Isis Women’s International Cross-Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) in partnership with Club de Madrid (CdM), Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) and Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in collaboration with United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) held a regional workshop in Addis Ababa from the 6th to 9th October 2009 on Women’s Leadership for Peace and Security in the Greater Horn of Africa.

The workshop is part of an initiative to build women’s skills and capacity in peace and security related issues, to foster networking opportunities for women in the region and create forums in which women can engage with officials from national, regional, continental and international institutions charged with peace and security. This inaugural activity brought together 40 women from civil society organisations in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda that engaged at the local level with peace building and development initiatives

The engagement that included mediation training, high-level roundtable discussion and thematic group work on women’s participation, protection, peace and democracy was co-chaired by the former Prime Minister of Canada, Kim Campbell and former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson

The specific objectives of the workshop that was held within the framework of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the European Parliament Resolution on Participation of Women in Peaceful Conflict Resolution (2000) and the African Union’s Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women (2003) were to network and build relationships  and share experiences of women in conflict as well as sharpen security fluency of the participants. The workshop also provided and opportunity to engage with stakeholders in the African Union, the UN and the EU and make recommendations for the way forward. The 40 women leaders used the opportunity to produce and present policy and action recommendations to the African Union and United Nations