The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Focal Points Network concluded its Eighth Capital-Level Meeting in Rome, Italy, from 9 to 10 June 2026, with renewed commitments to strengthen implementation and accountability for the WPS agenda amid an increasingly fragmented global security environment.
Hosted by Italy and the Philippines as 2026 Co-Chairs, with UN Women serving as Secretariat, and under the theme “Delivering on WPS: Consolidating Implementation and Accountability in a Fragmented Security Landscape,” the meeting brought together representatives from more than 50 United Nations (UN) Member States and territories, six regional organizations, multilateral organizations, and women human rights defenders, including those from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, Nepal, the Philippines, Sudan, and Ukraine.
Ahead of the Rome meeting, civil society organizations hosted two side events that focused on women’s participation and representation in political and strategic decision-making processes, as well as intergenerational approaches to advancing the WPS agenda.
Coinciding with the Network’s tenth anniversary, members adopted a joint communiqué reaffirming that gender equality, inclusion, and human dignity remain indispensable foundations for sustainable peace, and renewing their commitment to safeguard the normative framework established by UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) while advancing practical implementation at national, regional, and global levels.
Responding to Current Security Challenges
Participants acknowledged that the current international peace and security landscape is increasingly marked by protracted conflicts, geopolitical fragmentation, rising military expenditures, shrinking civic space, backlash against women’s rights, climate change, and rapid technological transformation.
Against this backdrop, members emphasized that safeguarding the WPS normative framework requires sustained political commitment, strengthened multilateral cooperation, and adequate operational and financial support to ensure implementation across global, regional, and national levels.
They further underscored the importance of reinforcing the integration of the foundational pillars of the WPS agenda – prevention, participation, protection, and relief and recovery – into defense and security decision-making, in order to strengthen coherence between WPS commitments and security policy processes.
Advancing Women’s Participation
Recalling concerns raised in the 2025 communiqués about the growing emphasis on transactional deal-making in peace processes, members called on States to reaffirm their commitment to the full, equal, safe, and meaningful participation of women at every stage of peace negotiations and security decision-making, particularly where women continue to be excluded.
The Network emphasized the importance of:
- Supporting Indigenous Peoples’ communities, local women peacebuilders, and women mediators;
- Recognizing community-led and informal peace initiatives;
- Including women in technical negotiations on security sector reform, disarmament, political transitions, and post-conflict recovery;
- Investing in women’s mediation networks as strategic peacebuilding resources.
Strengthening Protection
Members recommended shifting from viewing women solely as vulnerable populations toward survivor-centered approaches that recognize women as leaders and agents of change.
Priority actions include:
- Strengthening accountability for conflict-related sexual violence and gender-based violence;
- Increasing sustainable financing for investigations and judicial processes;
- Protecting women human rights defenders from reprisals;
- Addressing online abuse, hate speech, disinformation, AI-generated abuse, and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence through stronger regulation and accountability.
Responding to Current Security Challenges
The communiqué expressed concern over rising military expenditures alongside declining official development assistance and reduced funding for women-led peacebuilding initiatives.
Members encouraged governments to:
- Increase official development assistance (ODA) and other funding for gender equality and women’s organizations, while ensuring dedicated budget allocations for WPS priorities within defense and security expenditures, including conflict prevention, women’s participation, protection, and peacebuilding initiatives;
- Integrate gender-responsive early warning systems into national security planning;
- Explore the responsible use of artificial intelligence to strengthen prevention efforts; and
- Better integrate disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation initiatives within the WPS agenda.
Gender-Responsive Relief and Recovery
The Network underscored that recovery efforts must place local communities at the centre of reconstruction while embedding gender-responsive budgeting and accountability across humanitarian assistance, reconstruction, and transitional justice.
Members also called for increased humanitarian funding to support:
- Maternal healthcare;
- Medical, psychosocial, legal, and economic assistance for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence;
- Food assistance for vulnerable women and children;
- Continued access to education.
Young Women’s Leadership and Participation
Recognizing the intergenerational nature of the WPS agenda, members emphasized stronger connections with the Youth, Peace and Security agenda.
Recommendations include:
- Expanding opportunities for young women’s participation in peace and security decision-making;
- Integrating gender- and youth-responsive approaches into peace processes, climate, disaster risk reduction, and digital governance policies, among others;
- Encouraging intergenerational leadership and meaningful engagement of young men and boys as partners in advancing gender equality.
Strengthening National Action Plans
Members welcomed the widespread adoption of National Action Plans across the Network while acknowledging implementation gaps.
To strengthen implementation, the communiqué recommends:
- Dedicated financing for implementation;
- Stronger monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems;
- Greater policy coherence across defense, security, foreign policy, climate action, disaster risk reduction, recovery, and development cooperation;
- Exploring a voluntary multi-year peer review mechanism to promote shared learning and exchange of best practices.
Looking Ahead
As the WPS Focal Points Network celebrates its tenth anniversary, members reaffirmed that the WPS agenda should remain firmly anchored within national institutions and multilateral processes, emphasizing that gender equality must remain a core pillar – not a peripheral consideration – of international peace and security.
Since its establishment, the Network has grown from 45 founding members to 110 members, including 100 UN Member States and 10 regional organizations, reflecting sustained global commitment to advancing implementation of the WPS agenda.
The recommendations adopted in Rome will contribute to discussions during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to strengthen global implementation of the WPS agenda while encouraging additional Member States and regional organizations to join the Network.
Read the joint communiqué.
Press Release of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
