Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what actions they expect to complete in pursuit of (1) the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and (2) the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, by the end of the present National Action Plan pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2022.

The UK continues to champion the ethos of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) through our National Action Plan (NAP) on WPS (2018-2022). We will continue to focus our work to ensure better protection and empowerment of women in conflict situations overseas through our diplomatic, development and defence engagements alongside our bilateral and multilateral partners. We will work to achieve this through the seven Strategic Outcomes of the NAP. For example, we remain committed to ensuring women have full, equal and meaningful participation in peacekeeping; providing £1.2m this financial year to the Elsie Initiative Fund to increase the number of uniformed women in peace operations. The UK will also continue to tackle gender-based violence, particularly violence against women and girls as the most prevalent form of gender-based violence.

The Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative will continue to deliver policy and programme interventions supporting its objectives of strengthening pathways to justice for all survivors of sexual violence in conflict, holding the perpetrators to account and enhancing support available to all survivors and children born of conflict-related sexual violence, including tackling the stigma they face.