WORKING DRAFT RESEARCH AND POLICY BRIEF: Countering Boko Haram? Incorporate the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

This paper provides an analysis on how to deal with Boko Haram by utilizing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. It particularly serves to remind policy makers, both national and international, of the commitments Nigeria has made to the provisions of the United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolutions that comprise the WPS agenda. It also serves to remind the international community to incorporate this comprehensive political framework within which women's protection and their role in peace processes can be addressed, while countering the immediate and long-term threat of Boko Haram in Nigeria and the neighbouring states. This paper comes at a time when policymakers from Benin, Canada, Cameroon, Chad, France, Niger and Nigeria, as well as representatives of the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States are set to meet again in London on 12 June 2014 to further discuss the security threats in Nigeria and to review their action plan, as a follow-up to their meeting in Paris in May 2014.