Building Brazil’s National Action Plan: lessons learned and opportunities

Brazil’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP) was launched on 8 March 2017 – International Women’s Day – in the midst of a major political crisis that affected the content of the Plan and engagement of key institutions such as the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Secretariat for Women’s Policies (SPM, from Portuguese). Still, active engagement by the military and foreign service and compromises between stakeholders enabled the development of the Plan. While a strong emphasis on Brazil’s international undertakings was upheld, the domestic challenges confronted by Brazilian women living in extremely unsafe areas of the country were left out, as were other central issues, including trafficking of women, the impact of armed violence and organised crime. Towards the end of the process, civil society participation and the inclusion of a monitoring and evaluation system were undermined by the rise of a conservative tone within ministries participating in the ministerial working group tasked with the responsibility of drafting the NAP.