New Guide: Using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to Advance Conflict Prevention and Peace

Today, WILPF publishes a guide for civil society organisations and activists on how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can help us advance our work on feminist peace. 

A WILPF Guide to Leveraging the SDGs for Feminist Peace provides a framework for thinking about the SDGs from a feminist, anti-militarist perspective, and identifies entry points for advocacy on the national, regional, and global levels. It shows how feminist peace activists who work on the prevention of conflicts, advancement of human rights, and dismantling of systemic inequalities and barriers can engage with the SDGs framework.

“The Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda are critical to a future based on sustainability at its heart,” says Zarin Hamid, WPS Programme Manager. “But we cannot talk about sustainability without talking about human rights, the detrimental role of weapons on people and the planet, and women, who are more than half of the people of the world.”

The guide is grounded in years of work by current and former staff of WILPF’s Women, Peace and Security Programme on the issue of sustainable development. WILPF is currently engaged in global advocacy on the SDGs in its role as Global Organising Partner of the Women’s Major Group, and contributed to drafting its feminist position paper for the High-Level Political Forum.

With an eye towards implementation, this new guide shows the importance of rooting SDGs implementation in human rights, and also identifies the numerous challenges within the development space and SDGs framework. It also lays out the links between the SDGs and other frameworks, including the participation and prevention pillars of the Women, Peace and Security agenda.

This year, the world enters the Decade of Action on the SDGs. This timely guide is being published during the annual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (7-16 July 2020), which is currently reviewing the first five years of progress, with another 10 years to go before 2030. This guide shows how activists can use the next ten years to advance our key priorities and build a feminist, peaceful future.

Download a PDF version of A WILPF Guide to Leveraging the SDGs for Feminist Peace.