Peacebuilding

The Political Economy of Gender and Peacebuilding

Citation:

Chilmeran, Yasmin, and Jacqui True. 2019. "The Political Economy of Gender and Peacebuilding." In Handbook on Intervention and Statebuilding, edited by Nicolas Lemay-Hébert, 323-38. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Authors: Yasmin Chilmeran, Jacqui True

Abstract:

UNSCR 1325 and subsequent Security Council resolutions emphasise the importance of women’s participation in peace processes and peacebuilding to ensure the sustainability of peace and prevent the recurrence of conflict. However, in post-conflict contexts, gender inequalities are heightened, contributing to women’s vulnerability to gender-based violence and structural violence. This chapter applies a feminist political economy framework to examine women’s experiences of these forms of violence. Through an analysis of the post-occupation Iraq case we explore: (1) the political economy causes of women’s insecurity, and (2) the consequences of this insecurity for women’s participation in the peacebuilding process. We examine the types of peacebuilding women are involved in and why they are often excluded from major peacebuilding decisions with implications for the failure to adequately address conflict-related gendered violence. In particular, we consider the work that women are doing to address violence and insecurity within their communities outside of state-sanctioned processes. Above all, the case of Iraq demonstrates that there is an inextricable connection between the gendered experience of insecurity and unequal gendered forms of post-conflict participation.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Conflict Prevention, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Peace Processes, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325, Violence Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2019

SSE, Gender, and Sustainable Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Envisioning a Different Path

Citation:

Ramnarain, Smita, and Suzanne Bergeron. 2019. "SSE, Gender, and Sustainable Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Envisioning a Different Path." Paper presented at UNTFSSE International Conference, Geneva, June 25-26.

Authors: Smita Ramnarain, Suzanne Bergeron

Abstract:

This paper examines the possibilities and limits of SSE for addressing the Sustainable Development goals of gender equality (SDG 5) and inclusive peace (SDG 16) through an analysis of women-centered cooperative organizations in post-conflict contexts of South Asia. The failures of neoliberal peacebuilding in achieving gender-inclusive, secure and sustainable peace, and in many cases reproducing the very structures of domination that led to conflict in the first place, have been well-documented. Consequently, many in the scholarly and practitioner community have called for an alternative economic approach, but thus far there has been little attention to what that might look like. This paper responds to that call, offering a model that recognizes the diverse economic landscape of post-war reconstruction with a specific focus on the role of SSE activities in achieving security and social provisioning.

Keywords: gender, post-conflict economies, cooperatives, peacebuilding, SSE

Topics: Civil Society, Economies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Security, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Regions: Asia, South Asia

Year: 2019

Risks Versus Transformational Opportunities in Gender-Responsive Security Sector Reform

Citation:

Gordon, Eleanor, Ciara McHugh, and Jane Townsley. 2020. "Risks Versus Transformational Opportunities in Gender-Responsive Security Sector Reform." Journal of Global Security Studies. doi:10.1093/jogss/ogaa028.

Authors: Eleanor Gordon, Ciara McHugh, Jane Townsley

Abstract:

This article investigates the gap between policy and practice in gender-responsive security sector reform (SSR) by exploring the ways in which risks perceived to be associated with gender-responsive SSR in conflict-affected environments legitimize inaction. A typology of risks is presented, which range from risks to individuals, security sector institutions, and peacebuilding efforts and encompass security, programmatic, fiduciary, and reputational risks. The risks are analyzed to consider the extent to which they are present and could be managed, mitigated, or avoided, rather than stall action. This article argues that the process of determining what constitutes a risk, and what constitutes a risk worth taking, is inherently political and serves to reinforce dominant power relations, including gendered power relations. The article then discusses the risks that result from inaction and the opportunities that are missed when arguments about risk trump gender responsiveness. As a result, it is argued that gender inequalities persist, women continue to be marginalized within and beyond the security sector, and transformational opportunities that could lead to sustainable peace are missed. The article concludes by arguing that the potential risks resulting from not advancing gender-responsive SSR far outweigh the perceived risks associated with it.

Keywords: security sector reform, gender, risks, transformational opportunities, peacebuilding

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Peacebuilding, Security Sector Reform

Year: 2020

Embodying Difference: Reading Gender in Women's Memoirs of Humanitarianism

Citation:

Read, Róisín. 2018. "Embodying Difference: Reading Gender in Women's Memoirs of Humanitarianism." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 12 (3): 300-18.

Author: Róisín Read

Abstract:

This article explores embodied difference in humanitarianism and peacebuilding by treating women's memoirs as a form of ‘flesh witnessing’. It argues that the essays in the anthology Chasing Misery are claims to the authority of ‘The Field’ that also reveal the women’s feelings of only ‘passing’ as aid workers. Three distinct themes are noted: the construction of The Field as a site of embodied authority and the ways in which the essays reinforce and trouble this; the writers feeling different, and separate, from those they work with/for; and the embodied gender presented with reference to imagined ‘real’ aid workers.

Keywords: gender, difference, passing, embodiment, memoir, aid worker

Topics: Gender, Women, Humanitarian Assistance, Peacebuilding

Year: 2018

Hacia una mirada feminista del rol de la mujer en el posconflicto Colombiano

Citation:

González, Angélica María Anicharico, Héctor Martinez Ortega, Claudia Cristina Cerón Ruiz, and Katherine Rengifo Agudelo. 2019. “Hacia Una Mirada Feminista Del Rol De La Mujer En El Posconflicto Colombiano.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 20 (6): 75-93.

Authors: Angélica María Anicharico González, Héctor Martinez Ortega, Claudia Cristina Cerón Ruiz, Katherine Rengifo Agudelo

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
El debate sobre los diferentes roles que las mujeres han sido forzadas a asumir en el Conflicto Armado Colombiano ha generado que, en el último proceso de Justicia Transicional, se haya reconocido la necesidad de rupturar el arquetipo histórico de las mujeres visibilizado en categorías rígidas y desiguales. Este artículo, basado en 50 entrevistas a mujeres víctimas del conflicto armado registradas en la Fiscalía General de la Nación de la República de Colombia (FIS), devela que son pocos los avances en investigación sociojurídica sobre la forma en que las mujeres podrían transformar su rol en una época de posconflicto, para disminuir la desigualdad por razones de género. Este artículo siguiendo un enfoque cualitativo y haciendo un análisis inductivo, propone una mirada feminista para la transformación de los roles que las mujeres han sido obligadas a asumir. Asimismo, se establece cómo los movimientos feministas actuales están generando nuevos roles inspirados en un enfoque epistemológico latinoamericano que permitiría no sólo la transformación y/o desconstrucción de los roles impuestos a las mujeres sino un mejoramiento de sus condiciones de vida contribuyendo así a los procesos de construcción de paz en contextos locales e internacionales.
 
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The debate over the different roles women have been forced to assume in the Colombian armed conflict has led, in the last process of Transitional Justice, to the recognition of the need to break down the historical archetype of women noticeable through rigid and unequal categories. This article, based on 50 interviews of female victims of the armed conflict, filed in the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Colombia (FIS), reveals that there is scant research breakthroughs on the socio-juridical field about the way women may transform their role in the post-conflict era, to reduce gender-based inequality. This study with a qualitative approach and an inductive analysis, suggests that the roles women have been forced to assume require a feminist approach to be transformed. Moreover, how the current women’s movements are generating a new role based on a Latin American epistemological approach is established. That approach would allow, not only the transformation and/or break down of those roles assumed by women, but also the improvement of their living conditions to contribute to the process of peace building in the local and international contexts.

Keywords: feminismo Latinoamericano, rol de la mujer, investigación qualitativa, Conflicto Armado, posconflicto, Latin American feminism, role of women, qualitative research, Colombian armed conflict, post-conflict

Topics: Armed Conflict, Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2019

Can Women Benefit from War? Women’s Agency in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies

Citation:

Yadav, Punam. 2020. "Can Women Benefit from War? Women’s Agency in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies." Journal of Peace Research 20 (10): 1-13.

Author: Punam Yadav

Abstract:

Women’s agency in Peace and Conflict Studies has received increased policy attention since the formulation of UN Security Council Resolution in 2000. Academic attention regarding this question has, as a result, also increased dramatically in the intervening period. Women today, as a consequence, are not just seen as victims of conflict, but also as agents of change. Despite their vulnerabilities in the situations created by conflict, women may be exposed to new knowledge and opportunities, which may have positive impacts on their lives. Therefore, it is important to recognize the lived realities and the multiple stories of postwar societies to address the new needs of people and build a sustainable peace. This article examines the everyday lives of women in post-conflict Nepal to demonstrate the significant transformations that have taken place since the war. It specifically investigates conflict-induced social and structural changes through the lived experiences of women tempo drivers, war widows, women ex-combatants and women politicians. This article is based on the analysis of 200 interviews and six focus group discussions (FGDs) carried out over a period of 12 years in seven districts of Nepal.

Keywords: civil war, Nepal, peace and security, post-conflict transformation, women's empowerment, women's agency

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2020

Reconstrucción de la Masculinidad y Reintegración de Excombatientes en Colombia

Citation:

Theidon, Kimberly. 2009. “Reconstrucción de la Masculinidad y Reintegración de Excombatientes en Colombia.” Serie Working Papers FIP 5, Fundación Ideas para la Paz, Bogotá, Colombia.

Author: Kimberly Theidon

Annotation:

SPANISH SUMMARY:
Este trabajo resulta de una investigación antropológica hecha por Kimberly Theidon, profesora asociada al departamento de sociología de la Universidad de Harvard, sobre el proceso de Desarme, Desmovilización y Reintegración (DDR) en Colombia desde 2005, con el fin de abordar el tema de la masculinidad en el conflicto armado y de esta forma incluir la perspectiva de género en los procesos de postconflicto. Para tal fin se realizaron entrevistas a profundidad a 170 hombres y mujeres ex combatientes de las FARC, ELN y de las AUC ubicados en Bogotá y sus alrededores, Medellín y la región de Urabá. También se realizaron visitas y charlas con funcionarios públicos, representantes de ONG, de iglesias y de diversos sectores de las comunidades receptoras. Con ello, logró obtener una mirada amplia a las realidades de la guerra, del DDR y la justicia transicional en Colombia. El trabajo se concentra en la economía cultural y política de la masculinidad militarizada y aborda el acceso reducido que los excombatientes tienen a los símbolos del prestigio masculino de la sociedad civil. El texto también analiza las “técnicas del cuerpo” que producen tanto el cuerpo como el porte de un soldado entre hombres cuyo único capital suele ser su cuerpo. Además, explora el papel tanto de los hombres como de las mujeres en la construcción de las prácticas utilizadas para producir formas de masculinidad violentas. Por último, el documento concluye con unas consideraciones acerca de cómo se podría incorporar el género al programa de DDR en Colombia como un paso importante hacia la reincorporación exitosa, la construcción de paz y el cambio social sostenible. (Summary from Fundación Ideas para la Paz)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2009

Restoring Confidence in Post-Conflict Security Sectors: Survey Evidence from Liberia on Female Ratio Balancing Reforms

Citation:

Karim, Sabrina. 2019. “Restoring Confidence in Post-Conflict Security Sectors: Survey Evidence from Liberia on Female Ratio Balancing Reforms.” British Journal of Political Science 49 (3): 799-821.

Author: Sabrina Karim

Abstract:

Civilian confidence in domestic institutions, particularly in the security sector, is important for stability and state consolidation in post-conflict countries, where third-party peacekeepers have helped maintain peace and security after a conflict. While other scholars have suggested that a strong security sector is necessary for mitigating the credible commitment problem, this article provides two alternative criteria for assessing security sector reforms’ effect on confidence in the security sector: restraint and inclusiveness. Female ratio balancing in the security sector meets these two criteria, suggesting that it has the potential to help enhance confidence in the security sector and thereby create the right conditions for the peacekeeping transition. The argument is tested using original surveys conducted in post-conflict, ex-combatant communities in Liberia. The expectations received empirical support. The findings indicate that restraining and inclusive reforms could improve trust in the state’s security sector. They also demonstrate the importance of considering gender in theories related to post-conflict peace building and international relations more broadly.

Keywords: security sector reform, peacekeeping, gender, ex-combatants, state building, Liberia

Topics: Combatants, Gender, Women, Peace and Security, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, Security Sector Reform Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia

Year: 2019

African Democracy and Development: Challenges for Post-Conflict African Nations

Citation:

Veney, Cassandra Rachel, and Dick W. Simpson, ed. 2013. African Democracy and Development: Challenges for Post-Conflict African Nations. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Authors: Cassandra Veney, Dick Simpson

Annotation:

Summary:
Various African nations have undergone conflict situations since they gained their independence. This book focuses on particular countries that have faced conflict (civil wars and genocide) and are now in the process of rebuilding their political, economic, social, and educational institutions. The countries that are addressed in the book include: Rwanda, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In addition, there is a chapter that addresses the role of the African Diaspora in conflict and post-conflict countries that include Eritrea, Liberia, and Somalia. The book includes an examination of the various actors who are involved in post-conflict rebuilding and reconstruction that involves internal and external participants. For example, it is clear that the internal actors involve Africans themselves as ordinary citizens, members of local and national governments, and members of non-governmental organizations. This allows the reader to understand the agency and empowerment of Africans in post-conflict reconstruction. Various institutions are addressed within the context of the roles they play in establishing governance organizations such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone, the African Union, chiefs in Liberia, and non-governmental organizations. Furthermore, the external actors who are involved in post-conflict reconstruction are examined such as international non-governmental organizations and the African Diaspora. They both have their own constituents and agendas and can and do play a positive and negative role in post-conflict reconstruction. It is obvious that countries that are addressed in the book are in dire need of financial assistant to rebuild much needed infrastructure that was destroyed during the conflict. All of the countries covered in the book need schools, medical facilities, roads, bridges, airports, ports, and the government does not have the money to provide these. This is where the international non-governmental organizations and the African Diaspora play an important role. The chapters that address these issues are cognizant of their importance and at the same time, the authors realize that sovereignty can be undermined if Africans are not in the forefront of policy and decision making that will determine their future. There are chapters that provide a gendered analysis of post-conflict when it is appropriate. For example, it is clear that women, men, boys, and girls experienced conflict in different ways because of their gender. They all participated in the conflict in various ways. Consequently, the efforts at peace building are given a gendered analysis in terms of what has happened to women and girls in the demobilization and rehabilitation period including an excellent analysis of land reform in Rwanda and how that affects women and members of a certain ethnic group that are often overlooked in the examination of the 1994 genocide. In sum, this book provides a very good contribution to the literature on conflict and post-conflict African countries because of its depth and the vast topics it embraces. It provides an analysis of the internal and external actors, the role of gender in post-conflict decision making, and it provides the voices of ordinary Africans who were affected by the conflict, and who are determined to live productive lives. (Summary from Google Books)
 
Table of Contents:
1. No Justice, No Peace: The Elusive Search for Justice and Reconciliation in Sierra Leone
Sylvia Macauley
 
2. The Role of Ex-Combatants in Mozambique
Jessica Schafer
 
3. Memory Controversies in Post-genocide Rwanda: Implications for Peacebuilding
Elisabeth King
 
4. Land Reform, Social Justice, and Reconstruction: Challenges for Post-genocide Rwanda
Helen Hintjens
 
5. Elections as a Stress Test of Democratization in Societies: A Comparison of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
John Yoder
 
6. Partners or Adversaries?: NGOs and the State in Postwar Sierra Leone
Fredline A.O. M'Cormack-Hale
 
7. Chieftancy and Reconstruction in Sierra Leone
Arthur Abraham
 
8. The Role of African Diasporas in Reconstruction
Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
 
9. The Role of the African Union in Reconstruction in Africa
Thomas Kwasi Tieku
 
10. Governance Challenges in Sierra Leone
Osman Gbla
 
11. Challenges of Governance Reform in Liberia
Amos Sawyer
 
12. Achieving Development and Democracy
Dick Simpson

 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Combatants, DDR, Gender, Gender Analysis, Girls, Women, Genocide, Governance, Infrastructure, International Organizations, Justice, NGOs, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia

Year: 2013

De mujer combatiente a mujer constructora de paz. Inclusión de la voz feminina en el escenario del posacuerdo

Citation:

Díaz, Omar Huertas, Angie Lorena Ruiz Herrera, y Nancy Judith Botía Hernández. 2018. “De mujer combatiente a mujer constructora de paz. Inclusión de la voz feminina en el escenario del posacuerdo.” Revista Ratio Juris UNAULA 12 (25): 43-67.

Authors: Omar Huertas Díaz, Angie Lorena Ruiz Herrera, Nancy Judith Botía Hernández

Abstract:

SPANISH ABSTRACT:
Los acuerdos de paz alcanzados por el gobierno nacional y las FARC-EP demandan el apoyo de los diferentes sectores de la población colombiana, para la construcción de la tan anhelada paz estable y duradera. Por lo anterior, la presente investigación tiene como objetivo vislumbrar la participación de la mujer excombatiente en los escenarios de paz, así como la necesidad de su articulación luego de los acuerdos colombianos. Para esto, se realizará una aproximación a las voces de algunas mujeres excombatientes de diferentes grupos armados ilegales que se encuentran en los programas de Desarme, Desmovilización y Reintegración (DDR) de la anterior Agencia Colombiana para la Reintegración (ACR), ahora Agencia de Reincorporación y Normalización (ARN); igualmente, se conocerán algunos de los procesos de paz desarrollados en otras naciones, para entender cómo la mujer excombatiente ha participado en los procesos de construcción de paz, encontrando que a nivel internacional ha sido poca la articulación de las mujeres excombatientes y que en Colombia se hacen esfuerzos por la articulación de las mujeres en general, abriendo las puertas para la participación política de todas, independientemente de sus ideales políticos, pues son valiosos los aportes que pueden representar en el escenario del posacuerdo.
 
ENGLISH ABSTRACT:
The peace agreements between national government and the farc-ep demanding the support of different sectors of Colombian people for the building of desired stable and lasting peace. Therefore, the recent research has us objective to show the participation of the former combatant woman on the peace fields and the need of her articulation after Colombian agreements. For this, we are going to realize one approximation to the voices of some of the former combatant women from different illegal armed groups, who are in the programs of the Colombian Agency for Reintegration (ACR), now Reorganization and Standardization Agency (ARN). We are going to know some the peace process development in other countries also, so we can know how the former combatant woman has participated in the processes of peace building. We found that in international level, their articulation has been little compared with Colombian case, where efforts are made for the articulation of the general women, opening doors for the political participation of all the women in independency of political ideas, well are found valuable the contributions that they can to represent on the stage of post agreement.

Keywords: acuerdos de paz, Mujeres, mujeres ex-combatientes, posacuerdo, posconflicto, paz, peace agreement, women, former combatant women, post agreement, postconflict, peace

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, DDR, Gender, Women, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Non-State Armed Groups, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Peace Processes Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2018

Pages

© 2023 CONSORTIUM ON GENDER, SECURITY & HUMAN RIGHTSLEGAL STATEMENT All photographs used on this site, and any materials posted on it, are the property of their respective owners, and are used by permission. Photographs: The images used on the site may not be downloaded, used, or reproduced in any way without the permission of the owner of the image. Materials: Visitors to the site are welcome to peruse the materials posted for their own research or for educational purposes. These materials, whether the property of the Consortium or of another, may only be reproduced with the permission of the owner of the material. This website contains copyrighted materials. The Consortium believes that any use of copyrighted material on this site is both permissive and in accordance with the Fair Use doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 107. If, however, you believe that your intellectual property rights have been violated, please contact the Consortium at info@genderandsecurity.org.

Subscribe to RSS - Peacebuilding