Amplifying the voices of women in the ME Although women in the MENA region are currently suffering from a backlash in the area of womens rights, the current uprisings and transitions taking place in that region provide an invaluable window of opportunity for gender equality. To utilize this opportunity it is extremely important that women effectively participate in decision-making and peace and transition processes. Three Dutch applicants will do so by strengthening the capacities of CSOs at national level (Iraq, OPT, Syria and Yemen) and regional level; challenging attitudes, idea and beliefs on womens participation and linking national results and learning to regional and global level and vice versa. By combining their specific strengths in different areas they will contribute to strengthening womens voices, and socialacceptance thereof, for sustainable conflict transformation through application of UN1325 as a positive and dynamic tool for participatory peace building.

The programme aims to contribute to the creation of an enabling environment for womens leadership and political participation, in order to promote more inclusive, just and sustainable peace, recovery and reconstruction processes, by strengthening womens voices in the political arena, in particular in the area of peace and security, and social acceptance of their (womens) roles, for sustainable conflict transformation in the MENA region.

The specific program objective is strengthening understandingand capacities of stakeholders on UN1325 at global, regional level and atnational level in Yemen, OPT, Iraq and Syria and piloting innovative techniques altering attitudes and believes to create acceptance of gender equality and womens rights.
Expected results include:
1. A contribution to increased accountability and monitoring of the integration of peace, justice and disarmament from a gender perspective into the work and output of the relevant processes of the Human Rights, WPS and disarmament systems, in relation to the MENA region (By monitoring of all Human Rights Council and Security Council sessions; By submission of statements and organisation of side-events; By support to the NGO reporting to the UPR and the Treaty Body system  through information, webinars and guidelines developed for NGO reporting including thenew general recommendation on WPS to CEDAW;
2. Linkages between women, peace and security perspectives and UN1325, and lobby and advocacy on peace <(>&<)> human security towards the League of Arab States;
3 . At least 25civil society representatives have enhanced understanding of state accountability, gendered peace and security, with the inclusion of a masculinities perspective;   (By building the capacity of concerned organisations, individuals and experts on gender-sensitive active nonviolence (with inclusion of a masculinities perspective) and the WPS agenda; By linking and learning from each others (national) contexts and experiences, and bringing them together at the regional level).
4. At least 10 women - and peace organisations have advanced capacity, outreach and influence of womens and peace organisations to address WPS issues at the national and local levels (By improving the ability of civil society organisations to link women at grassroots level to women in positions of representation,either at national level or at the most relevant local/regional level depending on country context; By placing womens participation as central to peace-building and conflict transformation; By coalition building and networking between organisations working towards a gender just peace from either a conflict transformation or womens rights angle).
5. The understanding and support of both womenand men targeted by the program have increased for womens participation in peace and security processes with 10%;(By supporting potential change makers to effectively undertake advocacy roles; By positioning women as strategists in the decision-making process, togo beyond a symbolic presence in peace processes and to ensure that womens concerns are taken fromgrassroots to national level; By altering patriarchal and conservative interpretations of gender roles through testing innovative approaches and techniques; By rolling out a number of successful pilots that have already taken place in the MENA region)