The Women, Peace & Governance Unit (WPG) was created by UNIFEM Afghanistan to solidify gains made by Afghan women in claiming a space as decision-makers and political actors of change. This change is essential for sustainable democratization, founded on human rights and gender equality.
GoalS
The goal of the WPG unit is to facilitate opportunities for Afghan women to increasingly mobilize as political actors of change.
As actors of change, Afghan women bring the centrality of women's human rights to the establishment of long-term peace with justice in Afghanistan.
Through organized mobilization, Afghan women will demand accountability by state and non-state actors in the implementation of gender equality commitments, including provisions of women’s full and meaningful participation in peace and governance processes at the sub-national, national, regional and global levels.
strategies
In the effort to introduce gender equality as a central component to good governance — including peace, reconciliation and security sector reform in Afghanistan's post-conflict setting — UNIFEM Afghanistan is...
- supporting efforts of women in legislative and policy reform that safeguards women's and girls' human, social and political rights,
- facilitating the coordination of a broad based advocacy network for women's full participation in peace and development deliberations and
- opening opportunities for women's voices to be heard and perspectives accounted for in high-level deliberations around peace, reconciliation and statebuilding.
Resource Centre for Women in Politics
In creating space for women in politics to meet, network and access resources, the Women, Peace & Governance Unit administers the Kabul based Resource Centre for Women in Politics.
The Center is dedicated to providing the women political leaders of Afghanistan access to vital tools, dynamic trainings, and networking opportunities. The center features a library, a computer room, a policy research unit, and professional meeting spaces for both large and small gatherings.
Workshops for policy review on pending legislation and support for coordinated advocacy are only some of the many activities that take place at the center. Designed as a supportive space for women political actors, the Resource Center provides an ideal environment for women leaders to learn from one another, debate important issues, and work together productively to enhance the status of Afghan women in all sectors and from all walks of life. View the brochure [PDF]
The Role of Peacebuilding
To meaningfully and inextricably braid women’s roles into peace and governance in Afghanistan, the WPG unit uses peacebuilding as its strategic framework.
Peacebuilding: a transformative process to establish a durable peace by addressing the root causes of conflict.
Peacebuilding is comprised of a wide range of activities including:
- the reconciliation of human relationships,
- institution building and
- promoting inclusive and equitable social, political and economic systems.
By definition, it is concerned with advocacy around reform of physical and structural violence and the elimination of discrimination in all forms.
Its aim is not simply to reconstruct societies to their pre-conflict status, but to transform societies to prevent future conflict erupting from inequitable and violent structures or institutions.
Peacebuilding in Afghanistan
With a focus on women political actors at national, subnational and local levels, capacity building and advocacy strategies necessary to promote women into decision-making roles are central components of the WPG unit.
The unit works to leverage strategic opportunities within the legislative process, the national and provincial elections and the submission of the initial CEDAW report as a means to engage women and to hold government and its processes accountable for gender equality commitments.
By facilitating women’s grassroots peace work and linking them to formal governance structures, the unit encourages a unified framework for action in deploying a common vision of peace with justice in Afghanistan, owned and driven by Afghan women themselves.
UNIFEM