BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON THE UNITED STATES STRATEGY ON WOMEN, PEACE, AND SECURITY
Via Teleconference
2:04 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you so much. And thank you everyone for joining us on the call today. We're very excited to announce the release of the United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security, which President Trump just signed today.
This call will be background, to a senior administration official. We will take questions after the call. There will not be follow-up. And with that, I'll go ahead and kick it over to my colleague to tell you a little bit about the strategy.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hello, everyone. I'm very excited today to talk about the strategy that, as my colleague mentioned, President Trump signed today.
To kick it off: President Trump is committed to protecting the United States and promoting global peace and stability by enhancing women's leadership in efforts to prevent conflict, stem terrorism, and promote security around the world.
As a little background: In October 2017, President Trump signed the Women, Peace, and Security Act, which aims to increase the United States’ efforts to enhance the meaningful participation of women in all aspects of overseas conflict prevention. This is important because this is the first standalone, comprehensive legislation of its kind, globally, which solidifies the United States as a trailblazing global leader in building innovative solutions to difficult foreign policy challenges.
Promoting women's meaningful inclusion and participation across efforts to restore security and support economic development is not simply a women's issue; it is a national security issue and it's vital for human progress.
Women provide essential contributions to forging lasting solutions to conflict, terrorism, and crisis. However, their perspectives and leadership are too often not tapped into. A growing body of evidence actually demonstrates that women are partners that we cannot afford to ignore, as their participation leads to better outcomes not only for women, but for all societies.
The administration fully supports the comprehensive integration of women into conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peace building, and disaster recovery efforts worldwide, and recognizes that the protection of women from violence is critical to their meaningful participation in promoting security.
The United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security is a whole-of-government plan, and it directs the federal departments and agencies within foreign policy to take steps to promote women's participation and safety in efforts to resolve conflict, recover from natural disasters, and to promote security.
This strategy essentially directs the interagency with foreign policy and assistance missions to increase efforts to guarantee meaningful participation of women in conflict resolution and disaster recovery; to increase women and girls' level of physical safety, access to assistance, and justice in areas experiencing conflict or disaster; and it ensures that the impact of our efforts are lasting.
The United States strategy and effort within this space, in conjunction with the initiative to support women's prosperity, including the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, recognizes that societies that empower women economically and politically are far more stable and peaceful.
The primary implementers of this interagency strategy are the Department of State, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for International Development -- USAID.
These departments and agencies will integrate the objectives of this strategy into their internal training and put its principles into action during foreign interactions and programs around the globe.
So as we approach next year's 20-year anniversary of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325 -- which, for the first time, recognized women's essential contributions to preventing and resolving conflict -- the United States remains committed to expanding the role of women in the establishment and maintenance of global peace, security, and prosperity around the world. Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you so much. And so I apologize, I didn't mention on the call -- it did come out in the invite to the call though -- this call is embargoed until the release of the strategy and the statement goes out here from the White House, which I expect to happen sometime later on this hour.
With that, we'll go ahead and take a few questions on the strategy. As a reminder, this call is on background, to a senior administration official. And I'll kick it back over to our lovely moderator to give directions on how to get in the queue.
Q Hi, this is Patsy Widakuswara from Voice of America. Can you hear me?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We sure can.
Q Okay, great. Thank you for doing this briefing. I just really want to make a simple query. Is there any new funding for this strategy? And can you give us some real examples of what might be -- the initiatives be under this new strategy? Thanks.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, so -- thank you for asking that. As a little background, we have existed in this space -- in contributing to women, peace, and security -- for quite some time in the interagency. And so, rather than use new funding, we're actually reframing funding that's already in existence. So, in other words, we're pivoting the funding and trying to work towards kind of a more integrated strategy to build on lessons learned and efficiencies of the past.
Q Yes. My name is Edward Szall with TruNews. The question I have is actually related to -- this was brought up, to my understanding, in the Ivory Coast by President Trump's daughter, Ivanka. And I was wondering, in the speech, she noted that this could also mean, potentially, that a woman would be mandated to be in the room, for example, at peace talks with North Korea. Can you give a comment on that?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, first of all, just to go back on kind of how we're going to implement this strategy -- we wouldn't necessarily mandate. We rather, kind of, work to build capacity of different governments.
But we, for ourselves, mandate that the interagency -- like the Department of State, Department of Defense, and USAID -- will actually lead on programs under this strategy and kind of work towards integrated efforts.
So, for the sake of right now, what's really mandated in this strategy is that, within 90 days, we come up with a (inaudible) to measure the framework and strategy moving forward. Within 120 days, the interagency develops a consolidated implementation plan. And then, within a year, we're really rolling out training to make this more established. So, in other words, this takes time.
Q Yes. This is Karen Rubin from News and Photo Features. So I'm wondering how this strategy and this philosophy underpins with the legislation and the support of this administration for legislation that takes away a woman's ability to make her own reproductive choices, and how it jives with the United States pulling back aid to countries that provide reproductive services?
Also, I'm a little unclear as to why you give this timeline -- 90 days, 100 days, 120 days, a year -- when you said that this strategy has been in place for 20 years.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure. So this is [senior administration official]. I'll leave it to [senior administration official] to answer the -- to clarify on where the strategy comes from after I mention this. So this strategy resulted out of a requirement in the 2017 Women's Peace and Security Act that was passed by Congress bipartisanly and signed into law by the President. So what you're finding in this strategy is answering a call from Congress that we worked with legislatures, with the interagency, and with NGOs to formulate.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And just on the 90 days, 120 days -- just to clarify it, there might be a little bit of confusion here. So the strategy is actually quite new. The reference to something 20 years ago is the U.N. Security Council Resolution, which recognized that women made essential contributions to preventing and resolving conflict. However, this strategy is new in its kind. And as [senior administration official] mentioned it, it was actually just signed in 2017 as an act into legislation.
So this strategy is -- and kind of the integrated efforts -- though we've done work in the past in this area, this is all very, very new. And so, when you're hearing about the timelines rolling out, it's really making sure that the interagency is working together and that we're working as a whole-of-government effort to not only name priorities, but also figure out how to measure them.
So, once again, it's new that it's such a comprehensive strategy.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, great. Well, thank you so much, everyone, for joining the call. As I mentioned, the information on this call is embargoed until the statement goes out from the White House and the strategy has been released. It is on background, to a senior administration official. If you have any additional questions, feel free to send me an email. And with that, we'll go ahead and complete the call.
END 2:16 P.M. EDT
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