This morning, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide met with representatives from the Nordic Women Mediators - Norway (NWM-Norway) network. At the meeting Eriksen Søreide received the official outcome document from the 2018 NWM Annual Meeting in Copenhagen, a letter addressed to all the five Nordic Ministers for Foreign Affairs.
The letter brings attention to some lessons learned related to promoting, supporting and ensuring women's participation and influence throughout ongoing and increasingly complex peace negotiations, mediation processes and peace building efforts. The international community is not consistent in its approach to the inclusion of women in peace efforts. To address these inconsistencies the NWM lists seven recommendations ranging from the importance of including women from the outset of peace process design, to improved funding for women's civil society organisations and the establishment of strong linkages between the official peace processes (Track 1) and civil society peace initiatives (Track 2 and 3). At the meeting Minister Eriksen Søreide was also briefed on the outcomes of the recent NWM annual meeting in Oslo and the launch of the Global Women Mediators Alliance scheduled for September 2019.
