The WPS Agenda requires a complementary approach to foreign and domestic policy

Description

Since the adoption of UNSCR 1325 at the United Nations (UN) in 2000, and its expansion into the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), the UK government has developed its own approach to institutionalising and implementing WPS. In the UK, the WPS agenda is owned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Ministry and Defence (MOD), with the FCO taking the lead on the agenda and with cross-departmental support from the Stabilisation Unit (SU). The primary mechanism to implement the WPS agenda in the UK has been through the development of National Action Plans (NAPs) – with a first iteration published in 2006, and the most recent iteration published in 2018. While these NAPs are predominantly part of the UK’s foreign policy architecture, they are also meant to complement a wider range of government policies, initiatives and strategies on gender equality that straddle both foreign and domestic policy.