National Action Plan: Italy commits to developing and adopting its Fourth National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, with the active engagement of civil society and academia in its development and implementation. In addition, Italy commits to supporting the meaningful participation of women from the planning to the implementation phase and prioritizing funding for the NAP implementation.
There are no updates on the Fourth NAP yet. The Italian Parliament allocated 4 million Euro for the 2017-2010 period in support of the implementation of the third National Action Plan on WPS. (pg 64)
Update on the Italian MFA’s website that the funds were disbursed: https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/eventi/2019/04/terzo-piano-di-azione-nazionale-donne-pace-e-sicurezza_0.html
The Third NAP on WPS is the result of an inclusive and participatory approach, focusing on the international and national dimensions of Agenda 1325. It has linkages with the National Strategic Plan on male violence against women 2017-2020, which defines the Italian overall strategy for preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, and replaces the previous special two-year national action plan against sexual and gender-based violence, adopted in July 2015.
Italy pledges to oversee the implementation of the National Strategic Plan on male violence against women (2017-2020) and raise awareness on the scourge of sexual exploitation and abuse, promote guidelines, and support initiatives in favor of the victims.
In its reporting on Beijing+25, Italy provided further updates on this commitment, which is also one of Italy’s top 5 priorities related to gender equality more broadly, are provided in Beijing+25 reporting (pg. 9)
Participation: Italy commits to consolidating and supporting the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network and launch the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediator’s Network. As part of this effort, Italy will organize a series of meetings and trainings, which include: “Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies: SDG 16 implementation and the path towards leaving no one behind” in May 2019, conference on “Remittances, the role of women, peace and development” in June 2019, a high-level seminar on the role of women and girls as drivers for peace by the end of 2019 and organize a women forum on the margins of the Mediterranean Dialogues also by end of 2019.
Additional reading: In October 2017, in the framework of the Italian mandate on the Security Council and the Third NAP on WPS, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (MWMN). The Network aims at increasing the number of women involved in peace efforts during the entire conflict cycle, and facilitating their appointment as mediators, Special Envoys, etc., at a local and at an international level. The MWMN is part of the Core Group for the launch of the Global Alliance of the Regional Women Mediators Networks. (pg. 65-66)