional Asian Advocacy Meeting, representing the WPP Asia Network, of which I am currently the Chair. The WPP Global Office and members of the WPP Asia Network were actively involved in the preparation for this meeting, by providing information, materials and background papers. This inclusive preparation process before the meeting was very useful for me.
At the meeting, I also met fellow WPP Network members Ms. Jasmin Nario-Galace from the Philippines and Ms. Bandana Rana of Saathi Nepal. In addition, I met with Mavic Cabrera-Balleza of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), a global network organization based in New York that WPP cooperates with.
The two-day meeting consisted of panel presentation, talk shows, small group discussions and group reports. It contributed to an increased understanding of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) policy context and opportunities in Asia, which was the result of a scoping study on WPS policy in Asia.
Action plans for consolidated efforts for advocacy on WPS in Asia were drafted, including plans to engage in current international policy processes related to women’s rights. These policy processes include the Post 2015 development agenda; the High Level Review of United National Security Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325); the global review process of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration; the Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) review process; and the recent CEDAW General Recommendation No.30, linking CEDAW to UNSCR 1325.
The meeting was able to consolidate key civil society networks and other actors in South and Southeast Asia in order to take advantage of critical opportunities to promote the WPS agenda in 2014-2015. The consolidation process involved active participation and critical discussion regarding the situation of local women leaders and their regional and contextual representation based.
Participants mentioned the need to strengthen WPS work on the local and national level, before being able to engage in all the different international processes. As such, many felt the UN should pay more attention to grassroots organizations and their context; and focus on enabling local women leaders to participate in the UN structures and mechanisms.
On the last day, the participants agreed to create a platform/alliance. The aim is not to create a new network, but rather to build on and maximize the work of existing networks on regional lobby & advocacy. Through the platform, organizations can share information and develop a common WPS agenda. For WPP, I think such a platform is of added value, as it can support WPP’s advocacy efforts for the implementation of UNSCR 1325.
While at the meeting, I noticed that including a masculinities perspective, and engaging men in the WPS agenda is still a new concept in the region. With its extensive experience on including a masculinities perspective in the WPS framework, WPP can be of added value in terms of broadening the constituency for WPS implementation in Asia, and in working for transformative change. I am looking forward to the active role of the WPP Asia Network in the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Asia!
Carla Natan, Chair of WPP Asia Mother Board
Carla Natan was the former Secretary Executive of Urban Community Mission Jakarta, an NGO dealing with factory workers. As such, she was involved in the legal clinic, crisis and day care center for factory workers and actively participating in the international campaign to end the exploitation of factory and migrant workers. During her work with UCM Jakarta, Ms. Natan was involved in conflict resolution and peace building programs to empower people in Aceh and West Papua to be a peacemaker and peace agent. She worked closely with women's groups to ensure that women are part of the peace process and peacebuilding. Carla is currently an independent consultant for the issue of workers, democratization and peace building. She is a lawyer by training and holds a Master in International Human Rights Law.
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