Overview Document: Women, Peace and Security Financing
Investing trillions in arms and only pennies for peace leads to violence and war. If the international community wants peace, it needs to invest more in gender equality and social justice policies and movements instead.
That’s why it’s time to #MoveTheMoney from funding economies of war to economies of gender justice and peace!
This brief overview provides an introduction to the Women, Peace and Security Financing project launched in September 2016 - and shows why it’s time to #MoveTheMoney!
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Why #MoveTheMoney?
In 2015, there was a global military spend of about $1.6 trillion. Meanwhile, funding of gender equality and women’s empowerment remains drastically underfunded: Only 2 per cent of aid to peace and security for fragile states in 2012-2013 targeted gender equality, and less than half of countries integrate gender into national budgets.
Investing trillions in arms and only pennies for peace leads to violence and war. If the international community wants peace, it needs to invest more in gender equality and social justice policies and movements instead.
That’s why it’s time to #MoveTheMoney from funding economies of war to economies of gender justice and peace!
Key messages
● You Get What You Pay For: Investing trillions in arms and pennies for peace leads to violence and war
● Guns don’t promote security; gender equality does
● Move the Money: Invest in gender equality and feminist movement-building for peace
Our demands: what do we want?
● WILPF’s goal with the #MoveTheMoney hashtag and WPS Financing Project is to stimulate discussion, advocacy and action among civil society, and to push the UN, member states, and international financial institutions to:
○ 1) recognise how funding priorities either strengthen or undermine gender equality and peace, and
○ 2) shift their funding focus from economies of war to economies of gender justice and peace
● More specifically, we call for the international community to:
○ Invest in gender-responsive budgeting
○ Fully finance UNSCR 1325 National Action Plans with clear budgets
○ Reduce and ensure transparency and accountability in military budgets
○ Invest in civil society-inclusive UN funds such as the Global Acceleration Instrument (GAI)
What does the Interactive Toolkit on Financing Women, Peace and Security include?
WILPF/PeaceWomen launched an Interactive Toolkit on Women, Peace and Security Financing in September 2016. This toolkit, which is available at www.peacewomen.org/wps-financing, contains a number of concrete tools that can be used to strengthen WPS financing for more effective implementation and accountability:
● A motion graphics “explainer” video;
● Key messaging including factsheets and case studies to #MoveTheMoney
○ Does militarism lead to violence?
○ Does gender equality lead to peace?
○ Does feminist movement building reduce violence against women?
● A report on the outcomes of the Women, Peace and Security Workshop hosted by WILPF/PeaceWomen in July 2016;
● A guide to gaining media exposure for Women, Peace and Security projects and organisations;
● A social media how-to guide;
● Social media graphics to help spread the #MoveTheMoney message; and
● A visual “slider” comparing military spending to peaceful alternative spends (available at www.peacewomen.org/wps-financing)
● Also relevant: graphic updates to the World Map Country Profiles (available at http://peacewomen.org/countries_and_regions/all), visually demonstrating the military spend of each country versus more peaceful alternatives.
Read more about WILPF’s new project highlighting the need to #MoveTheMoney: www.peacewomen.org/WPS-Financing
The Women, Peace and Security Financing toolkit was made possible with the support of the Global Acceleration Instrument, a UN pooled funding mechanism.