Excellencies,
Distinguished panelists,
Ladies and gentlemen:
 
It is a pleasure to join you.  I thank Norway and the partners for bringing us together.
 
This is an exciting time for women in mediation.  Too frequently in the past, the call for greater inclusion at the peace table has been met with excuses including that there were no suitable women to draw from.  As we look around us today it is clear that this can never be an excuse again.
 
In the past three years, we have seen a growing number of women’s mediation networks come together in different regions.  Women are demonstrating their wealth of mediation expertise and making visible their significant contribution to conflict prevention and resolution.
 
The Women, Peace and Security Agenda – as set out in eight Security Council resolutions on this topic and related global commitments – demands better and more meaningful participation of women and the integration of gender perspectives into peace and security initiatives.  This is because women’s participation is fundamentally tied to sustainable peace and real security.
 
 
When women are meaningfully included, the likelihood of reaching and implementing peace agreements and sustaining peace, is 35 per cent higher over the long term.  This is because their participation brings a wider range of issues
to the table – opening the door to addressing root causes and strengthening sustainability.
 
Yet women continue to make up only a handful of mediators in formal processes.
 
Women’s participation in peace processes occurs more often as part of their engagement in Track 2 processes, mass action or in unofficial consultative capacities outside of the negotiation room. 
 
Women-led prevention initiatives are also the least funded or supported and are often disconnected from national or regional early warning mechanisms, and from decision-making bodies in general.  As a result, the voices of women are stifled. 
 
This is why the establishment of women mediator networks is so important.
 
They bring women together around a common objective, providing opportunities to mobilize and share lessons.
 
They change the narrative and practice of negotiations.
 
And most importantly they provide the concrete resource we need to shape more durable solutions to conflicts and crises.
 
The United Nations strongly supports such efforts.
 
As we move towards 2020 – the 20-year anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 – we need to pool our efforts and press for greater women’s engagement in creating more secure and peaceful societies.
 
Networks of women mediators are useful sources of candidates for appointment as high-level envoys and senior mediators.  But they are also a source of inspiration, of best-practices and of tools that we can learn from and draw in.
 
With many members already involved in national and community-based conflict prevention and peacemaking initiatives, women networks can certainly facilitate UN support for such projects.
 
 
And regional networks of women mediators can help to strengthen collaboration between the UN and regional organizations.
 
The Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation provides further opportunities to strengthen the visibility of women mediators, including through joint preventive diplomacy before violence erupts.  I am pleased that we have some of the members of the board with us here today and I hope that this meeting will be a useful forum to look at how the Board can draw on and support the efforts of these networks and vice versa.
 
The United Nations and I look forward to working more closely with you to advance gender equality, improve conflict prevention and build inclusive and sustainable peace.
 
Thank you.