The Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security Project
The full and meaningful leadership, empowerment, and participation of women is essential to resolving deadly conflict and building stable, prosperous, and just post-conflict societies. To help fulfill this vision, Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security (MAWPS) has created a group of leaders that identifies, encourages, and mobilizes the voices of prominent men and women in support of women’s engagement in global processes of peace, reconciliation, and post-conflict reconstruction. While women-led efforts that created the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda have made considerable progress, men must be part of the solution.
Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security is bringing global leaders—including prominent men from the defense, diplomacy, development, and business arenas—more fully into the campaign, along with the courageous women leaders who have long driven this advocacy, including grassroots advocates from war-affected countries. We are partnering with key institutions, including UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), advocacy groups, and academic institutions. Along with our partners, we ally with, listen to, and open doors for women’s groups and individuals calling for gender justice in conflict and post-conflict settings.
Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security members will help to monitor and encourage full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, National Action Plans (NAPs), and laws—including the US Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017—and provide implementers at all levels access to information they need to do their jobs effectively.
Our Partners ally with, listen to, and open doors for women’s groups and individuals calling for gender justice in conflict and post-conflict settings.
Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security is a project of Our Secure Future. Our Secure Future works to strengthen the Women, Peace and Security agenda and community of practice to enable more effective policy decision-making. Our Executive Director for this project is Ambassador Donald Steinberg, former Deputy Administrator of the US Agency for International Development, President of World Learning, US Ambassador to Angola, and Special Assistant to the President for African affairs. Listen to Ambassador Steinberg discuss the importance of male allies here.
Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace and Security Distinguished Partner Awards
A key pillar of the MAWPS work is to strengthen and empower grassroots organizations in conflict-affected countries. Local organizations have their fingers on the pulse of their communities; mobilize quickly and effectively at the grassroots level; work together across divides; build broad support; and create sustainable solutions.
To support grassroots activities through a trust-based model of funding, MAWPS identifies civil society groups in conflict-affected countries with established records of leadership, integrity, and trust. These groups are reviewed by a diverse committee to ensure that they are representative of and accountable to their communities. They work at the nexus of gender rights, health, conflict resolution and population displacement, and often adopt a more holistic approach to addressing the needs of the local population. Over the past 5 years, OSF/MAWPS has contributed over $160,000 in unsolicited small grants to local grassroots organizations.
