The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace, and security, was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on 31 October 2000, after recalling resolutions 1261, 1265, 1296, and 1314. The resolution acknowledges the disproportionate and unique impact of armed conflict on women and girls. For two days running, the Common Action for Gender Development (COMAGEND), a nongovernmental organization interested in issues around women and adolescent young girls in partnership with Global Network of Women Peacebuilders and support from the US. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues S/GWI, has engaged stakeholders at different levels with three key objectives.
1. To enhance the understanding of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) resolutions and Cameroon National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS among local government authorities, local women activists and leaders, youth activists and leaders, civil society, and marginalized groups in Bamenda II
2. To discuss the relevance of the WPS resolutions and the Cameroon NAP to Bamenda II and identify concrete actions to implement them, and
3. To promote systematic coordination and greater cross-sectoral cooperation among local government authorities, civil society, local leaders, UN entities and multilateral institutions in implementing the WPS resolutions in Bamenda II.
Across different presentations, facilitators as well as participants drawn from women leaders, heads of civil society organisations, local administrative authorities, traditional leaders, religious leaders, and media practitioners, the conversations in the room at different points focused on gender norms, roles and intersections with WPS, reflect on the conflict dynamics in their country and community, identify the key actors in conflict and in peacebuilding, and women’s specific roles, reflections on the issues that affect peace and security for women and girls in local communities and ways to address them, Identification of key issues that undermine peace and human security for women & girls in local communities, amongst others.
Sally Mboumien is the brain behind the
vision at COMAGEND and explains when quizzed on the reason for Bamenda II
subdivision as a choice “Bamenda 2 as we all know is
currently experiencing a 5- or 7-years conflict which has become deadly and
violent. There have been several ethnicity/initiatives that have come to be
able to resolve this which are yet to have results and that's why we believe
that the localization of the Women, Peace and security Agenda will be of great
value to the Bamenda 2 municipality.
Because it is a security policy alternative that valorizes human
security over military security. The localization of the WPS Agenda within
Bamenda 2 municipality is going to serve as an activation of all stakeholders
that is it is a multi-stakeholder approach to peace and security. So activating actors within Bamenda two municipality
will be an added advantage to them because actors will now work in synergy,
they will complement the actions of each other and most importantly they will
find time to sit down and look at Bamenda 2 municipality as a municipality on
it's own or not just grouping it in a general problem of the Anglophone crisis.
Diagnosing the root causes of problems and issues within, the Bamenda 2 municipality, coming up with proposed solutions that are visible to this community which is going to respond to their needs which means come up with a security plan or a peace action which is locally owned, grown and managed by the people within the Bamenda 2 municipality. It is our hope that by the time we localize the WPS Agenda in the Bamenda 2 Municipality, then issues that have been forgotten before, that served as a root cause of of this conflict that stems from home, communities and different social groups and institutions would have been addressed.” Sally furthered that,
commitment is what is expected from every stakeholder. “The local action plan as we define it is an action plan that is based on the strengths and possible impact of local actors which addresses the local realities of the people and wants to solve a problem within that locality. It is believed that with the LAP in Bamenda 2, we will have structures that will now engage like the council, the Bamenda 2 council. We expect it to sit and be the mother of this localization process where they can support even with budgeting, a little quarter of budget from them; it is expected that the church as an institution will leased/work with the local authorities of Bamenda two, it is expected that the traditional rulers with work with them to identify issues peculiar to this. So, we expect these stakeholders some stakeholders will bringing in expertise from the work they have been doing, others will be bringing material and financial resources like the council, the church and other institutions. We believe that with the localization of the WPS, every actor is going to contribute their own quota to be able to address the pressing needs within the community that serve as a root cause of conflict in a way that we will have social cohesion. Remember the localization strategy is a tested strategy that has been tested in many countries and localities over the world and we have seen that with that, people have learned to sit together, talk about their issues, contribute their own resources. Most especially within the context of Bamenda 2, we want to build on the decentralization process following the special status that is coming to be able to make actors be conscious of the local needs of community members especially women and girls which is serving as fuelers and root causes of the various conflicts that we have.” She concluded.
Attesting to their understanding of the conversations that characterized these two days, participants shared their observations.
Paul Kemafru said “The 2 days localization training on Women Peace and Security (WPS) in the Bamenda 2 municipality is timely. As a media professional, it gives me the knowledge, skills and tools on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, taking into consideration the four pillars of participation, prevention, protection, relieve and recovery. So, I will better educate the public on what WPS is about and how everyone can participate towards achieving the goals of WPS in Bamenda 2 municipality and the world at large.”
Ndum Charlotte a Youth Leader/Vice President of the Cameroon National Youth Council for the Northwest Region
says she got to learn so much from the Localisation Workshop as it was so simplified and situated her and every other common person in the conversation. She got to understand her role in a very simplified way and equally the role of Women in a broader conversation when it comes to the Peace and Security discourse. Moving forward she promises to mainstream and amplify the teachings from the workshop in spaces of influence she finds herself in, so that it's Localisation can be realised. She promises to will equally pass on the knowledge learnt.
on his part explains
that “I was amazed by the difference between state security and human security
which is the bedrock of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and
Security at local level. I came out with knowledge that state security is
mostly about military, arms and guns, use of force, while human security which should
be practiced at local level is about protecting fundamental rights, running
businesses freely and having a flourishing livelihood, amongst others. I will
use the knowledge to do stories in my newspaper and in my online news platforms
that will preach the concept of localization of Women, Peace and Security”.
The actors brought together at the end of the workshop signed concrete commitments to transfer their
understanding of the UNSCR1325 from a Global perspective to their Local communities.
