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.
More about Hanne Peterson coming soon.
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Diana María Salcedo López holds a degree in Political Science from the National University of Colombia, a Master’s degree in Women’s, Gender and Citizenship Studies from the University of Barcelona, and a Master’s degree in Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Democratisation from the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. A feminist and anti-militarist, she has a solid track record spanning two decades working as a consultant for non-governmental organisations, international cooperation agencies, the United Nations and state bodies in Colombia.
Her work has focused on safeguarding women’s rights, incorporating a gender and intersectional perspective into public policy, strengthening the social fabric amongst women who are victims of the armed conflict, and consolidating local peace-building processes.
She currently serves as director of the Colombian section of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (LIMPAL Colombia), where she leads initiatives on issues such as feminist approaches to the energy transition, the protection of women human rights defenders, the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and advocacy in international forums. She also represents the organisation on the Special Women’s Body for Monitoring the Peace Agreement and on the Intersectoral Commission on Security Guarantees for Women Human Rights Defenders and Women Leaders in Colombia.
Desirée Sterner currently serves as President of the Swedish Section (IKFF), a role she has held since 2023. Her engagement with WILPF began at the grassroots level through the local branch in Lund/Malmö during her university years. Desirée brings a deep substantive understanding of WILPF’s core issues, rooted in academic training in gender, peace and security (LSE), war studies (Swedish Defence University), peace and conflict studies, and human rights (Lund University), combined with several years of practical advocacy, movement-building and organisational leadership work in Swedish civil society.
Sylvie Ndongmo, is a Cameroonian peacebuilder, feminist leader, civil society actor and Women, Peace and Security expert with over 30 years of experience in peacebuilding, mediation, and gender equality advocacy. She serves as International President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and Executive Secretary of Women Peace Initiatives. She coordinates the Women and Youth Early Warning Monitoring Room in Cameroon and was recently appointed to the African Union Advisory Panel on Democratic Elections and Governance in Africa. Her work focuses on advancing women’s leadership, conflict prevention, and sustainable peace through feminist, inclusive, and intergenerational approaches.
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.
