Twenty-five years ago, on October 31, 2000, the United Nations unanimously adopted its historic Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and Security 1325). This resolution on women, peace and security reaffirmed “the important role of women in conflict prevention and resolution, peace negotiations, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and post-conflict reconstruction.”
Likewise, he stressed the “importance of their participation on equal terms and their full integration in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security.”
The importance of women for building sustainable peace is undeniable. Our research, with support from the United States Institute of Peace, has revealed that, on average, incorporating measures for the inclusion of women in post-conflict society within a peace agreement reduces the probability of a repeat conflict by 11%. Even more significant is that, if this process is carried out under the leadership of the UN, the probability of the conflict recurring is reduced by 37%.
Therefore, the anniversary of Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security should be a cause for celebration. However, UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened his report to the annual Security Council debate on women, peace and security on October 6 with a warning.
Guterres said the UN too often “fails to rise to the occasion when it comes to making real change in the lives of women and girls caught up in conflict.” Specifically, she noted the lack of inclusion of women in peace negotiations, the failure to protect women and girls from sexual violence, and the insufficient funding of women peacebuilders.
Over the past 25 years, the Security Council adopted nearly 1,000 resolutions related to Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. In 2015, Resolution 2242 sought a more systematic integration of the women, peace and security agenda in “all country-specific situations included in the Security Council agenda.” To facilitate this, the UN Security Council created an informal group of experts.
There is no doubt that the women, peace and security agenda had a positive impact. Guterres noted that “gender provisions in peace agreements are increasingly common, and women’s organizations have helped transform post-conflict recovery and reconciliation in communities around the world.” She declared that “civil society led by women and women peacebuilders… are the drivers of comprehensive and sustainable peace.”
However, according to a UN Women survey conducted in early 2025, global cuts to foreign aid budgets are making it difficult for women to make these vital contributions to peace and security. The situation is equally complex for UN peacekeeping operations.
The accumulated budget deficit in mid-2025 amounted to almost $2.7 billion, with the United States, China and Russia being the three largest debtors. Despite a significant decline in the peacekeeping budget over the past decade – from $8.4 billion in 2014-15 to $5.2 billion in 2024-25 – the percentage of unpaid contributions has more than tripled, from 13 to 41 percent over the same period.
If these two trends persist, the prospects for sustainable conflict resolution will diminish dramatically.
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Women as peacebuilders
With the aim of exploring how to prevent the recurrence of civil wars, we analyze 14 protracted peace processes in recurrent armed conflicts. This analysis revealed that the UN, in collaboration with local women’s organizations, was able to create and maintain coalitions at different levels committed to concluding, maintaining and implementing peace agreements.
We then statistically contrast these findings with 286 agreements concluded in violent conflicts worldwide. This confirmed that, together, UN leadership and the inclusion of women in post-conflict society significantly increase the likelihood that a peace agreement will endure for more than five years.
Finally, we conducted in-depth case studies on peace processes in the Bangsamoro region, on the island of Mindanao (Philippines), as well as in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone. This allowed us to determine how the UN and women-led organizations can contribute to preventing the recurrence of civil wars.
We discovered that women’s participation made it possible to make visible the needs and experiences of previously marginalized groups and incorporate them into peace agreements. For example, UNICEF, the United Nations Women’s Development Fund, sponsored a multi-party women’s conference as part of the Arusha peace negotiations in Burundi in 2000. This ensured that the subsequent peace agreement included extensive provisions to improve the socio-economic inclusion of women in post-conflict society.
When the UN and women-led organizations collaborate, people who might have been excluded from the peace process can participate in its implementation. Liberia’s peace huts (supported by UN Women) are a tangible example of how women can contribute to peacebuilding. Adapted from the traditional Liberian “palava hut” system, peace huts offer spaces for dialogue, mediation of disputes and the exchange of information.
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Cooperation between the UN and women-led organizations can also contribute to early detection and intervention in response to local tensions, thus preventing them from escalating into new violent conflicts. This dynamic was evident in the fundamental role played by civil society organizations led by women (often with the support of the UN) in the creation of dialogue mechanisms before, during and after the signing of agreements in all the peace processes analyzed.
The results of our research therefore offer empirical support for many of the aspirations of the UN women, peace and security agenda. But they also show the risks of inaction and, worse, of reversing the fragile progress made in the decades since the formal adoption of this vision.
The UN receives a lot of criticism. However, our findings suggest that it is probably the only organization capable of mobilizing the diplomatic, financial and military resources necessary to contribute to the conclusion and sustainable implementation of peace agreements.
Our main conclusion is that the repetition of civil wars can be prevented. But this will not happen if those who have the power to build and consolidate sustainable peace are disempowered. In September, during the annual debate at the UN General Assembly, world leaders reaffirmed their commitment to peace and conflict resolution.
However, to demonstrate this commitment, they must enable the UN to exercise decisive leadership in peace processes through strong diplomatic and financial support. Additionally, they must invest in local women’s organizations that can facilitate sustainable and legitimate peace on the ground.
*Giuditta Fontana is an associate professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham; Argyro Kartsonaki She is a Researcher at the Research Institute for Peace and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg; Natasha Neudorfer She is a professor of Political Economy at Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf; Stefan Wolff He is Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham
This article was originally published in The Conversation
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