Women, Peace and Security Center of Excellence

Excellence was the driving force when the Philippines successfully hosted the first ministerial-level International Conference on Women, Peace and Security last October 2024, a landmark event for our country in terms of advancing the Global Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda.

- PEACE BY PEACE Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr.

As an offshoot of the historic event and the country’s quest for excellence to push forward the WPS agenda, the Philippines finally launched its Women, Peace and Security Center of Excellence on March 27 is the first in Asia Pacific and the third of its kind in the world.

The Center will serve as a platform that will provide women with meaningful and substantive opportunities to participate, represent, and take the lead in the areas of peace and security, fields that have been traditionally male-dominated.

At the launching, I underscored that “as nations throughout the world come together to move forward the women, peace and security agenda, the establishment of a WPS Center of Excellence in the Philippines is truly a major milestone not only for our country, but for the global WPS agenda as a whole.”

In her keynote message during the event, Budgeting Management Secretary and Chairperson of the Center’s Advisory Council, Amenah Pangandaman, noted that through the center, “experts and stakeholders can share best practices, forge partnerships, and enhance our capacity to implement WPS initiatives” from the local to the international level.

Rosalyn Mesina, country programme coordinator of UN Women Philippines, congratulated the collective effort for operationalizing the Center months after its announcement during the ICWPS, stressing that “this is the place for us to get together and multiply the initiatives.”