WUNRN
International Peace Institute
http://www.ipinst.org/2015/06/reimagining-peacemaking-womens-roles-in-peace-processes
REIMAGINING PEACEMAKING: WOMEN’S ROLES IN PEACE PROCESSES
Signing ceremony of the March 2014 peace pact between the government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Manila, March 27, 2014. (Romeo Ranoco/ Reuters/Corbis)
By Marie O’Reilly, Andrea Ó Súilleabháin, and Thania Paffenholz – June 16, 2015
Direct Link to Full 42-Page 2015 Publication:
http://www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/IPI-E-pub-Reimagining-Peacemaking-rev.pdf
Peace and political transition processes provide key
opportunities to transform institutions, structures, and relationships in
societies affected by conflict or crises. Despite these wide-ranging
implications, women’s participation in formal peacemaking remains low. And empirical
evidence regarding the impact of women’s participation on peace has been
lacking.
The International Peace Institute’s new report, “Reimagining
Peacemaking: Women’s Roles in Peace Processes” examines the challenges and
opportunities presented by women’s participation in peace and transition
processes. It shares new quantitative and qualitative evidence on the impact of
this participation and explores models and strategies for strengthening women’s
influence throughout mediated processes.
Based on research carried out at the International Peace
Institute in New York and the Graduate Institute of International and
Development Studies in Geneva, the new report shows how the lag in women’s
participation is linked to broader dilemmas in the peacemaking landscape today.
Drawing on a comparative study of forty peace and transition processes from the
Broadening Participation Project, it demonstrates that when women are able to
effectively influence a peace process, a peace agreement is almost always
reached and the agreement is more likely to be implemented. The report also
features a case study on two distinct peace processes in the Philippines, where
an unprecedented level of women’s participation offers lessons on their
influence.
The authors suggest that those seeking to strengthen a peace or
transition process by advancing women’s meaningful participation can leverage
four key strategies:
·
Build coalitions for women’s inclusion based on both normative
and strategic arguments.
·
Establish a credible selection process when deciding who should
participate.
·
Create the conditions to make women’s voices heard.
·
Keep power politics and the broader public in mind throughout
the process to ensure that broader participation remains a positive force for
peace.