STATEMENT
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF WOMEN BUILDING PEACE: Launch of Phase II of the WPHF Rapid Response Window on Women & Peace Processes
Statement delivered by Mr Tormod C. Endresen
Ambassador - Permanent Representative to the UN and other International Organizations
Check against delivery
17 October 2024
I am very pleased to welcome you to this event that we co-host with key partners, the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and my good colleague from Chile, in the margins of Geneva Peace Week.
I am especially pleased to have some of the women that have put to use the fund in different parts of the world here – Ethiopia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Yemen.
Norway has a longstanding partnership with the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund as a financing tool and localization instrument. Our commitment and support are closely linked to a belief that women – in all their diversity – are key agents of peace. Inclusive peace processes lead to better results.
Next year it is 25 years since landmark resolution 1325 was adopted. But too many challenges remain for women’s full participation and influence.
The Rapid Response Window that we will talk about today was established 4 years ago to address the funding gap for women’s participation in formal peace processes and implementation of peace agreements.
This window bridges informal and formal peace efforts and ensures that action can be taken when a process is about to start with few women present. It can allow for support when women are deployed to a process with hardly any notice or chance to prepare.
Over time, we believe it will allow for better processes, that will lessen the need for such ad hoc interventions.
That is why we are pleased to support this initiative to accelerate women’s access and influence in peace processes. And this is why we urge others to join.
Women are not observers of conflict and should not be reduced to observers of conflict resolution.
Norway is proud to have supported the WPHF since 2018, including funds in 2024 for the second phase of the Rapid Response Window. The funding is based on our appreciation of the fund’s flexibility and ability to reach so many local women’s organizations and networks at the local level.
I look forward to learning from the lessons you will present from the first phase of this window.
I hope this event will contribute to further support from member states to your important work. I also hope it will help us calibrate the work that we do on multilateral levels here in Geneva to make sure our efforts here reflect the realities that you meet in your respective countries and regions.