First Special Report
The International Development Committee published its Tenth Report of Session 2024–26, Peace under pressure: Protecting Women, Peace and Security (HC 782), on 23 March 2026. The Government Response was received on 28 May 2026 and is appended below.
Appendix: Government Response
Introduction
1. The Government is grateful to the International Development Committee for undertaking this inquiry, for its report: “Peace Under Pressure: Protecting Women, Peace and Security”, and for noting this Government’s commitment to advancing and upholding the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda.
2. The Government remains unwavering in its commitment to advancing the WPS agenda, including through implementation of our fifth WPS National Action Plan (NAP). The UK champions women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in political and peace processes, and more broadly, in decision-making processes at local, regional, and national levels. This approach to foreign policy, development, defence and security is not just the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do. There cannot be peace, security or prosperity without women playing their part, free from violence and free from fear.
3. The Conclusion and Recommendation numbers below directly correspond to the paragraph numbers in the IDC Report.
The Women, Peace and Security Agenda
Conclusion 27: The future of the Women, Peace and Security agenda hangs in the balance. The agenda is more critical than ever against the backdrop of rising conflicts, a global anti–gender movement and a reported backsliding on the rights of women and girls. The UK is a penholder for Women, Peace and Security at the United Nations Security Council and has the opportunity to convene dedicated sessions to deliver actions for the agenda. However, so far, the Government is at risk of inflicting damage to its reputation as a Women, Peace and Security penholder and convenor. Further still, it appears that the Government is standing idly by whilst hard–won gains in global gender equality are lost.
Recommendation 28: Gender equality should not become a footnote in UK diplomacy. The UK must use its clout on the international stage to strengthen the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. This means using the tools it has at its disposal. The UK should be seen to advocate for Women, Peace and Security in multilateral forums, holding the line on gender–sensitive language in resolutions, promoting strong Women, Peace and Security positions in United Nations Security Council work and prioritising the deliverability of commitments into actions.
Government Response to Recommendation 28: Partially agree
4. Women and girls remain at the heart of our international work, with gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls central to our foreign, development and security policy. The Government is not ‘idle’ in any of these matters, or in defending the gains made in the past. The Foreign Secretary has reaffirmed UK leadership on WPS, including at her November 2025 event marking the 25th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, – championing women’s participation in peacebuilding, tackling impunity for sexual violence, and prioritising crisis responsive humanitarian support for women and girls. The Foreign Secretary has also made broader work on Women and Girls a FCDO core priority, as announced on 8 March 2026.1
5. Twenty-five years on from groundbreaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on WPS, the Government remains committed and resolute on this agenda, continuing to use our standing in the UN to champion the inclusion of WPS in UNSC resolutions.
6. The UK routinely partners with other Council members to combat sustained efforts to dilute agreed WPS commitments and language. We have continued to press for robust language on women’s participation and protection across geographic files on the Council’s agenda. The UK has prioritised turning Council commitments into action by anchoring WPS language in practical mandates, reporting, and protections that drive tangible delivery on the ground.
7. In 2025, the UK advanced the WPS agenda in the Security Council through sustained, strategic engagement across country-specific negotiations and meetings. This involved early and coordinated work with other Council members, close engagement with UN counterparts and civil society, and determined efforts to defend agreed WPS language where it has come under pressure. The UK focused on anchoring women’s participation, protection and leadership within mandates and sanctions regimes where Council decisions have direct operational impact. The examples below illustrate how this approach has translated into concrete outcomes across a range of country files:
a. During negotiations on the UK-penned mandate renewal of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), the UK successfully defended language urging all Libyan parties to implement the relevant resolutions on the WPS agenda and to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence. The unanimously adopted UNSMIL mandate calls on the Libyan authorities to end impunity for crimes of sexual and gender-based violence. The text also urges Libyan institutions and authorities to ensure the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women at all levels, and protect women, women’s rights organisations, and women peacebuilders from intimidation, threats, reprisals, and attacks.
b. Throughout Council products on Afghanistan in 2025, including the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) negotiations and WPS stakeouts, the UK supported explicit references to women’s rights and participation in Afghan society and condemned abuses against women and girls.
c. On South Sudan, negotiations on both the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) mandate and the South Sudan sanctions regime involved intensive advocacy by the UK and likeminded Council members to safeguard longstanding WPS language, including references to gender, conflict-related sexual violence, and women’s participation alongside the operational roles of Gender Advisers and Women Protection Advisers. This ensured that we preserved agreed terminology and strengthened reporting requirements, reflecting a clear UK contribution to defending WPS norms under sustained pressure.
8. The UK’s leadership on WPS in multilateral fora also extends beyond the United Nations:
a. The UK leads efforts to operationalise the WPS agenda at NATO. In the context of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, it is a strategic necessity for modern defence. WPS enhances NATO’s deterrence posture, strengthens resilience, and improves mission effectiveness. The UK promotes the systematic integration of gender perspectives across Alliance policy, planning and operations, helping to align NATO’s WPS implementation with wider international commitments on development and human security. The UK has supported the implementation of NATO’s WPS Policy and Action Plan and has consistently advocated for the inclusion of WPS language in NATO strategies and communiqués. In practical terms, we have supported the integration of WPS considerations into NATO operational planning and exercises, strengthened the use of Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points in NATO missions and headquarters, and promoted WPS as a focus of NATO partnerships and capacity building activities, including in support of Ukraine.
b. The UK continues to be a leading advocate for the WPS agenda through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). At the OSCE’s Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), the UK actively promotes WPS priorities and ensures that WPS is implemented and included (and mainstreamed where possible) across the full range of politico-military issues considered. The UK will further demonstrate this commitment by supporting WPS initiatives during our FSC Chairpersonship in 2026. The UK also contributes strongly to wider implementation efforts. In partnership with Belgium, we modernised the OSCE voluntary reporting mechanism on WPS under the OSCE Code of Conduct on PoliticoMilitary Aspects of Security in 2023 – the first update since its introduction in 2011. 46 countries endorsed this initiative, which helped to improve WPS reporting standards across the OSCE region. In 2025 (reinforced in 2026), the UK made four pledges to support delivery of the OSCE WPS Roadmap. Alongside this, the UK is a core member and active participant of WPS likeminded groups, where we actively shape the overall direction and ambition of the OSCE’s WPS work.
Recommendation 29: The Government should explain why it did not convene a single dedicated session on Women, Peace and Security during its time as President of the United Nations Security Council in February 2026. The Government should set out in its response to this report what specific actions on Women, Peace and Security the UK has achieved in country–specific sessions in the last year.
Government Response to Recommendation 29: Disagree
9. The UK deliberately made advancing the position of women and girls, in line with the WPS agenda, a core element of our February UN Security Council Presidency. We specifically and safely invited women to brief the Security Council’s meetings on Syria, Sudan and the Middle East Peace Process, as one of the most credible, meaningful and impactful ways to anchor WPS in UN Security Council discussions and action. We led a WPS Shared Commitments joint statement on the situation for women in Syria, delivered at a press stakeout in advance of the meeting, in which eight countries participated. Recognising the need to elevate women’s voices in understanding conflict and its impacts, we convened member states to interact with the women we invited to brief the Council and spotlighted their messages in UK Government communications products. This approach, to bring women’s voices and perspectives into country-specific discussions, has proven more meaningful and impactful than holding generic discussions on WPS, which can, given differing views of Council members, have little impact and let rhetoric take the place of implementation.
10. Furthermore, the Foreign Secretary specifically and personally used the UK’s Security Council Presidency to raise the alarm on the rights and protection of women and girls in Sudan, delivering a powerful intervention in the Council and joining the Sudanese woman briefer in a joint press stakeout. These interventions amplified the testimonies of Sudanese women the Foreign Secretary had met at a refugee camp in Chad.
11. The Foreign Secretary also convened at the UN a high-profile in-studio discussion in collaboration with UN Partnerships, “Hearing Her Voice”. This brought together Sudanese feminist activist Hala Al-Karib, advocate for children born from rape in war Lejla D., former war correspondent Jane Ferguson, and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, for a powerful, honest and action-oriented discussion.
12. The further examples below illustrate how this approach has translated into concrete outcomes across a range of country files:
a. During negotiations on the renewal of both the Al Shabaab (AS) sanctions regime and the mandate of the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), the UK protected references to gender and robust language on women’s rights and participation. In the AS sanctions renewal, we maintained language underscoring the participation of women in Somalia and support for women’s leadership roles, as well as provisions addressing sexual and gender-based violence in conflict, trafficking, forced marriage and sexual slavery. In the AUSSOM mandate, the UK fought to retain language recalling WPS resolutions, recognising the critical role of women in conflict prevention and peacebuilding, and condemning all forms of sexual and gender-based violence. It called on the Federal Government of Somalia to accelerate implementation of the National Action Plan to Combat Sexual Violence in Conflict, while tasking AUSSOM to integrate a gender perspective across its operations.
b. During negotiations on the UK-penned mandate renewal of the UN Verification Mission to Colombia (UNVM), the UK successfully retained a focus on the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and children, and defended language on the impact of sexual and gender-based violence targeting women and girls in conflict-affected areas.
c. For the UK-penned UN Mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) renewal, the UK defended the inclusion of gender-responsive and civilian protection considerations within its mandate.
d. In a challenging context, we sought to protect the WPS agenda, although given Council dynamics, there have been a small number of areas where the Council has not retained existing language. In order to reach Council agreement on mandate renewals, for example in Security Council mandates on Colombia (UNVM), the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA), and Haiti (BINUH), the UK agreed language we found acceptable but which modified existing language such as replacing the word “gender” with “women, girls, men and boys” or removing the phrase “gender-responsive”. The UK approached this process by partnering with likeminded Council members and prioritising the highest-impact language in mandates, for example in the operative paragraphs that set out Mission tasking. This has ensured the operational capacity of UN Missions has been retained and the core tasking on issues affecting women and girls has been protected.
Recommendation 30: The future of Women, Peace and Security hangs in the balance and must be addressed in its entirety rather than solely through country specific work. The UK should convene a dedicated session on Women, Peace and Security the next time it is President of the United Nations Security Council.
Government response to Recommendation 30: Partially Agree
13. Despite progress made on the WPS agenda since 2000, we accept that global implementation is lagging. The overall number of peace agreements has declined over recent years, whilst conflict has escalated. Within this context, the majority of peace agreements remain gender-blind and those agreements that do mention gender rarely provide substantive references to issues such as violence against women.
14. The UK agrees that the future of WPS is of critical importance to global peace and security and to the work of the Security Council and will continue to spotlight women peacebuilders and human rights defenders with opportunities to speak directly to the Security Council on the conflicts and crises affecting them and their communities. Women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation must be embedded not only in country-specific mandates, where decisions have direct operational impact, but also across a wide range of thematic discussions, including on counterterrorism, climate security and cyber security. Integrating WPS across the Council’s daily work ensures it informs real decision-making and outcomes.
15. Inviting women to brief in geographic-focused Council meetings is one tangible way to anchor WPS in UN Security Council discussions and action, achieving strong impact to a wide audience. Women’s participation in peace and security efforts is reducing due to the threat of intimidation or reprisals - with fewer women briefers coming to the UN Security Council. This is unacceptable, and the Foreign Secretary has made clear that the UK will adopt a zero-tolerance approach to such reprisals. Protection and participation must go hand in hand.
16. This is why the UK partnered with UN Women in the 2025–2026 financial year to develop a “Quick Reference Guide” to help Member States in preventing and mitigating reprisals against women civil society representatives engaging with the UN, providing practical advice to help Security Council members anticipate, address, and respond to risks of intimidation linked to UN briefings. This guide builds on a set of broader best practice guidelines the UK funded through OHCHR in 2021 that detailed specific risk mitigation strategies for women civil society briefers.
17. The UK considers carefully how best to focus on, and deliver against, priority issues such as WPS, including during our Presidencies of the Security Council. We may decide that a dedicated WPS meeting is the best way to deliver this in a future Presidency but would not want to prejudge that at this stage.
Conclusion 44: The Government’s commitment to implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda, through its objectives in the National Action Plan, appears to be waning. The limited attention given to prevention throughout the National Action Plan, despite the benefits for peace, is concerning. The meaningful participation of women and other marginalised groups is essential for sustainable peace and conflict resolution. However, globally and domestically, women’s meaningful participation is declining. Ultimately, the translation of the commitments in the National Action Plan into practice has remained limited. Significant commitments, matched by action, will need to be made in the refresh objectives relating to prevention and participation are to be realised.
Recommendation 45: The Government need not re-shape its approach to Women, Peace and Security beyond the existing four pillars and five strategic objectives. Considering the increasing number of global conflicts and the integral role women play in peace, the National Action Plan refresh must prioritise meaningful participation and the contribution of women and marginalised groups in conflict prevention and related processes.
Recommendation 46: The UK should take a more active role in peace processes and make certain that women can meaningfully participate. This includes working with organisations and non–governmental organisations to embed accountability for breaches of Women, Peace and Security efforts. The Government should prioritise gender equality and women’s rights in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes.
Government Response to Recommendations 45 and 46: Partially Agree (45), Partially Agree (46)
18. Recognising the limits of our direct control over conflicts abroad, the UK focuses its support on influencing others and standing behind all women, advocating for them to participate safely and meaningfully in efforts to prevent conflict and build sustainable, inclusive peace.
19. Acknowledging the importance of all four pillars of the WPS agenda, the UK recognises and champions the important role women play in conflict prevention and resolution. This is underscored by the highest levels of conflict since World War II, the disproportionate impact on women, a concerted rollback on women’s rights, and geopolitics weakening cooperation and adherence to the rule of law. The UK champions women’s full, equal, meaningful, and safe participation in political and peace processes, and more broadly, in decision-making processes at local, regional, and national levels.
20. However, despite the recommendation to prioritise conflict prevention and resolution, it cannot be ignored that women’s participation in peace and security discussions is reducing due to the threat of reprisals. The UK’s commitment remains unwavering: lasting peace and security are impossible without women’s full, equal, meaningful and safe participation – free from threats and reprisals. Protection, participation and prevention go hand in hand.
21. Additionally, the Foreign Secretary has reaffirmed UK leadership on WPS, with priorities that extend beyond this recommendation, including to champion women’s participation in peacebuilding, but also to tackle impunity for sexual violence, and prioritise crisis responsive humanitarian support for women and girls.
22. In November 2025, the Foreign Secretary hosted an event with the Minister for Veterans and People to commemorate the 25th anniversary of UNSCR 1325. This gathered Women’s Rights and Civil Society Organisations to highlight the challenges women face on the ground, and to discuss what more could be done in the next 25 years of the WPS agenda. The Foreign Secretary set out a renewed determination to put WPS at the heart of UK foreign policy, committing to amplifying women’s voices and participation in peacebuilding, recognising that peace agreements endure when women shape them.
23. The UK’s fifth NAP on WPS outlines how the Government integrates UNSCR 1325 and subsequent resolutions into development, security, defence and diplomacy work. It also emphasises the Government’s commitment to promoting women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution, supporting protection for women and girls in conflict-affected areas, and mainstreaming gender perspectives across development, foreign, defence and security policies. The Government will review the current commitments related to conflict prevention and resolution as part of the 2026 WPS NAP Refresh.
24. The UK notes with concern that the number and quality of peace agreements to end violent conflict has fallen over the reporting period and that peace-making is increasingly moving away from multilateralism towards bilateral deal making. The UK remains firmly committed to increasing the safe and meaningful participation of women in conflict resolution. We have supported local women’s rights organisations and women peacebuilders to participate in and improve the sustainability of peace and security processes in fragile and conflict affected states.
25. The UK assumed the role of Elsie Initiative Fund co-chair in January 2025 for that year, reflecting its commitment to gender equality in peacekeeping and contributed £500,000 in FY 25/26 to support the Elsie Initiative Fund. As co-chair, the UK helped steer strategic direction, endorse project proposals, and promote best practices in gender-responsive peacekeeping.
26. Throughout its co-chairship of the Elsie Initiative Fund the UK placed women’s leadership at the centre of our efforts - not just increasing numbers but creating environments where women in peacekeeping are empowered to lead, influence decisions, and drive meaningful change. The UK contributed an additional £500,000 in 2025 to support the Elsie Initiative Fund. As co-chair, the UK helped steer strategic direction, endorse project proposals, and promote best practices in gender-responsive peacekeeping.
27. Additionally, the UK is prioritising efforts to anticipate and prevent crises by strengthening early warning systems and by improving our understanding of how mitigating conflict and atrocity risks can better protect the most vulnerable – particularly women and girls. Alongside diplomacy, we support peacebuilding through our support to multi-lateral partners. Our human rights and development programmes address the root causes of conflict and reduce the likelihood of future atrocities. We also support efforts to strengthen security sector governance and promote stabilisation, helping countries such as Ukraine to achieve sustainable and lasting peace.
28. The UK recognises the critical role that women play in conflict prevention and early warning. As part of its commitments under the WPS NAP, the UK has strengthened gender-sensitive analysis across government by updating the Joint Analysis of Conflict and Stability (JACS). The revised JACS guidance, issued in September 2024, embeds gender in conflict as a core concept, supporting more robust analysis of power, behaviour and risk, and ensuring that policy recommendation better reflect the experiences and needs of women and girls.
29. The Ministry of Defence remains firmly committed to empowering women both within the Armed Forces and across wider society. The MOD supports this ambition through close collaboration with partners and Allies to promote women’s participation and leadership within defence and security institutions, including through targeted training and capacity-building activities.
30. Through partnerships with civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations, the MOD seeks to support, inform and amplify women’s voices at national and international levels, strengthening the effectiveness and sustainability of peace and security outcomes, illustrated by recent engagement in Nigeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Estonia.
Conclusion 47: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s development and gender experts play an essential part in delivering the participation and prevention objectives in the National Action Plan. The Government cannot expect to deliver on these commitments without this expertise. Given the growing number of conflicts around the world, losing this expertise would be damaging to the future of gender equality and peace.
Recommendation 48: The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office must not lose its development or gender expertise. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office should commit to maintain development experts working on Women, Peace and Security with connections to local organisations and communities around the world. The Government must not cut gender advisor roles. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office must provide gender advisors to support organisations like GAPS with their work in–country. In its response, the Government should set out how it plans to achieve this. By doing so, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office should make sure that the delivery of the new National Action Plan does not lose its gendered development focus and expertise.
Government Response to Recommendation 48: Partially Agree.
31. We recognise the important role our technical advisers and experienced staff play in the WPS agenda. As we work through our new priorities, we will make decisions about how best to utilise our technical expertise and experience ad ensure that we have the right skills, in the right places, at the right time. This requires both short term flexible and long-term stable inputs, all closely linked to the delivery of government priorities.
32. The Government will embed women and girls’ empowerment across all our foreign policy. As referenced in the Foreign Secretary’s statement2 on International Development on 19 March, by 2030, at least 90 percent of the FCDOs bilateral ODA will have a focus on equality for women and girls, either as a principal or significant objective.
33. The Government has an enduring commitment to gender equality, WPS, Human Security, and social inclusion. These are essential components of effective national security policy. As such, the Integrated Security Fund (ISF) will continue to support delivery of the UK’s ambitions on WPS, and to align them with UK national security interests.
34. ISF teams are expected to continue to mainstream equality for women and girls throughout their work. This includes through projects which deliver specifically on gender and social inclusion, and which monitor impact on gender and social inclusion. To facilitate this, teams are strongly encouraged to maintain dedicated gender advisor expertise.
35. The ISF will also continue to fund the WPS Helpdesk – a cross-government resource which provides high-impact technical and advisory support and so enables the continued delivery of gender-sensitive activity in support of UK national security priorities, meeting our international obligations.
36. The FCDO has a social development profession, which is a group of around 100 technical experts who help to shape, deliver and manage our policy, programme and diplomatic work around the world on social issues. This includes working on gender equality, disability and social inclusion mainstreaming, preventing violence against women and girls, women, peace and security as well as supporting domestic accountability and civil society engagement, and improving welfare provision for the extreme poor. We are evolving our operating models for advisers to enable greater flexibility across teams and posts that allow for continued support on gender and wider equalities. In addition, we are developing a new Women and Equalities Community of Expertise to provide FCDO teams and partners access to internal and external technical specialists, ensuring our delivery remains informed by strong gender expertise and experience.
Funding and Resourcing
Conclusion 60: There is a lack of transparency surrounding the UK’s Women, Peace and Security spending, including how much Official Development Assistance is directed towards Women’s Rights Organisations, making it difficult for civil society organisations and other actors to track and assess progress on Women, Peace and Security.
Recommendation 61: As part of its National Action Plan refresh, the Government should set out how Women, Peace and Security objectives will be fully resourced and prioritised in the context of Official Development Assistance cuts, and how associated funding will be strategically distributed. The Government should ringfence multi–year funding for Women, Peace and Security programming, plans for which should also be published and shared with our Committee.
Conclusion 68: The Government has not learned lessons from the first round of aid cuts and continues to enact policy changes that are devastating to the realities and futures of women, girls and marginalised groups. We welcome the Government’s commitment to ensure women and girls are a priority in UK foreign policy. The announced gender mainstreaming approach to improve their rights in foreign and development policy levers is concerning in the context of staff cuts and a loss of departmental expertise. Inadequate funding and mainstreaming may compromise delivery of the National Action Plan, as well as the broader Women, Peace, and Security agenda.
Conclusion 69: The commitments in the current National Action Plan lack dedicated funding, meaning that commitments are not resourced and their implementation is largely dependent on political will.
Recommendation 70: To guarantee the sustainability of Women, Peace and Security, a stable, ringfenced budget focused on flexible multi–year funding would protect against global socio–political changes and pressures. It would also allow Women’s Rights Organisations and other partners to strategically plan and act both proactively and reactively to crises. Without this, the UK’s status as leader is left in a fragile state. We are concerned that mainstreaming is becoming the administrative lexicon for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office dropping their focus on an issue.
Government Response to Recommendations 61 and 70: Partially Agree (61), Partially Agree (70)
37. The UK plays an active role in supporting women’s rights organisations (WROs) to deliver our WPS commitments, including through partnerships with international civil society and non-governmental organisations. For security and safeguarding reasons, we deliberately do not name individual partners operating in conflict-affected contexts on a routine basis, as doing so could place local women’s rights organisations and individuals at risk. The risk of reprisal against women peacebuilders is sadly increasing. We take their protection extremely seriously.
38. In the 25th anniversary year of UNSCR 1325, we expanded our support for women peacebuilders and women’s rights organisations by providing over £3.5 million from a centrally managed programme to support women in the most dangerous and fragile places. We will be providing a similar amount in FY26/27.
39. The UK agrees that local organisations, including WROs, are at the very heart of efforts to build peaceful, inclusive, just and stable societies. Their work is rooted in the needs of their communities, and progress on the WPS agenda is likely to be more effective and sustainable when solutions are localised. Flexible funding is a powerful tool that enables local organisations to channel resources to where they are most needed – adapting to learning or changing circumstances.
40. ODA allocations have now been agreed at a geographic and thematic level, in line with the FCDO’s strategic priorities. FCDO Ministers took decisions throughout this process to avoid disproportionate negative equalities impacts including on women and girls. This included a decision to fully protect funding at FY25/26 levels, for central programme spend on Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI), and Women, Peace and Security. Most decisions on individual programmes are still being finalised. Individual programme detail will be made available on DevTracker once finalised and will provide the level of transparency needed for stakeholders to track and access progress on WPS.
41. The provision of funding is not the only way in which the Government is advancing WPS. The Government uses a range of diplomatic, development and defence levers to implement the agenda, supported by financial resources that are distributed across departments, programmes and regions.
42. We will embed women and girls’ rights across all our foreign policy. Through mainstreaming, we will shift from a reliance on a small number of standalone programmes to ensuring that women and girls are systematically considered across the entire portfolio. By 2030, at least 90 percent of the FCDOs bilateral ODA will have a focus on equality for women and girls, either as a principal or significant objective. This approach allows us to sustain ambition and impact for women and girls even as overall aid budgets reduce, by integrating gender equality into all our work.
43. Mainstreaming is not “administrative lexicon” or a drop in focus on this issue. Women’s and girls’ rights should be built into decisions across the entire portfolio, rather than being confined to a small number of standalone programmes. Effective mainstreaming embeds women and girls across the FCDO’s global network and establishes protecting the rights and safety of women and girls as a core foreign policy priority. A wholeportfolio approach helps sustain ambition and impact for women and girls by embedding that priority across country strategies, humanitarian responses, multilateral engagement and diplomacy.
44. WPS is treated as core business within the MOD through its integration into the Human Security framework. Dedicated Human Security personnel, specialist training, and the incorporation of WPS principles into military planning and operations seek to continue to normalise considerations of women and girls as part of our overall approach to Human Security in day-to-day defence activity.
45. The MOD’s Human Security change programme, now halfway through delivery, is explicitly designed to strengthen, not dilute, WPS implementation by institutionalising it across the organisation. This approach recognises that WPS objectives are most effective when they are mainstreamed and applied consistently, rather than siloed or treated as an add-on. Mainstreaming WPS therefore enhances accountability, reach and impact, ensuring that considerations around the security of women and girls as part of our overall approach to Human Security meaningfully informs defence activity at all levels.
Conclusion 63: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have assured us it remains committed to the Women, Peace and Security agenda despite staffing cuts. However, it has had difficulty in upholding its commitments in the National Action Plan with current resourcing. It is unclear how a smaller organisation with fewer resources and reduced capacity will be better able to deliver on commitments.
Recommendation 71: In response to this report, the Department should provide details to the Committee on existing mechanisms for coordinating meaningfully between Government Departments, or how it intends to establish systematic coordination. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office should report findings back to the Committee within six months of this report’s publication.
Government response to Recommendation 71: Partially Agree.
46. The WPS NAP is co-owned by the FCDO and the MOD and includes 7 government departments with commitments to the WPS agenda: FCDO, MOD, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Northern Ireland Office, Northern Ireland Executive and Scottish Government.
47. The current WPS NAP has a robust governance structure in place to ensure coordination, accountability and transparency across government. This includes a series of working groups and boards, ranging from working level to senior official level, that aid meaningful engagement on commitments in the WPS NAP.
48. The Government is committed to ensuring the refreshed WPS NAP reinforces strong cross-government coordination, and we will review the current governance structure as part of the 2026 NAP Refresh.
49. In relation to Conclusion 63 being unclear how a smaller organisation with fewer resources and reduced capacity will be better able to deliver on WPS commitments – the Government is unwavering in its commitment and leadership in advancing the WPS agenda. It is a significant and welcome commitment that the Foreign Secretary has elevated Women and Girls as a FCDO core priority, championing their rights, safety and full participation, and driving global action against emerging tech enabled threats.
50. Part of the FCDO2030 transformation programme, the HQ restructure is a deliberate redesign of how we work: reducing duplication, improving coherence, and ensuring every part of the Department is focused on the UK’s strategic priorities.
51. The workforce numbers alone do not accurately reflect the changes taking place in the department. Some areas will see greater uplifts (e.g. digital) that will enable more efficiencies in other parts of the department. In some areas, a percentage reduction is actually about creating the right size for a team where there is sufficient resource in the network or duplication with another part of government. Throughout the process, priority work will continue and frontline capability will be protected.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Conclusion 85: The lack of an operational Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning framework is not a technical issue but a practical barrier to accountability, oversight, and outcome–focused programming. Current reporting risks being activity–driven rather than impact–driven, undermining efforts to improve the lives of women and girls in conflict affected contexts. Despite commitments in the National Action Plan, there is no integrated cross–government system for capturing and aggregating data on Women, Peace and Security activity, expenditure or impact, nor a consistently applied set of Women, Peace and Security specific indicators. The absence of baseline data and an operational Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning framework at the midpoint of the National Action Plan cycle limits the ability of the Government and Parliament to assess whether interventions are delivering measurable improvements. In the context of Official Development Assistance cuts and reductions in staff and resourcing, this also represents poor value for money, as resources are not systematically tracked or assessed.
Recommendation 86: As part of the Spring 2026 refresh of the National Action Plan, the Government must establish and publish a cross–government monitoring framework for Women, Peace and Security, including a clear and consistently applied set of Women, Peace and Security–specific indicators capable of assessing both outputs and impact.
Government Response to Recommendation 86: Agree.
52. Following the General Election in July 2024 and a review of the commitments in the WPS NAP, the decision was taken that the WPS NAP’s year one baseline study should remain an internal document, given it pertains to former government policies. The baseline study has been completed and, where appropriate, will be used to demonstrate progress against the WPS NAP’s commitments in future.
53. As part of the 2026 WPS NAP refresh, we are reviewing the current monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure it remains robust, measurable and can capture the impact of our actions domestically and internationally.
54. Following the IDC Oral Evidence session in December 2025, the MOD has been considering how best to capture WPS activity, thus strengthening monitoring and evidencing delivery across the whole of Defence.
Recommendation 87: The Government must establish a biennial engagement mechanism with parliamentarians, civil society, and academic experts to review and refine National Action Plan indicators and reporting. Existing data on women’s participation, lived experience, and programme impact must be incorporated into the UK’s monitoring framework, enabling meaningful oversight and accountability of Women, Peace and Security implementation.
Conclusion 88: Given the Government’s stated commitment to meaningful engagement, we consider it to be disappointing that a copy of the National Action Plan has not been shared with us in advance of publication. Earlier sharing would have strengthened transparency and supported effective parliamentary scrutiny.
Conclusion 94: The Government has not allowed for sufficient external oversight and feedback on its Women, Peace and Security commitments. The shift from annual to biennial reporting has reduced opportunities for meaningful scrutiny. This weakens transparency and limits the ability of Parliament and civil society to assess whether commitments are delivering measurable improvements for women and girls.
Conclusion 95: Backing the Women, Peace and Security Private Member’s Bill would have been a significant demonstration of the Government’s commitments to the agenda. However, the Government has indicated that it does not yet support it. We are concerned about the future of Women, Peace and Security and the extent of the Government’s commitment and ability to deliver against National Action Plan objectives in the run up to the refresh.
Recommendation 96: The Government must reinstate annual reporting to Parliament on Women, Peace and Security implementation following the 2026 National Action Plan refresh and commit to reporting which integrates progress on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, as set out in the Women, Peace and Security Bill. The Government must also review and reform the structure of engagement forums to strengthen opportunities for external scrutiny and accountability.
Government Response to Recommendation 87 and 96: Partially Agree (87), Partially Agree (96)
55. The Government is committed to ensuring the refreshed WPS NAP retains a robust governance structure, recognising the strategic importance of external scrutiny and accountability. The Government will consider introducing annual reporting to Parliament but wishes the Committee to note that the NAP commits to a biennial written report. The specifics of the updated Governance Structure, including reporting to Parliament, will be published as part of the 2026 WPS NAP Refresh.
56. The WPS NAP will be refreshed in 2026 to ensure alignment with wider government strategies and coherence across policy objectives. As previously committed, we will consider sharing a draft of the refreshed WPS NAP with the IDC in advance of publication.
57. Reporting under the relevant WPS NAP strategic objectives on sexual violence in conflict will be included, recognising that preventing sexual violence in conflict is an important element of the broader Women, Peace and Security agenda.
Footnotes
1 https://x.com/YvetteCooperMP/status/2030659825709850932
2 https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-statement-on-international-development-19-march