Australia-2019 Commitments – 1325 National Action Plans

Financial commitments: Pledges AUD 1.2 million to the Myanmar-Australia Peace Support programme.

WPS will continue to be a key feature of our MAPS investment which will be active throughout 2020 (investment extended until end of 2021). MAPS remains a practical and implementable commitment up to October 2020.

The Australian Government will provide an estimated $84.0 million in total ODA to Myanmar in 2019-20. From 2016-2019, 29.2 million AUD was provided to the Myanmar-Australia Peace Support Program.

Focus on providing employment opportunities for women as part of the Australian’s humanitarian support through the Mines Advisory Group in Sri Lanka.

Additional funding of 800,000 AUD was provided to MAG.

Funding the Child Development Initiative in Sri Lanka to provide counselling and empowerment for war-affected female-headed households and the Association for War Affected Women in Sri Lanka, which promote women’s leadership as part of post-war reconciliation.

Further information about Australian aid to Sri Lanka, including on women’s employment and leadership, can be found here.

Commits to support rollout of gender-responsive budgeting to deliver commitments in Timor Leste’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Australia’s Governance for Development Program (GfD) continues to support gender-responsive budgeting to ensure ministries systematically take into account the priorities of women in budget allocation, implementation and monitoring – including resourcing for Timor-Leste’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. GfD supported Timor-Leste to develop policy guidance and assisted the development and roll out of gender budget markers and indicators across ministries. These tools were used for the first time by all public agencies in 2020 budget preparations.

This project on gender-responsive budgeting has been ongoing since 2017, and updates are provided here.

Security Sector: The Australian Defense Force has established 10 full-time gender advisers, and the Australian Federal Police pledges to embed gender advisors in all missions. Externally, Australia will assist in implementation of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Gender Strategy (2019-2021).

The Australian Federal Police continues to train and embed gender advisors and focal points in its International missions and posts. During 2019 AFP Gender Advisors placed within the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste supported the development and implementation of Gender strategies with partner police agencies.

The Australian Defence Force has established ten full time Gender Advisor positions, in the following areas:

Director Gender, Peace Security, responsible for oversight of WPS activities and implementing the National Action Plan
Three Service Gender Advisors (Army, Navy, Air Force)
Three deployed Gender Advisors (Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East Region)
Gender Advisor dedicated to training and running the ADF Operational Gender Advisor Course
Two Gender Advisors responsible for integrating gender in operational planning and execution
The Australian Defence Force was a stakeholder in working groups for the second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, providing advice and guidance on the integration of gender perspectives into military operations and planning.

National Action Plan: Commits to continue implementing Australia’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019.

Since April 2019, the Australian Government has continued to implement its Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) to combat modern slavery in global supply chains. This includes:

hosting an international conference on the Act in June 2019, with over 400 business and civil society representatives, including representatives from more than 18 different countries; and
releasing detailed guidance for business on compliance with the Act in September 2019.

The Government has also strengthened its response to forced marriage by amending the Criminal Code to explicitly criminalise all marriages involving children under the age of 16 years.

The AFP is committed to working further on and continuing the implementation of Australia’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and Slavery 2015-2019, especially in South East Asia and the South Pacific.

There is a new plan, National Action Plan to Combat Modern Slavery 2020-24.

Capacity building: Provide technical support to Timor Leste Government to report on CEDAW obligations and support the Pacific Executive Women’s Leadership Forum.

The AFP is providing technical support to Timor Leste Government to report on CEDAW obligations and support the Pacific Executive Women’s Leadership Forum.

An Australian-funded Gender Advisor and two Australian Volunteers (together with UN Women funded consultants) provided technical support to the Secretariat of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEII) to prepare Timor-Leste’s 4th periodic state party report, submitted in November 2019.

Additional commitments shared by Australia in 29 January 2020 updates:

Ongoing support for the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (AUD 5,140,000 2016-2020)

Key partnership for DFAT’s WPS work across the humanitarian- development nexus, with an additional AUD140,000 in 2019 was in support of Bangladesh operations that focus on Rohingya women.

Australia is listed on the WPHF website as a donor: https://wphfund.org/our-donors/

Funding peak women’s body Rede Feto for Timor Leste’s 4th National Women Congress.

With significant support from Australia, Rede Feto and its member organisations held the fourth National Women’s Congress in October 2019. More than 1,080 women participated in 12 municipal level forums and the national conference. Both the bottom up process and the end product of the congress – a Platform of Action for Government – gave women across the country an opportunity to voice their concerns and ideas for change, including in relation to the country’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

More details about Rede Feto are available on their website.

Continued support for WPS implementation through humanitarian action in response to Syria and Iraq crises.

Australia’s aid investments in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in 2019 and 2020 have sought to prevent gender-based violence and provide assistance to survivors. Our initiatives in Jordan and Lebanon also support education and economic access, strengthen the voice and agency of women and girls and their civic participation within their communities. Australia is also supporting improved protection for women and girls in Iraq, and advancing their participation in security and peace dialogues.