#wps2017

In advance of the UNSC debate, the Permanent Missions of Namibia, Colombia and Norway, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) convened a high-level panel discussion to launch the Women, Peace and Security index (WPSI). The launch event took place on 26 October 2017 at UN Headquarters. The WPSI is structured around three dimensions of women’s well-being: inclusion (economic, social and political); justice (formal laws and informal discrimination); and security at the family, community and social levels. The Index captures and quantifies these three dimensions through 11 indicators, and ranks 153 countries, covering more than 98 percent of the world’s population, along the three dimensions. A report titled, ‘Tracking Sustainable Peace Through Inclusion, Justice and Security for Women: Women Peace and Security Index 2017/2018’, which introduces the Index, shows that few countries perform uniformly well across key indicators of inclusion, justice and security. Iceland ranks the highest on the WPS Index while Afghanistan and Syria are the bottom ranked countries. According to the report, 30 countries score in the top third for all three dimensions, with achievements in each dimension reinforcing progress more broadly. The report also notes that while there are clear regional patterns in performance, there are also major differences within regions, and the lowest scoring regions all have some countries whose score exceeds the global average. Such countries include Nepal in South Asia and Namibia, South Africa, Mauritius, Ghana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe in Sub-Saharan Africa.