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Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan 2018-2022: Annual Report 2019

My Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Dominic Raab), has made the following written Ministerial statement:

I wish to inform the House that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, together with the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, are publishing the 2019 annual report on progress against the UK's fourth National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2018-2022.

Published on 18 January 2018, the National Action Plan (NAP) sets out the Government’s objectives on the Women, Peace and Security agenda for the period 2018-2022. This is the UK Government strategy for how we will meet our Women, Peace and Security commitments under UN Security Council Resolution 1325 to reduce the impact of conflict on women and girls and to promote their inclusion in conflict resolution and in building peace and security.

The report that will be published today outlines our progress against the National Action Plan during 2019, including our work in our nine focus countries of Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Syria. It is centred around seven strategic outcomes where we expect to see progress over the five year duration of the NAP.

October 2020 also marks the 20^th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. In the lead up to this anniversary, the UK has committed to raising ambition and strengthening the implementation of resolution 1325 through promoting women’s meaningful inclusion in peace processes, in particular in Afghanistan, South Sudan and Yemen, and increasing support to women resolving conflict, countering violent extremism and building peace at the grassroots level.

Electronic copies of the annual report will be placed in the libraries of both Houses and it will be available on gov.uk.