Our Secure Future (OSF) believes that women’s full participation in society makes the crucial difference in achieving more effective governance and lasting peace. OSF aims to strengthen the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) movement by amplifying women’s voices, strengthening the global network of women peacebuilders, and promoting committed action by multiple stakeholders to turn policy into practice. We use our convening power to strengthen the global network of women peacebuilders and women-led organizations working on international peace and security by bringing together multiple actors from across sectors to foster new avenues of collaboration, big-picture thinking, and opportunities to strengthen the Women, Peace and Security community of practice.
After a series of consultations with multiple stakeholders in the WPS field during the summer and fall of 2016, we found that the issues of developing a shared vision for the Women, Peace and Security agenda and collaborating on common narratives were recurrently named as being critical to making progress in this field. The overwhelming feedback pointed to the need for new models and mindsets in order to create conditions for a lasting peace.
Therefore, in June of 2017, Our Secure Future partnered with the Nobel Women’s Initiative to convene 20 peacemakers from all over the world at the inaugural Designing Our Secure Future gathering. During this, convening we worked together using methods drawn from futurists, scenario planners, and storytellers. We anchored ourselves in the forces that shaped the current environment. We also imagined what the future might hold. Having done this hands-on work, we began to shape a more desirable future.