President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General places the women, peace and security agenda among its priorities. Where the end of wars is negotiated, women are still rarely present, even though their participation makes peace more durable.
Absent from the tables where peace is decided. In the peace negotiations of recent decades, women have made up only a small share of mediators and signatories. Those whom war strikes most directly, in families and villages, weigh least on the agreements meant to end it.
A peace that holds better. United Nations work shows that a peace agreement negotiated with the participation of women has markedly greater chances of lasting. Their presence widens the subjects addressed, from combatants to schools, and anchors the agreement in society rather than in the balance of force alone.
To protect and to let decide. Resolution 1325, adopted in 2000 by the Security Council, calls both for protecting women from the violence of war and for bringing them into the decisions that end it. Twenty-five years later, that commitment still awaits its application.
What the Secretariat can carry. The Secretary-General appoints the mediators and representatives who lead peace processes. He can require the presence of women at those tables and recall that a peace made without half of a people rarely holds.
Experience in multilateral negotiation. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
Security Council Resolution 1325 and the United Nations' work on women, peace and security are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net