security component and is silent on gender issues in conflict management. Given the challenges in the region, IGAD established a Centre of Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism as part of its countering violent extremism initiatives.164 Under the Gender Peace Programme is the IGAD Women and Peace Forum. IGAD has a Regional Action Plan and five out of its seven members have a national action plan on UNSCR 1325.165 Regional organisations: The International Conference of the Great Lakes Region The International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) presents a unique opportunity to study the workings of a regional organisation constituted solely for the purposes of security and peacebuilding and with a strong focus on UNSCR 1325. Its members are also states parties to other RECs/RMs and straddle ECCAS, EAC, SADC and COMESA. In 2000 the UN Security Council, in its resolutions 1291 and 1304, called for an International Conference on peace, security, democracy and development in the Great Lakes region. Responding to it, ICGLR was established comprising of 12 of the Great Lakes Region countries or those with a nexus to it.166 ICGRL’s membership was guided by the interconnectedness of the countries’ border boundaries requiring the pursuit of common regional objectives to promote sustainable peace.167 For example in 2014, ICGLR heads of state recognised that the activities of armed groups promoting violent conflict and operating in Eastern DRC threatened not only the security of the DRC but also that of neighbouring countries.168 In November 2004, an ICGLR summit endorsed the Dar Es-Salaam Declaration on Peace, Security, Democracy and Development in the Great Lakes Region. The 164 Available at https://cve.igad.int/new/ Eritrea, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan 166 Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia. 167 About ICGLR. http://www.icglr.org/index.php/en/background 168 Declaration of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of ICGLR on the Promotion ff Peace Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region, 15 January 2014 165 58