The Inter-agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) called for the establishment of the Inter-agency Taskforce on Women, Peace and Security in February 2001 to follow up on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000 on women, peace and security which was adopted on 31 October 2000. It is chaired by Ms. Angela E.V. King, Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women. Throughout 2001 to 2002, the main work of the Taskforce was the implementation and finalization of the Secretary-General's Study on Women, Peace and Security issued in October 2002. As the Study was completed, the IANWGE, in its 2003 report, recommended a number of activities for the Taskforce to undertake. The Taskforce was very active in 2003 and met eight times, conducted routine information exchange by e:mail and implemented its workplan, among other activities.

At the 2004 meeting of the IANWGE, the Taskforce met and developed its 2004 plan of work and drafted its first Terms of Reference to be shared with the full membership for approval. The Network decided on the continuation of the taskforce in 2004.

Goal: To play a critical role in the advocacy for and coordination of the United Nations systems joint response to women, peace and security, in partnership with Member States and non-governmental organizations, based on the Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security and in line with the critical area of concern for the Beijing Platform for Action - women and armed conflict.

Advocacy: To strengthen and further explore innovative approaches to ensure that issues related to women, peace and security and the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 are fully incorporated into the policy and operational working agenda of headquarters and field-based actors including the senior-level management executive committees, Special Representatives of the Secretary-General and peacekeeping teams, UN system entities and civil society.

Partnership: To strengthen existing partnerships and seek out new partners so as to build closer linkages to achieve enhanced coordination and collaboration on women, peace and security

Monitoring: Improve the reporting on and monitoring of the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) women, peace and security issues and make this information widely available to all actors.

1. Collect information, analyse and prepare the 2004 Secretary-General's report to the Security Council on women, peace and security for 31 October 2004.
2. Ensure close links with and contribute to the review and appraisal of the Beijing Platform for Action (March 2005) and the ECOSOC substantive session (July 2004) where the implementation of the ECOSOC agreed conclusions 1997/2 on gender mainstreaming would be considered.
3. Review the Expert Group Meeting reports on women's participation in peace agreements (Ottawa meeting - EGM/PEACE/2003/REPORT) and electoral processes in post-conflict countries (Glen Cove meeting-EGM/ELEC/2004/REPORT) and select recommendations on which the task force could work.
4. Review and discuss with members their needs for gender expertise in gender and women, peace and security issues. Following this discussion review the mechanisms for quick retrieval of names of experts for possible short and long term assignments.
5. Relaunch NGO fact sheets to collect information on women's groups in key priority countries where UN has peacekeeping or peace building missions.
6. Support the work of the Special Adviser to ensure that gender perspectives are integrated in the work of the executive committees (ECPS, ECHA, and EC-ESA).
7. Strengthen partnerships: Prioritize the groups to work with in 2004 including UN Development Group Office, Committee on Small Arms (CASA), The Watchlist on Children in Armed Conflict, and the IASC Taskforce on Gender.
8. Continue to review the gender content of Security Council reports and resolutions and provide support to DPKO and DPA to improve gender content in reporting.

The Taskforce would meet monthly in New York. Attempts would be made to involve non-New York members in a more fruitful way through holding teleconferences on a regular basis depending on cost implications. An e:mail listing of Taskforce members is used to distribute the reports of meetings and to share information of interest. All members of the Taskforce are urged to use the e:mail listing for dissemination of information. The DPKO Gender Advisers are added to the e:mail distribution so as to keep them informed of the work of the Taskforce.

The Taskforce has 20 UN members and five NGO observers. The members of the Taskforce include: OSAGI task manager, DAW, DDA, DPA, DPI, DPKO, ESCWA, ILO, OCHA, OHCHR, OHRM, OSRSG-CAAC, UNDP, UN-HABITAT, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNU, WFP, IOM and the NGO Working Group including the Hague Appeal for Peace, International Alert, International Women's Tribune Center, Women's Commission on Refugees, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Amnesty International.

To learn more about the work of Taskforce members on women, peace and security, please read the following document:
Gender mainstreaming in the work of the United Nations on peace and security [ E/2004/CRP.3, 19 May 2004 ]