Increasing women's participation in community based peace and security structures

The participation of women in peace and security committees is often a challenge in countries like Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Congo to mention a few. Women are often not present, or they are officially member but don’t assume leadership roles nor participate in conflict mediation and dialogues because of traditional gender norms. In the learning paper we describe the different levels of participation of women, barriers for women inclusion and how to address them. We also give examples how community structures have contributed to transforming gender norms and values.

ZOA, together with Saferworld and SUDIA, has organized an international learning event in Uganda, August 2019 which brought together practitioners from different organisations working in Central and East Africa on community based peacebuilding. Details on the learning event that resulted in this learning paper, an additional paper on Working with government and customary authorities: considerations for peacebuilding practitioners, as well as 2 short videos on these topics can be found on the ZOA website here. The learning event and the production of these deliverables have been made possible thanks to the contribution of the Knowledge Management Fund.