The Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs Angelina Teny has called for women’s participation in the national security sector reform.

Addressing the national women leaders’ conference in Juba on Tuesday, Angelina said women were very central to peace and security in the country.

“That’s why we have 10 resolutions from the UN Security Council to enable women to participate meaningfully in peace, resolving conflict and in ensuring political stability,” she said.

“We should not just stick to peacebuilding,” Angelina stressed.

She urged women leaders in the country to ensure that their fellow women have access to decision-making in matters to do with security.

To strengthen their involvement in matters of security, the minister said efforts are underway to prioritize women as key players in the security sector.

She urged them to identify their priorities for the security sector.

 “The security sector has been seen as a masculine sector and very few women were joining it especially the army,’’ she said.

She said there is a need for women in civil society to identify key priorities that need to be integrated into the policy framework.

“This policy framework becomes the white paper that will govern the whole security sector.”

The Cordaid Country Director in South Sudan Kinga Komorowska echoed the need for women’s engagement in the security sector policy formulation.

“We cannot afford to have half the population of this country not to being engaged in the social-economic development because it means losing half the potential the country has, this is why it is important to engage the women,” said Komorowska.

Plan International country director George Otim said one of the biggest issues that would face most of the girls in the future is a barrier to girls’ access to education.

“I know there are a lot of barriers and one of them is the early and child forced marriage and we are working to tackle that issue,” he said 

More than 100 South Sudan’s women leaders have gathered for the two-day leadership forum to take stock of the progress made by the WPS agenda, the implementation of the agreement.

The women will also identify the areas that need to be strengthened to speed up women’s participation in nation-building.