GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN 2021

The following sections review how the Assembly has incorporated a gender perspective into its reports, resolutions and meeting agendas. They also review other ways in which the Assembly helps raise awareness of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on WPS and supports its goals. A key development in 2021 was the creation of a NATO PA “Women for Peace and Security Award”.

ASSEMBLY REPORTS, RESOLUTIONS AND ACTIVITIES IN 2021

Several Assembly reports and resolutions highlighted the importance of incorporating a gender perspective into key areas of NATO policy and supporting the goals of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Thus, in a report on enhancing the resilience of Allied societies, Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam (France) noted: “It is important to highlight the need for a greater participation of women in national and local authorities in order to incorporate their contributions and needs into resilience-building efforts”. She called on Allied governments to “increase the participation of women and better integrate gender issues in resilience policies."

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Members also urged NATO to integrate gender considerations into its cooperation with partners. In a report on NATO’s science and technology cooperation with Asian partners, Nusrat Ghani (United Kingdom) underscored that “NATO and Asian Partner nations could share best practices on how to promote the participation of women in defence-related research of emerging and disruptive technologies”.

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In a report on the democratic situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Anissa Khedher (France) pointed out that “the high expectations about the inclusion of women in democratisation processes voiced during the Arab uprisings were largely unfulfilled”. “The implementation of the WPS agenda remains limited”, she added.

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In another report on NATO’s role in the MENA region, Sonia Krimi (France) emphasised that NATO-EU “cooperation projects could serve to promote the empowerment of women in their southern neighbourhood”.

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In a resolution on transatlantic cohesion and implementation of the decisions taken at the June 2021 NATO Summit, the Assembly urged Allied governments and parliaments “to continue enhancing and including in their actions the WPS Agenda”. A separate resolution on Afghanistan urged Allies to pressure the Taliban to “guarantee women’s participation in political and civil life”. Gender-related topics were also integrated into Assembly activities. For example, during a visit to the United States, members discussed how best to decisively reduce gender inequality and further advance the WPS agenda with representatives of UN Women and the World Bank. The Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group seminar in Spain in November also included a discussion on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in the Middle East and Africa.

BUILDING GREATER AWARENESS AND SUPPORT FOR THE WPS AGENDA

In 2021, the Assembly took an important step to support the aims and goals of the WPS agenda by creating a “Women for Peace and Security Award”. The purpose of this prize, which is awarded in consultation with the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security, is to honour a woman who has demonstrated, in the context of political, diplomatic, military, associative and/or academic functions, a particular and recognised commitment to:

equal participation of women and men in the field of peace and security

the prevention of conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence and the protection of women in conflict situations

and/or the mainstreaming of women's needs and perspectives into relief and recovery initiatives in post-conflict countries

With this award, the Assembly hopes to fight prejudice and taboos by highlighting the crucial work of women in the political, diplomatic, military, associative and academic fields in favour of peace and security – women, who through their successes, may serve as role models and inspire others. For the first edition of the award, NATO PA delegations submitted six nominations. The prize was awarded to the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, at a ceremony held during the Assembly’s annual session in Lisbon, Portugal, in October 2021. The Assembly can also support the participation of women in defence and security – one objective of the WPS agenda – through the choice of guest speakers it invites to its meetings. Quality is naturally the primary criterion for selecting these experts, but the Assembly has sought to invite more female speakers with equivalent levels of expertise. The data below looks at the male to female ratio of speakers at NATO PA meetings (seminars and sessions) over the past six years. It focuses on independent experts only, as the Assembly has little or no leverage over the choice (and gender) of official speakers. The massive disruption of the Assembly’s programme of work, leading to an 83% drop in independent speakers, makes comparing 2020 to previous years difficult. Nevertheless, the share of women speakers was remarkably high: at 54.5%. In 2021, it remained higher than in pre-pandemic years: one third of independent experts invited at large online and in-person meetings were women.

NUMBER OF FEMALE SPEAKERS

Lastly, the International Secretariat also continued to give more visibility to the work related to gender and security within the dedicated section on its website and across its social media channels, including through a campaign on International Women’s Day. It also published an enhanced, more reader-friendly web version of the 2020 annual review of gender in the NATO PA.

NATO PA GENDER AND SECURITY