Outcome AFG_D_4.1

An enabling environment for the implementation of WPS commitments is fostered.

On Women Peace and Security, the year 2021 was anticipated to take national peace process to its final phase and advancing sustainable and inclusive peace for Afghanistan. Yet with the US President Biden’s announcement of the US troops and coalition forces drawdown in April by September 11, 2021, peace process that had stalemated over the spring was quickly jeopardized. In Afghanistan the deteriorating security situation that culminated to the Taliban takeover of the country on August 15, 2021 meant that the role of women peacebuilders at local and national levels vanished quickly and is still to take shape of. UN Women ACO contributed significantly to amplify peace enablers that sustained conditions for environment to safeguard and women’s participation in peace and security priority setting and had its last meeting with women leaders and peacebuilders only two days before the collapse of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA). At the broader level, ACO leveraged the political opportunities throughout the winter, spring and even during the summer when Afghan women peacebuilders on all tracks (I, II and III) needed the support most. The intra-Afghan peace talks between the GIRoA and the Taliban include four women negotiators on the GIRoA negotiating team of 24 members. The presence of women leaders in Track 1 , and ensuring their linkages with women peacebuilders and networks at provinces an grassroots level (Tracks II, III) remained high in the visibility and the political landscape domestically and globally. Four women negotiators managed to include challenging agenda points on the gains on women’s rights and leadership in peace and security in the agenda of negotiations in Doha as well as keep the achievements hig among the international community’s advocacy and lobby. ACO’s strategic partnerships with the State Minister for Peace (SMP) and Hight Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) that solidified policies, mechanisms and enhanced process ensured women’s participation in peacebuilding priorities remained central. Other partnerships with the WPS line-ministries included partnerships with the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoIA) to strengthen efforts on enabling and safe working conditions for women serving within the Afghan National Police (ANP), progressing of NAP Phase II (2019-22) with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), through inter-ministerial engagement (MoWA, MoIA and MoFA). These results were complemented by partnerships with women networks, CSO and thinks tanks to produce thematic tools, analytical briefs and data driven innovative platforms to inform a multitrack peace process that enabled grassroot /provincial women voices to directly inform formal decision-making spaces in Kabul, and the Track 1 peace talks in Doha. The revolutionary hackathon #peacethreads campaign, Policy Space Dialogues (after collapse of the GIRoA), Initiation of establishing the young women transformative gross-generational peacebuilding network, developments of the digital platforms of code4peace and “Bishnaw” Women Peace Circle with monthly fact-based peace briefs, “Sustaining Peace briefs” that were developed together with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Hard Talk series (bringing together national WPS experts and international community) are the flagships of ACO’s support for Afghan women’s peace movement before and after the Taliban takeover. Year 2021 highlights also finalization of the Gender Sensitive Conflict Analyses that UN Women (mandated by the UNSG) together with UNAMA worked through. Other knowledge products of 2021 include “Status of women in the ANP” research paper.Inclusivity Strategy was drafted together with UNAMA, and additionally ACO was an active member of Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) sub-working group under the UNCT peace committee umbrella, and brought much needed gender lenses to YPS approach. UN Women continued direct engagements with the women negotiators in the ongoing peace talks, with regular analysis, information and facilitating their communication with the wider Afghan and international communities through strategic platforms and virtual dialogues. UN Women continued to optimise its convening roles to support and enable compliance to normative frameworks though the WPS Working Group where UN Women is the permanent secretariate, the co-chair of the Gender and Human Rights Working Group within the MoIA; and contributing significantly to Security Council discussion. To strengthen coordination across the UN on WPS, UN Women ACO convened regular coordination with UNAMA, provided strategic and technical support to the EC/DC meetings on Afghanistan. UN Women led an Afghan women delegation to attend WPS Open Debate in NY only two months after collapse of the GIRoA. These multiple strategic approaches contributed significantly to ensuring that Afghan women’s rights and leadership remains at the centre of political, strategic and technical prioritisation at international and national levels. After August 15, UN Women has worked in establishing platforms and finding confidential communication channels to provide space for Afghan women’s movement in the country and in diaspora. Immediately after the Taliban takeover of the country and final collapse of the peace process, ACO shifted its focus to lifesaving protection mechanisms for WHRDs by supporting relocations of the most endanger women and providing them with a safe space. UN Women, together with UNAMA, established a comprehensive database of WHRDs and advocated at the member state level for WHRDs safe exit from the country. On Humanitarian space, since May 2021, Afghanistan has been operating in a complex emergency scenario resulting from dramatic consequences of COVID 19, and the exacerbated tensions and territorial power shifts. While all population groups across the country have been drastically impacted by this change, the consequences for women and girls have been most significant due to the marginalization they already face in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban takeover on 15th August 2021 and the subsequent full international troop withdrawal, the situation in Afghanistan has been marked by escalating gender inequality and the need for humanitarian intervention more broadly. Restrictions across the country are also preventing women from participating in humanitarian interventions. A large number of women-led CSOs and women workers are reporting that they can no longer provide life- saving protection support. This is because of recent announcements by the de facto authorities, as well self- censoring by women out of fear and insecurity and increasing family-imposed restrictions on women and girls due to fear of peer policing. In 2021, ACO leveraged its influence to strengthen accountability and capacity towards gender in humanitarian action in the humanitarian response in Afghanistan by ensuring gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is central to the 2022 Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan, Humanitarian Needs Overview and the HCT Interim Protection Strategy in line wit

An enabling environment for the implementation of WPS commitments is fostered.

UN Women Afghanistan created an enabling environment for WPS by facilitating spaces for Afghan women to influence international decision-making on Afghanistan; as well as making gender analysis of themes related to peace and security available to support gender sensitive interventions and decision-making.