Women in Mediation: Inside the March 27 Arria Formula Meeting

By Sarah Tunnell    

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(Visual: Sarah Tunnell/WILPF PeaceWomen)

The Arria Formula Meeting entitled “Increasing the Participation of Women in Global Conflict Prevention and Mediation” was convened on 27 March 2017 by the Permanent Missions of Italy and the United Kingdom. The meeting was framed as an opportunity for Member State and Civil Society representatives to move towards the normative goal of building a robust network of women mediators that will mitigate and overcome persisting gaps in integrating gender perspectives into peace processes.

During the meeting, participants highlighted best practices from the African context, implementation mechanisms such as National Action Plans, and barriers to women’s participation such as inadequate funding and poor coordination. The sole civil society representative to deliver a statement at the meeting, speaking on behalf of the NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security, provided key recommendations otherwise absent from the day’s discussion, regarding resource allocation, localised self-selection and coalition building.

Find WILPF’s analysis of the Arria Formula Meeting here