Price of Peace: Financing for Gender Equality in Post Conflict Reconstruction

Questions of the gender-responsiveness of post-conflict funding are important beyond the economic sphere. While budgets and financing are economic tools, the monies that they govern are used to finance activities that extend into all areas of govern- ment activity. In post-conflict situations, donor funds are used not only to rebuild the economy and to (re-)establish administrative systems and law and order, but also to fund social services such as education and health. Decisions as to which sectors will be funded and what will be funded within them are therefore of clear impor- tance in determining prospects for advancing gender equality in the recipient country. In an attempt to get more detailed information, the Gender Team of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) commissioned case studies in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan and Timor-Leste. The case studies examine whether and how resources were allocated and used in post-conflict reconstruction initiatives to promote gender equality and address women’s needs.The studies examined whether gender issues were addressed through separate projects or through addressing gender issues in mainstream projects and programmes.They also examined how funding of post-conflict reconstruction related to their own budgets with respect to gender equality and women’s empowerment. The research covered the full post-conflict reconstruction period, including early recovery and peace-building assistance as well as later assistance as the recipient countries attempted to move towards a more ‘normal’ situation. The precise time period varied from one case study to the next and these are detailed in each individual case study. Movement towards the normal situation is reflected by a shift in instruments used, with countries over time increasingly being assisted through standard instruments and processes used in non-conflict countries. For future and current interventions, this synthesis report draws on the lessons that intervening actors as well as actors in the beneficiary countries can learn from these four case studies.