In the lead up to the third edition of the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development, to be held on 21-22 June 2022, the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA)--acting in its capacity as the Secretariat of the Forum--organized a virtual expert workshop titled “Leveraging Women’s Role in Building Resilience towards Sustainable Peace and Development in Africa”.

The workshop participants included a distinguished group of experts on women, peace, security (WPS) and sustainable development issues in Africa, including officials from the Environment Protection Agency in Sierra Leone and the Gender Monitoring Office - Government of Rwanda, as well as experts from the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the UN WOMEN Regional Office for West and Central Africa.

Amb. Ahmed Nehad Abdel-Latif, Director-General of CCCPA, stated that in line with the main theme of the upcoming Aswan Forum, the workshop aimed to “shed light on women’s effective role in advancing community resilience at a critical stage fraught with cascading risks that continue to reverberate through the African continent, such as armed conflict, rising terrorist threat, the compounding impacts of climate change, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.” Amb. Abdel-Latif stressed that such intertwined challenges call for intensifying efforts to advance implementation of the WPS agenda (established by UNSCR 1325), as well as responding rapidly and effectively to the differentiated socio-economic needs of women to maximize their pivotal role at the forefront of peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts.

Participants discussed the key contributions of women in Africa in strengthening community resilience, stressing that institutions are required to adopt a holistic, gender-responsive approach that prioritizes the needs of women, particularly in armed conflict settings.

The Strategic Partners of the Aswan Forum include the Government of Japan, the Government of Sweden, and the African Development Bank, and the Aswan Forum project is administered through UNDP.