Cameroon’s Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family sent a call for the recruitment of two individual consultants to support the Ministry in developing the United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 National Action Plan (NAP).
Considering the country’s vision, which places peace at the centre of its actions, Cameroon is committed to develop a NAP to promote women’s participation in conflict prevention processes and peace building.
This call for submission was opened on 21 July 2016 when Cameroon was no longer ‘the Island of Peace’ as the country is facing many security challenges due to armed conflicts in neighbouring countries and terrorist attacks.
The mission of the consultants is to prepare a document about full and equal participation of women, gender mainstreaming in peace and security initiatives, and the full implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 and other related resolutions.
To reach to that level, national civil society, under the leadership of WILPF Cameroon, has conducted several awareness raising workshops, lobbying, and advocacy activities. The launch of the popularisation process of UNSCR 1325 took place during the high-level workshop on the participation of women in conflict prevention in October 2014. Shortly after, WILPF Cameroon conducted a study in the East region with the support of PeaceWomen to assess the level of knowledge on this resolution.
We followed many other consultations and awareness workshops on 1325 with various stakeholders including media for greater impact. In November 2015, WILPF Cameroon hosted WILPF Africa’s Regional Conference on the participation of women in conflict prevention and crisis management, followed by a series of advocacy visits to some institutions, including a meeting with Cameroon’s Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family Marie Thérèsa Abena Ondoa.
We have finally received the Ministry’s call for submission of applications with great joy and now we are delighted to know that Cameroon will soon have its UN Security Council resolution 1325 NAP.