Tool 7: Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender Cape Verde’s Network of Women Parliamentarians is engaged in gender-responsive budget oversight. With the help of gender experts and UN Women, the network produced a results-based analysis of the country’s 2015 budget proposal. Subsequently, it successfully advocated for the reallocation of funding for the Strengthening Gender Equality and Equity Programme.11 The network’s persistent legislative oversight resulted in a more genderresponsive budget. Serbia provides another example of gender-responsive budgeting. The Serbian government formally introduced gender-responsive budgeting with the adoption by the Serbian Parliament of a new Budget System Law in 2015. The law specifies gender equality as one of the budget’s objectives, to be introduced gradually and fully implemented by 2020. To be able to meet the requirements of the law, civil servants took part in training in 2015 and 2016 that was co-ordinated at the top by the Co-ordination Body for Gender Equality and the Ministry of Finance.12 4.4 Parliament plays a role in national action plans on Women, Peace and Security A parliament that integrates a gender perspective and advances gender equality is committed to implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (see Box 7). Box 7: The Women, Peace and Security Agenda In 2000 the ground-breaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted. It recognized that women and men have different experiences in conflict, different needs after conflict, different perspectives on the causes and outcomes of conflict and different contributions to bring to a peacebuilding process. Subsequently, the UN Security Council has adopted a further nine resolutions addressing women and conflict, together comprising the Women, Peace and Security Agenda: Resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019). The goals of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda are to:  promote gender equality and strengthen the participation of women in decision- making in all aspects of conflict prevention, peace processes, peace operations and peacebuilding  improve the protection of women in conflict-affected environments, and end conflict- related sexual violence and impunity for these crimes  ensure that international engagement in conflict-affected environments addresses the specific needs of women and improves the protection of women’s rights. The Women, Peace and Security Agenda emphasizes women’s participation in security decision-making and the security sector, and women’s access to justice. See the Policy Brief on “A Security Sector Governance Approach to Women, Peace and Security” for further discussion. Over 75 countries worldwide have adopted a Women, Peace and Security NAP.13 Women, Peace and Security NAPs can play an important role in promoting gender equality within the security sector and transforming the security sector to be more responsive to diverse gendered needs.* Parliaments can play a central role in the development of Women, Peace and Security NAPs, in ensuring that the focus on Women, Peace and Security is maintained and in monitoring NAP implementation. For example, 68 per cent of the parliaments that participate in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly are monitoring implementation of their nation’s NAP.14 Parliaments * See Tool 1 for a discussion on the role of Women, Peace and Security NAPs in relation to gender-responsive security sector governance and SSR. 23