Dr. Fabiana Perera presented on the “Importance of including civil society in the Women, Peace and Security agenda” at the meeting of the Conference of Defense Ministers of the America’s Ad Hoc Working Group on Gender Perspectives. Dr. Perera spoke about the importance of civil society in creating the WPS agenda, institutionalizing it, implementing it and monitoring progress. She emphasized the important role that international organizations have played on the adoption of WPS in our region. The Working Group met in Panama City on January 29-30.