The NAP was developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with representatives from the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, and the Police and Border Guard Board. Although the NAP indicates participation of the civil society organizations in the development process, none of those organizations are specified.

Implementation

Adopting an outward-facing approach, the NAP focuses on implementing its activities internationally (Page 3) in partnerships with relevant international actors and with a focus on priority partner countries of Estonia’s development cooperation and humanitarian aid, including Afghanistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus (Page 6). Government ministries are primarily responsible for the implementation of the NAP, specifically the Ministry of Foregin Affairs and Ministry of Defence. Other offices including the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Education and Research are also tasked with the implementation of different activities in cooperation with the Defense League, Women’s Voluntary Defense Organization, and other NGOs, higher education, and research institutions (Pages 7-15). The role of civil society is mostly emphasized in actions aiming at ensuring women’s human rights and capacity building in conflict and post-conflict areas and at raising awareness on the local level regarding the WPS agenda.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The NAP states that the agencies and NGOs that are responsible for implementing the activities will be requested to submit progress reports due in the second halves of 2023 and 2025 for review by the Government of the Republic (Page 15).

The implementation period of the NAP is 2020-2025.

The NAP has four main objectives: 

1. Cooperation, exchange of information, and promotion of the objectives of Resolution 1325 at the international level;
2. Support for women’s human rights and women’s empowerment in conflict and post conflict areas;
3. Increasing sectoral expertise in the field of women, peace, and security in agencies and raising awareness in Estonia in general;
4. Increasing the representation of women in positions related to ensuring peace and security in Estonia, including opportunities to participate in international military and civilian operations.

The NAP also aims to focus on emerging global trends in relation to the topic of Women, Peace and Security, namely cybersecurity, climate change and Covid-19 recovery. 

The NAP outlines several sets of activities to address its objectives. Each activity has an indicator and identifies the actors that are responsible for implementation. The activities in the NAP aim at ensuring and supporting women’s human rights through gender mainstreaming in collaboration with relevant international actors and civil society organizations and educational institutions; promotion of accountability for the violations of women’s human rights; and capacity building of relevant actors on addressing gender-based violence. 

An indicator is listed for each action set out under the subset of objectives. For example, under the objective of ensuring women’s human rights and women’s empowerment in conflict and post-conflict areas, the indicator for the activity of “In the framework of multilateral development cooperation and humanitarian aid, making voluntary donations to organizations active in the field of women’s human rights and the improvement of the situation of women and girls and the promotion of gender equality in society in general”   is the “Volume of voluntary contributions and their share of total development cooperation and humanitarian aid” (Page 9).

The implementation of the NAP will be tracked and reports will be written to evaluate progress on the activities. The implementing entities are each required to submit two written overviews of their progress on the activities of the NAP. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will develop a report on the implementation of the NAP, based on the submitted reviews, to the Government of the Republic. 

The NAP does not have an allocated budget, although there is reference to funding for organizations in the field of women's human rights.

The Estonian National Action Plan does not address disarmament issues, or connect the proliferation of weapons with women’s insecurity.

Actors - NAP Development

The NAP states that Civil Society was involved in the development of the NAP alongside Government bodies and also have an ongoing role in the implementation body, however, the individual organizations are not acknowledged.

Leading the development of Estonia's NAP was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in co-operation with the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Forces, the Defence League, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Police and Boarder Guard Board and civil society representatives.

The NAP is implemented by the Ministry of Education and Research (MER), the Ministry of Defence (MD), the Ministry of the Interior (MI), the Ministry of Social Affairs (MSA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Defence League (DL), and the Naiskodukaitse (Women`s Voluntary Defence Organization; NKK) in co-operation with civil society organisations, institutions of higher education and research institutions.

Actors - NAP Monitoring and Evaluation

Civil society organisations are involved with monitoring the implementation of the NAP alongside government agencies. The implementing institutions submit a written overview of all implementation activities twice during the period of the NAP (2015-2019). The overview creates the basis for the implementation reports, which are prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and submitted to the Government of the Republic for information.

The Estonian NAP will be implemented by the Ministry of Education and Research (MER), the Ministry of Defence (MD), the Ministry of the Interior (MI), the Ministry of Social Affairs (MSA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Defence League (DL), and the Naiskodukaitse (Women`s Voluntary Defence Organization; NKK) in cooperation with civil society organisations. The implementing actors present a written overview of all implementation activities twice during the period of the NAP (2015-2019). The overview creates the basis for the implementation reports, which are prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All implementing reports are submitted to the Government of the Republic for information.

 Timeframe

There is no specified timeframe for activities, but the Estonian NAP is for the the period 2015-2019, with progress reports issued twice during the implementation period.

Objectives

The Estonian NAP outlines a set of objectives and principles for compiling the action plan

Objectives:

• To improve the situation of women in conflict areas as well as post-conflict areas, focusing on education and empowerment of women and by that establishing greater opportunities for the involvement of women in peace processes in their own community.

• To raise awareness of the impact of conflicts on women as well as of women’s role in ensuring peace and security; and the participation of women in conflict resolution and decision-making processes. Measures to increase awareness are taken both internally and abroad, both on diplomatic as well as grassroots level.

• To enhance co-operation and information exchange on national and international level.

Principles:

• To continue the activities initiated with the previous action plan as the relevant processes are of long-term nature

• To focus on areas in which Estonia will be able to implement the objectives of resolution 1325 using the existing means

• To phrase the activities in a more general manner so to enable competent authorities to carry out specific actions while taking into account requirements specific to their field, considering budget and other related documents.

Actions/Activities

The Estonian NAP includes five subject-specific groups of planned measures corresponding with the objectives and priorities for implementing the NAP.

• Supporting and ensuring human rights of women and empowerment of women in conflict areas and post-conflict areas

• Cooperation, information exchange and raising awareness at the international level

• Raising awareness at the national level

• Participation of women in positions related to peace and security in Estonia

• Enhancement of cooperation and information exchange in Estonia.

Each of the planned measures has a set of indicators and agency responsible for implementation.

Indicators

Estonia's NAP includes indicators for every planned measure in implementing the objectives of the NAP.

For example, the measure stating ‘Ensuring that gender perspective is considered and taken into account when planning and implementing development cooperation projects” has the following indicator “Carrying out development co-operation projects that have an impact on the situation of women and children; project descriptions”. The corresponding responsible actor is listed as the  Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with civil society organisations.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The second Estonian National Action Plan is implemented by the Ministry of Education and Research (MER), the Ministry of Defence (MD), the Ministry of the Interior (MI), the Ministry of Social Affairs (MSA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Defence League (DL), and the Naiskodukaitse (Women's Voluntary Defence Organization; NKK) in cooperation with civil society organisations.

The implementing actors submit a written overview of all activities twice during the period of the NAP (2015-2019) which creates the basis for implementation reports. They are prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and are submitted to the Government of the Republic for information.

The revised NAP notes that “the competent institutions will continuously exchange information related to implementation of resolution 1325 and will engage in comprehensive co-operation to achieve the objectives of the action plan”. The NAP can be revised during the period, if considered necessary by the implementation actors. They take into account measures taken by the EU, NATO and the UN in implementing resolution 1325, Estonia’s foreign policy objectives, and other circumstances.

Budget

The revised Estonian National Action Plan does not include an allocated or estimated budget, and instead states that “planned measures will be carried out within the existing budgetary means”.

No indicators or actions are included that formulate strategies for fundraising, detail what level of funding is required for which specific activities, or what accountability mechanisms will ensure funding is raised and used in implementing the NAP.

Disarmament 

The National Action Plan does not address disarmament issues, or connect the proliferation of weapons with women's insecurity.