Gender and SSR Toolkit: National Security Policy-Making and Gender: Tool 8

As part of the Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit, this tool provides an introduction to the benefits and opportunities of integrating gender issues into national-level security policy making.1 As strategic documents, security policies are critically important in establishing a coordinated response to security threats, and can serve as a platform for security sector reform (SSR) processes. This includes national security policies (NSPs) as well as sector-specific policies, such as a white paper on defence. Ensuring that gender issues are integrated into security policies may increase participation and local ownership, and create policies and institutions that are more likely to effectively and sustainably provide security and justice to men, women, girls and boys on an equitable basis.

This tool is designed to be a resource for staff responsible for initiating security policy-making processes within the executive branch of government, including those responsible for drafting, implementing and evaluating security policies. In addition, the tool may be useful to a variety of other actors involved in security policy-making processes, including parliamentarians and parliamentary staffers, ministerial staff, civil society organisations, municipallevel government, international and regional organisations, and donor countries supporting the development of security policies.

See the attached document for the full Tool.