Past Events & News
Information on events that occurred within the past year is available under Events & News: Recent Events.
Past Events & News
Wiston House, Wilton Park, Steyning, West Sussex UK
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Gender Dynamics in Peace and Conflict
To what extent has women’s involvement in radicalisation and armed groups changed gender manifestations in conflict? How are African women’s organisations working to both drive and resolve violence? To what extent have women and women’s organisations been included in formal peace processes, or designated as negotiators? What measures can be taken to ensure that all stakeholders, especially women, share the peacebuilding process and take equal ownership?
Chair: Carol Cohn
Director, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, University of Massachusetts Boston
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (via video recording)
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations And Cooperation, Government of the Republic of Namibia, Windhoek
Awino Okech
Lecturer, Centre for Gender Studies, School of African Studies (SOAS), London
Comfort Lamptey
Regional Adviser on Governance, Peace and Security, Regional Office for West and Central Africa, UN Women, Dakar
U.S. Institute of Peace 2301 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC
Monday, March 13, 2017
Countries emerging from violent conflict face critical decisions from the outset. The way public resources are managed and public goods and services distributed becomes crucial to sustaining peace. In the influx of aid and technical support, the particular needs of women and girls often are overlooked. Join the U.S. Institute of Peace on Monday, March 13, for a discussion with experts about ways to ensure equality in reconstruction budgets and public finance institutions.
Financial management systems that oversee functions such as tax collection, budget tracking or building infrastructure often are established rapidly in countries recovering from violent conflict. But these structures often aren’t built with consideration for the specific needs of women and girls, such as women’s ability to own property when redrafting land reform or women’s mobility when addressing road construction. The result is a missed opportunity to address structural gender inequality from the start.
Panelists will discuss how to better integrate gender analysis into public finance, and opportunities for women’s participation in economic structures. Join the conversation on Twitter #USIPGender.
Speakers:
Carol Cohn
Director, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, University of Massachusetts Boston
Thomas Scherer
Program Officer, Economics and Peacebuilding, U.S. Institute of Peace
Janet Stotsky
Economist and Visiting Scholar, International Monetary Fund
Moderator: Carla Koppell
Vice President, Applied Conflict Transformation, U.S. Institute of Peace
Watch the webcast here: https://www.usip.org/events/after-war-gender-equality-needs-investment-too?platform=hootsuite
International Studies Association (ISA) 58th Annual Convention, Baltimore, MD
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Dr. Claire Duncanson (University of Edinburgh) and Consortium Director Carol Cohn presented "Tackling Neoliberal Post-War Reconstruction Models: The Post-2015 Agenda for Women, Peace and Security Advocates" on the panel "Gender and Power After Violence" at the International Studies Association (ISA) 58th Annual Convention in Baltimore, MD, on February 22, 2017.
Feminist critiques of the United Nation’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda have been many and varied – from concern about the narrowing of the agenda to a predominant focus on sexual violence to frustration at the slow process of implementation. However, a new strand of feminist criticism suggests that even if the WPS agenda were to be fully implemented, gender equitable peacebuilding would be unlikely to occur. This criticism focuses on the insight that even the best peace agreement can be (and often has been) radically undercut by the political economic processes of post-war reconstruction. This paper presents an overview of the argument that it is post-war reconstruction policies, such as extractive industry exploitation of fossil fuels and minerals, the selling-off of land for export agribusiness, and the privatization of state-owned enterprises and services – which are too often treated as strictly technical, apolitical matters – that will determine whether the potential for sustainable, inclusive, gender-equitable peace and security will be realized or jeopardized. It also makes the case for WPS advocates to place more emphasis on these economic strategies of post-conflict reconstruction; and sets out the elements of a feminist research agenda which would support such advocacy.
PRIO, Hausmanns gate 3, Oslo
Monday, January 16, 2017
The PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, NOREF and the Consortium for Gender, Security and Human Rights invite you to a public seminar on gendered analyses of public finance institutions and mechanisms in countries emerging from violent conflict.
The management of public finance constitutes a critical means of supporting political settlements and of advancing more equitable, just and sustainable peace. Given the growing interest in peace agreement implementation and mechanisms, the creation of a state with the capacity to manage public resources, to provide public goods and to respond to citizen demands is a crucial component (Boyce & O’Donnell, 2007). Yet, states and societies emerging from violent conflict tend to face particular challenges in establishing functioning public finance systems and addressing gendered structural inequities exacerbated by years of violent conflict.
Following a political settlement, reconstruction budgets are one important public finance vehicle for addressing structural gender inequities. Despite the influx of reconstruction aid following a political settlement, state planning and budgets processes continue to overlook and exclude women’s needs and rights (with estimates ranging from 1-6% as being allocated for gender equality programming). The rapid rebuilding of national economic structures which characterises countries emerging from violent conflict tends to proceed without women’s participation. And it typically neglects both gender equality concerns and women’s needs, leaving many to struggle to cover their most basic needs despite the influx of international aid.
This diverse panel of experts will provide preliminary findings and insights from a recent knowledge-generating workshop on how to integrate gendered analyses of public finance institutions and mechanisms into planning for countries emerging from violent conflict. The panellists will each present briefly, before opening up for a wider discussion.
- James K. Boyce is an economist and expert on post-conflict public finance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His books include: Peace and the Public Purse: Economic Policies for Postwar Statebuilding; Investing in Peace: Aid and Conditionality after Civil Wars; and Economic Policy for Building Peace: The Lessons of El Salvador.
- Carol Cohn is an expert on gender, peace, conflict and security studies and on gendered institutions. She is director of the Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights. Her publications in the field of gender and security include a textbook, Women & Wars.
- Kade Finnoff is a development economist at the Azim Premji University in India. Her work focuses primarily on countries emerging from violent conflict, and she has written academic articles and policy-oriented reports on gender and public finance, gender budgeting of post-conflict development assistance, labour market policy, intimate partner violence, inequality and poverty.
- Janet Stotsky is an economist and visiting scholar in the International Monetary Fund’s Research Department where she led a recently completed project surveying and assessing gender budgeting efforts around the world. She has an extensive publication record in public finance, gender and economics, and macroeconomics.
The seminar will be chaired by Torunn L. Tryggestad, Director of the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security.
A light lunch will be served.
Contact: Julie Marie Hansen, julhan@prio.org
Thursday, January 14, 2016
We are excited to announce that Luz Méndez's book, Clamor for Justice: Sexual Violence, Armed Conflict and Violent Land Dispossession, is now available in English! This important book explores two major episodes of sexual violence against Guatemalan women from the Q’eqchí people: the first during Guatemala's civil war and the second during the current stage of the extraction-based model of neoliberal globalization. The Consortium is honored to have played a role in making this important book available in English.
In the book's Foreword, Consortium Director Carol Cohn writes: “In addition to its valuable contributions to how we think about ending impunity, Clamor for Justice also pushes us to think about conflict related sexual violence with greater subtlety and complexity. It does so by showing how critically important it is to understand the historical, social, and political economic contexts within which organized sexual violence takes place.”
Luz Méndez is a gender expert and peace negotiator; she was the only female member of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca delegation, contributing to unprecedented commitments for gender equality in the accords. She has authored several books and articles on gender based violence, women's access to justice and peace building in Guatemala. She is an Affiliated Researcher of the Consortium.
The original Spanish language version of the book is available at: Mujeres indígenas: clamor por la justicia. Violencia sexual, conflicto armado y despojo violento de tierras (2014).
Church Center of the United Nations, 10th Floor, East 44th St, New York, NY
Friday, October 30, 2015
Join us at the Peace Forum October 28-30, 2015! This series of events, organized by WILPF, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders and their many partners, will commemorate the 15th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
Consortium Director Carol Cohn will lead a workshop on Beyond 1325: A Feminist Roadmap for Sustainable Peace on Friday, October 30, 3:00-4:30pm, at the Church Center for the United Nations, East 44th Street, New York, NY. This workshop will provide a space to radically rethink, broaden and deepen the current Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda. We will ask: If we aim to be truly transformative in creating a more just, gender-equitable and sustainable peace, what is the WPS agenda missing, and how can we bring it in?
Key questions we will examine in the workshop include:
- Why are areas typically outside the WPS Agenda – such as the rebuilding of infrastructure, or public finance, or extractive industries and land grabbing, or dealing with international financial institutions – so crucial for us to address?
- What are some expectable post-war issues and dynamics that impede the realization of gender equality, even when it is written into constitutional provisions?
- How might analysis of the root causes of conflict and inequality transform the agenda for peace negotiations?
Registration is highly encouraged, RSVP here: Peace Forum Day 2 Workshops. Hope to see you there!
Oslo, Norway
Wednesday, June 10, 2015 to Friday, June 12, 2015
The Consortium held its inaugural workshop to develop a Feminist Roadmap for Sustainable Peace in Oslo, Norway from June 10-12, 2015. In partnership with the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), the Consortium brought together seventeen prominent gender experts to explore how to address the unequal, deeply gendered political, economic and social power relations that underpin wars and undermine post-war efforts to build sustainable peace.
For more information on the workshop, click here.
The Hague, Netherlands
Monday, April 27, 2015 to Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Organized in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Women’s Power to Stop War conference will take place in The Hague, Netherlands on April 27-29, 2015.
In cooperation with WILPF, the Consortium is co-organizing a workshop: “A Feminist Playbook for Peace: Re-Owning 1325.” This session to Radically Rethink, Broaden and Deepen the Women, Peace and Security Agenda will take place on Monday, April 27, 2015, from 2:00pm-2:45pm.
Consortium Director, Carol Cohn, will also facilitate a breakout session on Political Economy and Economic Rights at the PeaceWomen Strategic Consultation on the WPS High-Level Review. This consultation, led by the PeaceWomen Programme of WILPF with support from UNWomen, GNWP, CARE, Cordaid, and NGOWG, will take place on Tuesday, April 28, 2015, at 2:00pm–3:45pm.
For more information or to register, visit the conference website.
Church Center of the UN, 777 1st Avenue, 2nd floor, East 44th Street, New York
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Panel Discussion: "A Transformative Women, Peace & Security Agenda: The Need to Challenge Militarism"
This discussion will analyze the gendered nature of peace & security mechanisms by uncovering the linkages between hegemonic masculinities, violence and militarism and its current effects on UNSCR 1325 implementation. A transformative Women, Peace & Security agenda, with active participation of women, is only possible by challenging militarism, promoting an agenda of disarmament, and investing in nonviolent alternatives for conflict resolution.
Speakers: Isabelle Geuskens, Executive Director - Women Peacemakers Program (WPP); Carol Cohn, Director - Consortium on Gender, Security & Human Rights; Hannah Wright, Gender Peace and Security Adviser - Saferworld; Anand Pawar, Executive Director - SAMYAK; Ray Acheson, Director - Reaching Critical Will, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
Please RSVP no later than March 10, 3PM to Ms. Thalia Malmberg, Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) intern@womenpeacemakersprogram.org
New York
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) has issued a press release on the panel discussion: "A Transformative Women, Peace and Security Agenda: The Need to Challenge Militarism.” The discussion took place on March 10, 2015, on the occasion of the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York and featured Consortium Director, Carol Cohn, and representatives from WPP, Saferworld, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and SAMYAK.
Read the press release here.
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