Making strides towards women’s effective participation and gender-inclusive peace processes continues to be a persistent challenge with relatively little progress since the passing of the landmark Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace, and security.

In November 2018, UN Women convened the conference “Women’s meaningful participation in peace processes: Modalities and strategies across tracks” with support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Conference discussions included more than 60 practitioners, analysts, and advocates from around the globe, including the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and provided an opportunity to explore good practices on modalities and strategies to secure women’s meaningful participation in peace processes, with a strong emphasis on contributing toward new and existing peacemaking efforts in the MENA region.

This report on the conference proceedings explores innovations, trends, and challenges in the interplay between official, high-level processes and unofficial processes in which civil society plays a leadership role.