Last year was supposed to be a moment of celebration and reflection for the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, as it marked the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Yet, the COVID-19 crisis spoiled these plans and, more importantly, created—or rather compounded—challenges to the Agenda around the world. As many initiatives had to be shifted online, those implementing WPS initiatives were left scrambling.

It is in this context that the Agency for Peacebuilding (AP) designed and ran an online training and dialogue programme entitled “The Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Pandemic”. The programme’s overall objective was to provide professionals and activists working on the WPS Agenda in North Africa and the Western Balkans with the necessary tools to adapt their initiatives and work to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus prevent significant setbacks in the implementation of the Agenda itself.

The online dialogue programme, which ended in November 2020, has generated a number of lessons about working on the WPS Agenda during the pandemic, including how to best adapt this work to the online space. Some of these are highlighted in the programme’s report.

Bernardo Monzani, AP’s President and the person responsible for the programme, will share lessons from this experience, and suggest some ways forward for continuing to work online. The presentation will be followed by an informal discussion among participants.

Please contact Lorenzo Conti if you would like to participate.