Statement of the United States, March 28, 2016.

When women actively participate at all levels of political decision-making, we know that we are all safer, that our efforts at peacebuilding are stronger and that around the world Constitutions and peace agreements are more inclusive, just and lasting. But women in Africa continue to face, and to overcome, systemic obstacles to their political participation at all levels of decision-making. In February 2013, for example, 11 countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa signed a peace accord to address decades of violence in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region was a landmark document to be sure. But it was also negotiated and adopted without any women having participated in the negotiations. The technical committees formed to oversee the implementation and the monitoring of the agreement also did not include any women. In March 2013, recognizing the absence of women in the formal process, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region convened consultations with women leaders and civil society groups across the region, seeking to link their community-level effort in building peace to the regional and the national implementation committees. In January 2014, the Great Lakes Women’s Plaform for the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework was launched by the Special Envoy, and it provides grants to women’s organizations already working to implement peace in the region. We applaud the dedicated leadership by the United Nations and the countries of the Great Lakes region for recognizing that women were missing from the table and for taking the steps necessary to change that.