Together with the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the WPS-HA Compact will be hosting its first regional meeting aimed at advancing action on the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The two-day conference “Promoting Peaceful and Inclusive Societies in Asia and the Pacific: Experiences in Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda” will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 9-10 August 2023 and will bring together over 120 participants from the region and beyond.
Over three days, participants will share learnings and discuss what’s needed to close the critical gaps that remain between ambitions expressed in international commitments — including UN Security Council Resolution 1325 — and the political and financial support for WPS efforts across Asia and the Pacific. Sessions will also explore how the nature of conflict and its drivers have shifted in the region, as well as the gender dimensions of non-traditional security risks such as climate change, cybersecurity, and violent extremism — all of which will require innovative responses and solutions.
Taking place ahead of the midpoint Generation Equality Accountability Moment to be held in September, the conference will gather high-level government representatives, civil society organizations, and Compact signatories from Asia and the Pacific and other regions to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration. Participants will be invited to share lessons learned and discuss how objectives, strategies, and partnerships can best support the development and implementation of national action plans on WPS that support localization, intersectionality and inter-generational approaches.
The conference will employ the overarching framework of the WPS-HA Compact as a tool to catalyze regional efforts on NAPs and highlight how the Compact framework and its monitoring process can help signatories track progress and improve accountability. The conference will seek to expand the reach of the Compact in the Asia and the Pacific region and to connect directly with attending signatories to gather insights on how to advance efforts to localize the Compact.
Discussions and key takeaways from the event will be collated into an Asia-Pacific Regional Policy Guidance on the Development and Implementation of NAP-WPS, while laying the foundation for a multi-stakeholder network of WPS champions and WPS-HA Compact signatories in the region.
The conference is organized with the generous support of the Governments of Australia and Norway.
- WHEN: 9-10 August 2023
- WHERE: Bangkok, Thailand
- SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow @unwomenasia and @WPSHAcompact on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and the hashtag #WPS4AP