Women, Peace and Security: National Action Plans in the UK and Ukraine

Authors: Christine Chinkin and Oksana Potapova

Unlike the UK’s National Action Plan (NAP) for the UN Security Council’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, which has been developed primarily in a foreign policy context and as a tool of external assistance, Ukraine’s National Action Plan has had a domestic focus since it first adopted in 2016. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a thorough consultation for the revision of Ukraine’s NAP was initiated, with the aim of making the plan applicable to the ongoing war context and groups made vulnerable by the full-scale invasion.

This policy brief highlights how localisation of Ukraine’s NAP remains a priority, especially while the status of local democracy in Ukraine continues to be vulnerable. The authors point to the importance of putting structures in place to ensure participation of civil society more broadly, and of women more specifically, as local coalitions of organisations seek to work on regional plans. The authors also highlight key challenges to enabling active participation, and offer recommendations for addressing these challenges.