WASHINGTON - Yesterday, the White House announced the release of the 2022 U.S. Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Congressional Report. This is the second report of its kind that evaluates the progress made towards advancing the goals of the 2019 U.S. Women, Peace, and Security Strategy by the four implementing Departments and Agencies identified in the U.S. WPS Act of 2017 – the Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense.
The Department of Defense plays a key role in implementing the U.S. WPS Act and Strategy as characterized in the DoD Women, Peace, and Security Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan (SFIP). The DoD section of the 2022 Congressional report reflects annual data and information collected from across the Department for Fiscal Year 2021. FY 2021 was a pivotal year for the DoD WPS program. It was the first full fiscal year the Department operated with the DoD WPS SFIP and the first full year the Department collected on interagency metrics within the U.S. Strategy on WPS including the DoD specific metrics and indicators in the DoD WPS SFIP.
Over the past year, the Department spent $5.5 million to establish policies and programs to advance implementation of WPS, hire and train qualified personnel, and integrate WPS into relevant training curriculum and professional military education for the Armed Forces. The Department also notified $3 million from the International Security Cooperation Programs to conduct security cooperation programs that incorporate gender analysis and advance women’s participation in defense institutions and national security forces.
Notable efforts include:
- Military Departments hired dedicated WPS personnel for the first time. U.S. Space Command and U.S. Cyber Command also hired their first ever dedicated WPS personnel.
- The Joint Staff and Combatant Commands conducted a total of eight Operationalizing WPS training programs this year, training approximately four hundred DoD personnel to serve as Gender Focal Points (GFPs) and thirty personnel qualified to serve as Gender Advisors (GENADs). These gender advisory personnel are responsible for advancing the implementation of WPS across the Department.
- The Joint Staff adapted the DoD gender analysis framework to align with the Department of State and USAID gender analysis framework, enhancing interagency coordination in support of WPS.
- Air Force General Jacqueline Van Ovost assumed command of U.S. Transportation Command and Army General Laura Richardson assumed command of U.S. Southern Command.
- The Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military Implementation Roadmap provides guidance for WPS-specific initiatives to strengthen collaboration between the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Office of the Under Secretary for Personnel & Readiness and to identify resource requirements for full-time equivalent Gender Advisor billets across several DoD Components. These efforts represent unprecedented attention to the importance of alignment between our commitments to promote women’s meaningful participation in our own force and with partner nations.
- USNORTHCOM provided the first-ever gender advisor support during Operation Allies Welcome, led by the Department of Homeland Security. This included the mobilization, training, and deployment of twenty-seven DoD GENADs and GFPs to eight U.S. installations supporting Afghan evacuees from September 2021 to February 2022.
The report fact sheet can be found at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/18/fact-sheet-us-government-women-peace-and-securityreport-to-congress/.
To access the U.S. Government, Women, Peace, and Security Congressional Report, please visit https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/US-Women-Peace-Security-Report-2022.pdf.