CENTERING WOMEN, SECURING PEACE: P-DDRCS REINFORCES GENDER LEADERSHIP AT 1325 ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE
Kinshasa, October 29, 2025 — As the Democratic Republic of Congo marked the 25th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, the national spotlight turned to women’s leadership in peacebuilding. A major Women for Peace Conference, jointly organized by the Government, MONUSCO, and UN Women, brought together women from all sectors of Congolese society for a critical dialogue on inclusion, accountability, and transformation in the country’s peace agenda.
Amidst the dynamic exchanges, the National Coordination of the P-DDRCS (Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration and Community Stabilization Program) stood out for its strong institutional engagement and clear gender commitments. Representing the program, Marie-Chantal LUMBA TSHIMANGA, Deputy National Coordinator in charge of operations, and Ms. Lauren MUNTU KINTADI, Gender Focal Point at the P-DDRCS, shared with participants the substance and ambitions of the program’s official Gender Policy.
Their message was unequivocal: peace is not sustainable without gender equality, and no reintegration process can be truly effective if it fails to fully integrate women — not only as beneficiaries, but as decision-makers and agents of change.
Ms. MUNTU presented the Gender Policy as both a strategic tool and a values-based framework. It calls for the integration of gender-responsive planning, budgeting, and monitoring across all pillars of the DDRCS mandate. The policy mandates a minimum of 30% representation of women in every component of the program and seeks to advance toward parity through targeted outreach, inclusive recruitment, and equitable access to services and opportunities.
Importantly, the policy is anchored in field realities. It recognizes the differentiated needs of female ex-combatants, survivors of violence, and women in affected communities, and addresses their rights to psychosocial care, protection, and economic empowerment. The P-DDRCS approach combines community-level interventions with national-level leadership to close persistent gender gaps in peacebuilding.
The policy is not simply aspirational. Ms. MUNTU emphasized that women already occupy leadership positions within the P-DDRCS — including in program operations and provincial coordination — and that these examples are the result of deliberate institutional choices. She credited the vision and political will of Professor Jean De Dieu Désiré NTANGA NTITA, the National Coordinator of the P-DDRCS, whose leadership has ensured that gender is not treated as an isolated issue, but rather as a structural pillar of peace and stability.
This stance is aligned with the broader commitment of President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, whose continental advocacy for positive masculinity and inclusive governance has helped shape a more gender-responsive peace agenda in the DRC.
As the conference echoed the voices of women from across the country, the presence of the P-DDRCS served as both a symbol of institutional progress and a call to collective responsibility. The Gender Policy is one example of how public programs can evolve to reflect the complexity of post-conflict recovery and the power of inclusive governance.
The 25th anniversary of Resolution 1325 is not just a milestone — it is a renewed mandate to act. For the P-DDRCS, that means continuing to institutionalize gender equality, empower women at all levels, and embed inclusion into the DNA of peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
P-DDRCS Communication Unit
