Resolution 1325 at 25: Why Africa must lead the next chapter of global peacebuilding

By Nahla Valji

Twenty-five years ago this month, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), a landmark recognition that women are not just victims of war, but indispensable actors in building and sustaining peace.

 In 2015, I was privileged to head the Secretariat tasked with leading the 15-year global review of this agenda for the Security Council. The findings of that review on the disconnect between intention and implementation are just as valid today.

A decade later, I write from Eritrea, a country whose independence struggle - perhaps more so than any other around the world - was powered by the active participation of women. Yet around the region and the world, the prevalence of entrenched and horrific conflicts are a stark reminder that the fight for peace and equality remain as urgent as ever. 

Over the past quarter century, the WPS agenda has had an undeniable impact on global peace and security. Sexual violence in conflict, once shrouded in silence, has been recognised as a grave international crime.

Women's participation in peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery is no longer seen as symbolic, but as central to sustainable outcomes. Compared to two decades ago, there has been some increases in inclusion of women as mediators, negotiators, and community peacebuilders in peace processes.

And across Africa, countries such as South Africa, Ghana, and Rwanda have deployed women peacekeepers who serve with distinction in some of the world’s most challenging environments. These are not minor gains. They represent shifts in how we understand security itself.

The gaps

Yet we must also confront the persistent gaps. Women remain severely underrepresented in formal peace negotiations.

Funding to women’s organisations in conflict-affected settings, those who are the strongest at preventing violence and often the first to respond to community needs, still represents less than one percent of global aid to peace and security. Protection from or accountability for gender-based violence remains largely elusive.

And perhaps more concerningly, our very definition of peace and security fails to recognise the daily violence too many women and girls continue to face, outside of traditionally defined conflicts.

Moreover at a time when new conflicts are emerging and old ones are deepening, the space for women’s leadership is shrinking under the weight of insecurity and political pushback.

This is not merely a question of fairness—it is fundamentally about operational effectiveness.

Decades of evidence show that when women participate in peace processes, agreements are more likely to be reached, implemented, and sustained.

Where women’s equality advances, societies are more stable, economies more resilient, and peace more enduring. In today’s world, where wars are multiplying and civilians bear unspeakable costs, women’s leadership is not a luxury. It is a necessity for collective survival.

But progress is being tested. Around the world, we are witnessing a well-organised pushback on women’s rights; driven by political agendas, armed conflict, and misinformation.

Resolution 1325

One dangerous narrative, increasingly weaponised, is that gender equality and women’s rights are somehow a “Western agenda.” This could not be further from the truth.

The Women, Peace and Security agenda itself was born in Africa. Resolution 1325 was tabled by Namibia during its membership of the Security Council in 2000. Since then, African nations have been among the strongest champions of this agenda—both within the Council and across our peacekeeping and mediation efforts.

 Africa has never been a passive recipient of ideas about peace. From the leadership of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Graça Machel to the countless women mediators working quietly in communities across the Sahel, the Horn, and the Great Lakes, African women have redefined what peacebuilding looks like.

 In Eritrea, women were central to the liberation struggle—nearly one-third of the freedom fighters were women—and gender equality remains a foundational principle of the nation’s identity, reinforced by policies and political leadership. Across the continent, women have consistently demonstrated that peace built without them cannot endure.

As the United Nations marks its 80th anniversary, a fundamental part of our reforms must be to ask what kind of multilateralism the world needs for the next generation. The Women, Peace and Security agenda offers a compass: inclusive, evidence-based, and rooted in shared humanity.

To revitalise global peace and security, the principles of 1325 need to be embedded in the renewal of the UN itself. Africa is where this agenda was born.

With deep experience and moral authority, the continent is uniquely positioned to lead the next chapter, not just through its women, but through the collective leadership of a continent whose advocacy for greater inclusion and voice resonate with the reforms of multilateralism presently. I

f heeded, these calls would bring us closer to the Charter’s original vision of sustainable and inclusive global peace.

The author, Nahla Valji is the United Nations Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator in Eritrea.

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT Afrika.