PeaceWomen/WILPF is pleased to announce that we have started a UNSCR 1325 National Action Plan (NAP) Initiative. This initiative joins PeaceWomen's website as another tool for information sharing, awareness raising, and advocacy. Like PeaceWomen's Security Council Monitor, Commitments Database, UN Implementation Map and Translation Initiative, the NAP Initiative will provide a unique contribution to the work of governments and civil society actors.

PeaceWomen.org is one of the few resources that contains an accurate and complete library of existing NAPs. This new initiative will transform exiting information into educational and training tools for national and local actors. A user-friendly database allows individuals to search existing NAPs for their priority areas, including policy themes of prevention and disarmament as well as policy implementation practices for budget allocation and civil society involvement.

As a web-based platform, the NAP initiative provides a breakdown of all the SCR 1325 NAPs and revised NAPs, showcasing the many methods available to national stakeholders as they develop new, or evaluate and revise existing action plans. PeaceWomen/WILPF highlights good practices at the national level both in the content of NAPs as well as the process through which the NAPS were developed. A key lesson learned from existing SCR 1325 NAPs is that the process of developing a NAP is as important as the final product. A participatory process between governmental and non-governmental stakeholders is vital for the formulation of an effective and relevant national action plan. The NAP Initiative provides guidance on how civil society organizations (CSO) can influence NAP processes in their development, coordination, monitoring and evaluation by identifying previous instances of CSO involvement and opportunities for further engagement. 

The benefit of such an approach to information sharing lies in its ability to be translated into actionable guidance for government and civil society actors. It can similarly be leveraged by CSO actors to hold their governments accountable to implement laws and stated commitments. Furthermore, analyzing and providing this information raises awareness of the women, peace and security resolutions with the people who can ensure their effective implementation on the ground.

PeaceWomen/WILPF is particularly excited to take on this initiative in the context of WILPF's engagement in the NAP processes of Sweden, Australia, the DRC, and most recently the U.S. WILPF sections and other CSO actors are encouraged to share their experiences and provide feedback over the course of developing this initiative. This initiative ultimately aims to support and strengthen CSO's capacity to engage in NAP processes.