Welcome to the #MoveTheMoney Toolkit, your guide to understanding, challenging, and transforming the priorities of global budgets. Here you’ll find facts, visuals, and practical actions to show how trillions spent on militarisation could instead fund peace, equality, and ecological restoration. Use these resources to educate yourself, engage your community, and amplify feminist-led movements for lasting change.
Investing trillions in arms and pennies in peace fuels violence and war.
True safety comes from human rights, safe housing, strong social services, climate actionand gender justice not militarisation.
Funding community and feminist-led movements creates lasting peace for everyone.
Move the money to investments in public services that are designed, funded, delivered and managed around equality goals.
Military spending worsens environmental destruction. Investing in climate solutions, ecological restorationand renewable infrastructure protects people and the planet.
Military spending comes from public money. Citizens must have influence over how resources are spent: towards people, communities, and the planet.
All states face the “either/or” choice: fund war or fund peace. Public funds should prioritise human rights, equalityand justice.
Societies prioritising military and security spending, police, borders, and prisons included, show higher rates of gender-based and community violence.
Private arms companies benefiting from military budgets sell weapons to countries experiencing conflict, genocide, or authoritarian rule, worsening human suffering.
Article 26 of the UN Charter tasks the Security Council with regulating armaments to protect peace and human resources but permanent members ignore it, continuing unchecked military spending and weapon proliferation.
Peace is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Together, we can push governments to change the rules and #MoveTheMoney to build a just, peaceful world.
Join the conversation online. Use #MoveTheMoney and tag @WILPF to share facts, visuals, and your own stories. Raise awareness, and spark change.
Track your country’s spending on war vs. peace and demand change. Use our customisable letter to urge policymakers to #MoveTheMoney toward peace, gender equality, and climate action.
Listen to feminist peacebuilders and experts. Spark dialogue and raise awareness by sharing these episodes widely.
$2.7 trillion fuels war while millions face poverty and displacement. Explore the data, understand the real-life impacts, and share facts to educate yourself and your community.
Organise and or join community discussions, protests, rallies, or creative actions to raise awareness and pressure leaders to change priorities.
Participate in petitions targeting governments and international institutions. Amplify calls for transparency, reduced militarisation, and funding for feminist peace initiatives.
When you challenge entrenched ideas about militarisation, you may hear pushback. Being ready with clear, confident responses helps keep the conversation focused on what really builds lasting peace. Use the examples below to guide your replies and stay grounded in facts and values.
Global military spending reached $2.7 trillion in 2024, the highest level ever recorded, with year-on-year increases every year for the past nine years and the largest jump since the Cold War (SIPRI, 2024). Yet armed conflicts and displacement keep rising. Real security lies in tackling poverty, inequality, social justice and ecological restoration.
Evidence from SIPRI and Small Arms Survey shows that excessive military spending often escalates tensions and conflict risks, while countries investing more in education, health, and social services enjoy greater stability.
Research confirms that peacebuilding initiatives and social investment reduce conflict recurrence. Programmes supporting women’s participation in peace processes, like those under UNSCR 1325, are proven to improve lasting peace outcomes.
Use these posts to challenge decision-makers, raise awareness and build momentum for change. Share your own stories and responses using #MoveTheMoney and don’t forget to tag @WILPF.
$2.7 trillion wasted on military spending while millions face poverty and displacement. Governments must #MoveTheMoney from military activities to social justice and feminist approach to peace. Demand economic justice now by tagging your leaders and making them listen.
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Real security is not about weapons but about equality, housing, work, educationand healthcare. Peace cannot be built with bombs. It is built with justice. Join us to pressure governments to shift funds from war to peace. Use #MoveTheMoney and amplify feminist peace efforts worldwide.
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Feminists peacebuilders are proven agents of lasting peace yet remain chronically underfunded. Governments and donors must stop ignoring them. Raise your voice by using #MoveTheMoney and fully fund feminist peace activism.
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Military budgets have reached record highs while forced displacement grows every year. This cycle of violence must end. Push for feminist political economy that prioritise people over weapons. Speak out now with #MoveTheMoney.
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Cutting investments in social infrastructure while increasing budgets to military, police and other “security” related agencies is a false and dangerous economy. Demand accountability. Demand redirection of funds to fiscal policies that strengthen gender equality, climate action, healthcare and education, and our right to live in dignity. Tag your representatives and #MoveTheMoney to real security.
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Rich countries spend trillions fuelling the war machine while claiming they lack funds for climate action. #MoveTheMoney from military budgets to climate solutions, renewable energy, and a just transition for all. Justice for people and the planet starts with our priorities.
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#MoveTheMoney #PeaceNotWar #FeministPeace #GenderJustice #DisarmNow #InvestInPeace
@WILPF – Your hub for feminist peace action
@UN_Women – Championing gender equality globally
@SIPRIorg – Trusted data on military spending and peace
@IPinst – Policy insights on conflict prevention
@UNDP – Development expertise for peace and justice
@ODGeneva – Tracking global aid and budgets
@PeaceWomen – Elevating women’s voices for peace
@CANIntl – Advancing peace and disarmament through global advocacy
@WGC_Climate – Connecting climate action with peace and justice solutions
@TNInstitute – Providing research and analysis on conflict prevention and peacebuilding
@_TPNS – Amplifying the voices and strategies of grassroots peace networks
@UN – Push the global agenda for peace and gender justice
@WorldBank @EBRD @EIB @IMF– Stop funding militarisation, invest in people
@NATO – Militarisation fuels conflicts, not peace
@defense – Demand transparency and cuts in military budgets
@StateDept – Urge reallocation from arms to social spending
@EU_Commission @Europarl_EN – Lead by example in funding peace and equality
@DFID_UK – Prioritise feminist approach to peace over weapons
Matt Mahmoudi (he/him) is a lecturer, researcher, and organizer. He’s been leading the “Ban the Scan” campaign, Amnesty International’s research and advocacy efforts on banning facial recognition technologies and exposing their uses against racialized communities, from New York City to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.
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Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.
Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.
Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
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WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
