Programmatic note: UN Women countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism support within the framework of women, peace, and security

In 2015, the UN Security Council resolution (UNSCR) 2242 encouraged Member States and the United Nations to ensure greater integration of their agendas on women, peace, and security (WPS), counter-terrorism, and countering violent extremism. In addition, UNSCR 2467 (2019) reaffirms the linkages among WPS, counter-terrorism, and countering violent extremism. However, the risk of securitizing and instrumentalizing women’s rights has been highlighted by civil society, among others.

The sixth and seventh iterations of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy underlined the importance of gender analysis and the role of women and civil society engagement in counter-terrorism. In 2020 and 2021, UN Women initiated a series of expert discussions on the centrality of the WPS agenda as a human rights framework in contexts impacted by terrorism and violent extremism, and in situations of emergency. These discussions included UN actors, international non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, and Member States. The substantive recommendations of these discussions informed UN Women’s conceptual framework when providing policy, coordination, and programmatic support at the global level. 

This programmatic note serves as a strategic tool for outlining UN Women’s global theory of change, including its strategic objective and strategies of implementation. The theory of change feeds into output three of UN Women’s WPS Signature Intervention and is in line with the Strategic Plan 2022–2025.