GAPS is deeply concerned by last week's announcement of new UK asylum and returns policy by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. The proposals focus on restricting rights rather than ensuring safety and protection and mark an alarming shift in the UK's…

In this Shadow Report Assessing UK Government Action of Women Peace and Security in 2024, GAPS assesses the UK Government’s implementation of its fifth National Action Plan (NAP) on…

This set of Case Studies - Assessing UK Government Action on Women Peace and Security in 2024 complements GAPS’ 2024 Shadow Report by grounding its analysis in the lived experiences of women and girls in conflict-affected contexts. Focusing on Ukraine, the…

Statement from GAPS Network Members on the UK Government’s Deprioritisation of Gender Equality in Aid Spending Members of the GAPS Network have issued a joint statement expressing deep concern at the UK Government’s deprioritisation of gender equality and the rights…

The Labour government’s decision to further slash the aid budget while increasing defence spending is a stark reinforcement of militarism at the expense of those most vulnerable. Despite performative claims that women and girls are at the heart of UK…

Toni Haastrup, University of Manchester Among global North countries like the UK, the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has primarily focused on its implications within international peacebuilding and its applicability to conflict settings. In this context WPS is seen as applying only to the foreign policy domain, in places impacted by challenges that are seen as irrelevant to Global North contexts. This view is endemic to many Western countries’ perceptions of who WPS applies to.

Following the Foreign Secretary Rt Hon David Lammy MP’s response to a parliamentary question on 28th October 2024, GAPS and 37 concerned organisations are deeply troubled by these comments and call on the Foreign Secretary to reaffirm the Government’s commitment…

The new Government has a mandate and opportunity to make the UK and the wider world more fair and secure. The UK's effective implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is an essential framework to achieve this.

On 23 April, 2024 the UK Government passed the Safety of Rwanda Bill. Please see here the GAPS Secretariat statement on Safety of Rwanda bill.

Read our report: Assessing UK Government Action on Women, Peace and Security in 2023.   One year on from the launch, GAPS analyses the UK Government’s implementation of the fifth National Action Plan (NAP) on Women Peace and Security (WPS) undertaken…

Dear Prime Minister, Subject: The UK must demand that Israel immediately stops its offensive into Rafah and call for a ceasefire now We write to you as international humanitarian, peacebuilding and human rights organisations. Many of us have worked in…

On 20 November 2023, the UK Government published International development in a contested world: ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change, its International Development White Paper. GAPS welcomes the publication of the White Paper and we are pleased to see…

Assessing UK Government Action on Women, Peace and Security in 2022. In this shadow report, GAPS assesses the 2022 Annual Report to Parliament by the UK Government and considers overarching lessons learned from the 4th National Action Plan (NAP), which ran from 2018 to 2022. It also considers key recommendations for His Majesty’s Government (HMG)’s 5th NAP, which will run from 2023 to 2027.   

In February 2023 GAPS welcomed the UK Government’s latest, fifth, National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. GAPS is launching the GAPS Response to the UK's 5th NAP, our response to the 2023-2027 UK NAP. The response outlines GAPS' reflections both on the NAP itself and implementation, including ongoing development of the UK Government’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) plan.  GAPS remains encouraged by the process in developing the NAP, particularly the consultative nature of it.

GAPS welcomes the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) publication of the International Women and Girls strategy on the 8th March 2023 . This strategy is an opportunity to meaningfully implement commitments to women’s rights and gender equality across the triple nexus of development, peacebuilding and humanitarian response.

In this shadow report, GAPS assesses the 2021 Annual Report to Parliament by the UK Government and focuses on how the UK Government has used, and could have used, the penultimate year of implementation for this National Action Plan (NAP) to…