Mavic Cabrera Balleza
Ma. Victoria “Mavic” Cabrera Balleza
Ma. Victoria “Mavic” Cabrera-Balleza is the Founder and CEO of the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), an international coalition of women’s rights organizations and civil society groups that focus on peacebuilding, conflict prevention, sustaining peace and promoting women’s rights and gender equality. Mavic initiated the Philippine national action planning on the UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women and Peace and Security (WPS).
She served as international consultant to the first National Action Plan (NAP) of Nepal; and provided support in the development of NAPs in Burundi, Guatemala, Japan, South Sudan, and Sierra Leone—among other countries. She facilitated gender-responsive costing and budgeting workshops on NAPs in Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon and Nepal. She coordinated the civil society monitoring of UNSCR 1325 in 24 countries from 2010 -2014.
Mavic pioneered the Localization of UNSCR 1325 program that is regarded as a best practice example in the implementation of the UNSCRs on WPS and is now implemented in 16 countries. The Localization of 1325 has been cited multiple times by the UN Secretary-General in his reports to the Security Council as a key strategy in implementation. Mavic has also led workshops on the integration of the WPS resolutions in the training of national police and armed forces to promote gender equality perspectives and respect for international human rights and humanitarian laws in the security sector.
She leads the civil society advocacy on the use of CEDAW as a complementary accountability mechanism to the WPS resolutions. In 2014, Mavic initiated the establishment of the Girl Ambassadors for Peace and the Young Women for Peace and Leadership, a network of young women and girls in Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Philippines, and South Sudan who are leading peacebuilding and prevention of violent extremism efforts in local communities. Mavic has co-authored several publications on WPS including No Money, No NAP: Costing and Financing 1325; From Best Practice to Standard Practice: A toolkit on the Localization of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women and Peace and Security. She edited the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 editions of Women Count: Civil Society Monitoring Report on Security Council Resolution 1325. She also edited the publication Implementing Locally, Inspiring Globally: Localizing UNSCR 1325 in Colombia, Nepal, the Philippines, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
Mavic serves as an international consultant to the UN as well as governments on WPS issues. She has also served as a resource person on the different facets of the WPS agenda in many countries including Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Burundi, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Guatemala, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Moldova, Nepal, Philippines, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Uganda and Ukraine. Her masteral thesis on communication strategies on UNSCR 1325 was awarded best thesis at the University of the Philippines.
Mavic is a founding member of the Global Funding Board of the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. She is also a member of the Civil Society Advisory Group to the Office of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; the Beijing + 25 Global Strategic Planning and Leadership Group; and the Task Force on Indicators for the Global Monitoring of the WPS resolutions.
