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Interview with Mari Skåre: First NATO Special

Representative of the Secretary General for Women, Peace &

Security

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Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security | Washington, D.C. | September 2014

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Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda Mari Skåre served as NATO’s first Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) for Women, Peace and Security, and was appointed to this post on August 27, 2012. Prior to this appointment, she served as Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative at the Norwegian Delegation to NATO. She also served as Minister Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission at the Norwegian Embassy in Kabul, and Counsellor and Legal Adviser at the Norwegian Mission to the UN. Throughout her career, Ms. Skåre has worked extensively on issues relating to women, peace and security. We spoke with Ms. Skåre in November 2012 for our Profiles in Peace oral histories project as she was beginning her post, and we have had the opportunity to work with her on multiple occasions, including as part of our 2013 Advancing Afghan Women Symposium. On September 16, 2014 we sat down to talk with her about some of the most pressing peace and security issues today and how NATO is addressing them in a way that protects and empowers women. She also reflected on her tenure as SRSG. Read the full transcript of our interview below. !!!!!!

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Parts of the interview have been edited for length and clarity. Q: The Wales Summit has just concluded, where representatives of Member States reaffirmed their commitment to Afghan women, who have made considerable gains in the last decade, but whose future could be in jeopardy with the transition process. How will NATO engage with Afghan women and the Afghan government to ensure their security post-troop withdrawal? The transition is ongoing and about to conclude. From my point of view, the Afghan National Security Forces have demonstrated an ability to provide security services to the Afghan population. As reflected in a series of reports developed by the Afghan Women’s Network, the people’s trust in the security forces is high. NATO will continue its collaboration with the Afghan government and support the Afghan people. The intention is to conduct a training, advising and assist mission post-2014 in Afghanistan. This mission is the first NATO-led mission where a gender perspective has been integrated in the planning right from the beginning. We are currently training and advising on gender and supporting the recruitment and retention of women in the security forces, and our intention is to continue these efforts in new missions. We also have a long-term partnership with the Afghan Government; in this context we are also aiming to support the inclusion of women in various sectors of the Afghan society. The development of this partnership depends, of course, on the plans and interests of the Afghan Government. In addition to our collaboration with the Afghan Government, I would also like to emphasize that our!cooperation with Afghan civil society over the past years has been strengthened. The reports developed by the Afghan Women’s Network document recent developments in women, peace and security – women’s access to schools, access to the job marked, the levels of violence committed against them, and other women and security aspects. These reports have been widely disseminated and discussed within NATO, and informed our preparations of the Wales Summit. If you look at the new NATO Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, you will see a strong commitment to strengthen our relationships with civil society. We wish to establish mechanisms for continuous dialogue in our missions and operations. This remains to be a very important aspect of our operations in Afghanistan. Q: In your role, you helped to oversee the development and initial implementation of the NATO policy on mainstreaming UNSCR 1325 into operations. Can you identify what you believe are some of the successes to date? And what about areas that need further attention and effort? If you look at our new Policy on Women, Peace and Security, one of our overall aims is to integrate women, peace and security priorities into NATO’s everyday business. Our overall aim is also to change the institutional culture and mindset in order to be able to change behavior and the way we do our business. I think, therein, in these aims, lie our successes and also our major challenges.

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If I look back on how we have progressed over the past two years, I could say that we are now much more able to integrate women, peace and security priorities and the gender perspective into our various strand of work preventing and dealing with crisis situations. I see, for instance, that the gender perspective is much better integrated into our operational planning and execution. We have strengthened the role of the gender advisers and we have strengthened the training for our troops. I also see that gender is much more mainstreamed into other work of NATO. For instance, in our peacetime cooperation with partner nations, women, peace and security priorities and practical assistance on this features regularly. !One example is our collaboration with Jordan, where they have had a strategy for recruitment and retention of women in place for many years. Jordan has developed a project to strengthen their recruitment and retention of women in the armed forces, and we have set up a trust fund to support this project. If I look ahead, I see that, while we have progressed, we still have a long way to go. The main challenge that remains is to change how people think about the issues discussed in order to change their behavior. We also have to continue to institutionalize our work on women, peace and security. We have made a very important step by establishing the position of the Special Representative and recruiting my successor. I welcome Ambassador Marriet Schuurman, and I am sure she will be a great Special Representative.

!!Q: Congratulations on the commendable job you have done as the first NATO SRSG for Women, Peace and Security. Your voice has been incredibly important worldwide and your successor has big shoes to fill. Can you provide us with some insight on the upcoming priorities for your office and the next SRSG? How will NATO continue to lead on women, peace and security issues? What do you foresee as some of the challenges that need to be addressed? Thank you very much for these kind words. I am confident that my successor will be very able in this job, and I wish her all the best. She is a very skilled and competent person with a lot of

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experience in conflict areas and women, peace and security issues. The framework for future work and priorities are set in our new Policy and Action Plan. Both documents are public and can be found at our web site. The Action Plan was developed in consultation with the UN and with civil society, which I believe helped to make the Action Plan very forward leaning and strong. !There are four key outcomes that I would like to highlight: The first key outcome is that we, NATO, the Allies and Partner Nations, are committed to reducing the barriers for women’s participation in our institutions and operations. This priority is very important, and has to come from within if you really want to make a difference. As you could see at the NATO Summit in Wales, the defense and security sectors are very male-dominated. But women have a rightful place at the table when important decisions on peace and security are made. We must see to that we take part in solving the security challenges on equal footing with men. The other outcome that I would like to highlight is that we are committed to reducing the risk of sexual and gender-based violence. There have been significant developments on this topic under the leadership of William Hague and Angelina Jolie, who hosted a Global Summit in London in June on the topic. This initiative has influenced our thinking in NATO, and a key deliverable from our side will be military guidelines on how to reduce and respond to sexual and gender-based violence. Other key priorities in the Action Plan include how we work on these issues. Women, peace and security is such a broad and complex agenda, and, as such, it requires strong commitment from many actors. NATO’s collaboration with other international organizations and international actors is key to continuous development, and we have a great opportunity to strengthen these relations. We have already strengthened our collaboration with the UN, but there are many other possibilities for collaboration with other organizations that we should explore. We are engaging with many organizations that have different experiences. We should develop joint strategic thinking and ensure coordination on the ground. The other group of actors we must develop our relationships with is civil society. It has been important for me to articulate a policy on this for NATO and we must continue to involve civil society in our work. You will see in our Action Plan that we are committed to exploring the establishment of a Civil Society Advisory Panel to NATO. These four key areas – participation of women, reducing risk of sexual and gender-based violence, how we work on this agenda with other international organizations and engaging civil society – will help ensure that we deliver on this area more efficiently to get the results we want. Q: Can you share with us one or two of your favorite memories from your tenure as the first SRSG on women, peace and security? This has been a positive experience, and I’ve really liked this job. It’s been a real privilege to work with the many people who are engaged in this agenda in ensuring that women are able to

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develop to their full potential. I have travelled extensively and, for instance, my travel to Jordan where I met with Brigadier General Nawal and her team was a great joy. It was a pleasure to get to know them, to listen to them and understand their engagement on these issues – this creates a sense of solidarity and a feeling of being part of something that is bigger than you. During many of my travels I was able to meet people who are really courageous. Some are not only engaged in!working on a positive agenda for their societies, but they are also taking great personal risks in doing this. It has been a real privilege to meet these people. I would, in particular, like to mention that my first trip in this position was to the U.S. It was a fantastic visit where I met with representatives from the Government and civil society, and my meeting with students at the Institute for Women, Peace and Security on the 7th of November 2012 stands out as an extraordinary positive experience. I remember speaking to the students at the Institute, and they, on this day of election showed such interest and engagement. This is a really wonderful memory. Mari Skåre completed her post as the first NATO Special Representative of the Secretary General for Women, Peace and Security on September 23, 2014. She has returned to Norway to serve in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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©Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security 2014!