Post-Conflict State Building and Peace Building: Key Priorities

Introduction
Key priorities for post-conflict state building and peace building include establishing political governance, ensuring security, justice and the rule of law, and building the administrative institutions of the state. Many argue that early attention needs to be given to gender equality and to increasing women’s voice in political, social, and economic development in fragile and post conflict settings. State reconstruction can provide opportunities to shape new social, economic, and political dynamics that can break existing gender stereotypes. It is also founded that women have a strong commitment to the cessation of violence and the maintenance of a long term peace, often constituting a highly motivated and able group of stake holders in all processes leading to sustainable peace

Gender Perspective
At the operational level, however, gender is often not seen as a high priority by donors in the early stages of post-conflict state building. Issues related to gender relations, women’s rights, participation and relationship to the state are often overlooked or inadequately addressed in the design of interventions. This can be attributed to lack of political will and insufficient knowledge among policymakers on how to integrate gender issues into state building strategies. Donor approaches to state building have not incorporated any substantial gender analysis that looks at how state building processes impact women and men differently, the quality of women’s relationship to the state, or how women can participate in shaping the state building agenda.
It is important to understand the links between gender and fragility, gender and violent conflict and the implications of failing to take gender into account. It is essential that gender not be seen as a ‘soft’ topic of secondary importance to establishing peace and security. Gender is often at the core of creating sustainable peace and security. In many fragile states, for example, it is particular gender ideals of power that perpetuate a culture of violence in which client-patron relations, corruption and discrimination against and suppression of women and minorities can flourish. Alongside the promotion of greater involvement of women in state building and peace building processes, attention also needs to be paid to transforming the cultures and systems that reinforce gender power inequalities.
Many formal peace building activities and policies suffer from an insufficient understanding or acknowledgment of the diverse communities in which they operate because they turn a blind eye on gender aspects thus overlooking it in passing whilst its prior to the issue of peace building. Gender analysis can bring to light the experiences of men and women during conflict and peace, assess needs, and show how gender relations change during and due to conflict and peace.

Such analysis also brings to light strong concern about sexual and gender based violence, during and after the conflict. The continuation of this form of violence in post-conflict settings can have lasting, harmful effects on other sectors in peace building. It can dissuade girls from attending schools, and women from owning businesses and property, from collecting water and food, from participating in political activities and can negatively impact the private sphere of the family. Strong judicial and security sector reforms (SSR) that combat cultures of impunity are promoted and advocated for by all actors in the field. Specific recommendations are also formulated on how to accomplish a gendered approach to transitional justice.
Men tend to dominate the formal roles in a peace building process; there are mainly male peacekeepers, male peace negotiators, male politicians, and male formal leaders. Power is unequally distributed between men and women and the majority of women do not have a voice in local and national decision making processes. However, women do play an important, if largely unrecognized role, in peace building. The underlying assumption is that women involved in these processes will help design a lasting peace that will be advantageous to the empowerment, inclusion and protection of women, man and children. Stemming from this theme is the commonly accepted approach of including women in decision-making processes and empowering women as decision makers and actors in all areas of peace building, as well as activities to sensitize male actors in peacekeeping through gender focused curriculum and trainings, codes of conduct, and disciplinary measures for military and peacekeeping.
Gender equality and peace building can also be viewed as goals. Ultimately, the use of the analytical tools and taking a gendered approach to peace building could lead towards gender equality and peace. There are two general theories regarding gender and peace building and those are the attainment of peace leading to greater gender equality, and the establishment of gender equality leading to peace.

The Millennium Development Goals
Goal three of the millennium development goals (MDGs) is the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The targets for the achievement of this goal are the inclusion of women and girls in education, equal access to employment and recruitment, and the representation of women within decision-making positions. Although the MDGs did not specifically address questions of violence or conflict, heads of state have recognized that positive post conflict interventions are essential to progress towards attaining the MDGs and of which many scholars believe that MDG number three is the one that plays a major role in attaining all other MDGs and that assets the important played by women at end. The Millennium Summit Declaration stated that “We stress the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace building”. We also underline the importance of the integration of gender perspective and women's equal participation and full involvement in all efforts to maintain and promote peace and security, as well as the need to increase their role in decision-making at all levels.
Traditionally, women have been left out of peacemaking and peace building, or regarded simply as war-victims. Furthermore, too often, they suffer "a backlash against any new found freedoms, and they are forced 'back' into kitchens and fields," whereas they may have seen their role expanded significantly during the war period. Their work in rebuilding communities, building peace and overcoming trauma has often been ignored and remained invisible. However, they have consistently demanded recognition as the active agents in the prevention of war, rehabilitation of victims and reconstruction of physical structures.
Participation of women is now more regularly acknowledged in peace building processes. For instance, in the Burundi's Peace building Fund Priority Plan, women and youth were specifically called on as actors to strengthen peace and social cohesion, but concrete improvements in practices may take more time.

Ensuring that women's needs are addressed
Explicit attention to the participation of women and reflection of gender perspectives in peace agreements is also vital to ensure that agreements are supportive of women's equal participation in the reconstruction of post-conflict societies and in the prevention of future conflict. The absence of women in peace processes and the failure of peace agreements to promote gender equality can lead to the perpetuation of discrimination against women and their continued marginalization in the post-conflict rebuilding of society. Conversely robust language in a peace agreement to promote gender equality and women's participation, backed by specific allocation of resources and responsibility for its fulfillment can facilitate proactive implementation, including work with local women. Some mediators and peace makers consider the inclusion of a few women delegates in Afghan peace negotiations to have had an important impact of the political developments there.
Some organizations refer to this process as inclusive security. Inclusive security is a rights based approach that incorporates certain rights inherent to women's involvement in peace building. The right to participate meaningfully in policy making and resource allocation, the right to benefit equally from public and private resources and services and the right to build a gender equitable society for lasting peace and prosperity.

Protection of women against violence
During the period following the end of a conflict, gender based violence often remains a persistent issue and may even increase within the domestic sphere. Increased domestic violence and crime in the private sphere is a direct and continuing result of conflict and accompanying social upheaval. Awareness campaigns and other prevention efforts on domestic violence are particularly needed in that context, in collaboration with local women’s movements, UN peace operations gender units, and local police.
International assistance is now actively involved in encouraging the recruitment and training of women candidates. The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO), for instance, has organized national civil society consultations in order to enhance the role of women in politics more recently in Burundi, the D.R.C, Haiti and Liberia. Based on these meetings, the DPKO and the Electoral Assistance Division are jointly preparing guidelines on enhancing the role of women in post-conflict electoral processes. The United Nations Democracy Fund, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) have sponsored a variety of projects to support women candidates or improve their press coverage. In relation with the organization of elections, international organizations also emphasize on raising women awareness about the importance of their vote. Another area where gender attention is needed is the media as they often face specific gender challenges. Women are often portrayed in the media strictly as victims, and also may have greater difficulty accessing media outlets.
Go to Private sector development
Generally speaking, women's needs and gender issues should be mainstreamed into all macroeconomic and microeconomic policies and activities, but the macro-economic principles and strategies underpinning Peace building Frameworks drawing largely from the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks - may inadvertently undermine national strategies for gender equality. It is well known that women suffer disproportionately from the stringent macro-economic polices often put in place during a country's transition to peace. Composing eighty percent of the rural agricultural workforce, women often experience a severe adverse impact from the commercialization and privatization of agricultural land, because women and men occupy unequal positions in the labor market and the household, women are more negatively affected by policies that privatize basic service provision, including energy, communications, transportation, health care and education.
The specific role of women in the different components of peace building
The role of women in democracy & governance
The role of women in politics has been made extremely clear. The first aspect concerns their role in constitution building and reform. Given that a country's constitution, even where it may appear neutral, impacts disparately or differently with respect to gender, an important feature of constitutional engineering is the role of women. Women's roles in the building of constitutions are particularly crucial. Practitioners highlight the vitality of incorporating women's voices into constitutional bodies and at every step of the constitution-building process (civic education, public consultations and drafting). Women often play a crucial role in ensuring that equality is reflected in the language of the constitution as well.
Women's representation in political institutions and legislature is another dimension that has attracted increasing attention. Several international legal instruments call for the rights of women to participate in governing bodies. A number of governments have recently attempted to incorporate women in government institutions through constitutional regulations, particularly surrounding quotas. Both the definition and the achievement of equality for women are complex matters and are not necessarily inclusive of every interest of diverse women. Women's organizations are often at the forefront of this effort. Increasing the presence of women as voters, candidates and administrators, is generally valued for its own sake, for reasons of gender equality.
In elections, women have also increased their roles, both as voters and candidates. Significant efforts have been made by women's organizations, in particular, to increase turnout of women voters. Their civic and voter education campaigns aim at targeting women's needs, both in the formulation of the message, the media chosen, and the organization of electoral workshops, for instance, as women may face specific constraints. For women candidates and potential candidates, the environment may be particularly intimidating. To face that specific challenge, networks of mutual support and women-only training have started to be developed through the development of cross-party caucuses.
Women's organizations are often among the most active components of local civil societies. They play a crucial role in popular protests and mobilizations and in different forms of citizen empowering movements. They have also been pushing for a greater consideration of their concerns and participation in discussions at the international level. For instance, for countries on the agenda of the United Nations Peace building Commission (UNPBC), women’s engagement in the work of the commission has been enhanced by international actors (in particular UNIFEM and the UN Peace building Support Office) but also by women leaders themselves.
Women are also increasingly involved in the media, making sure that their voice is heard and that the media reflects a more gendered-balance perspective. Many local women organizations have been also engaging efforts to create "cyber center" where women can have access to internet resources in a safe environment. Go to Public Information and Media Development.
The role of women in justice
Women organizations are often very active in the promotion and protection of human rights, in particular in monitoring, advocacy and public awareness as well as education functions. As women may have more difficulty accessing justice, their organizations are also often very active in the domain, both in an advocacy role and in providing direct support to women in need. As traditional and informal justice mechanisms have attracted increasing interest, women are also increasingly mobilized in raising awareness about potential bias against women, as many traditional justice mechanisms are structurally based on patriarchal power and help to reinforce it. Last but not least, transitional justice is an area in which women organizations have been increasingly involved to make their voice heard, support victims in trial processes, and push a gender perspective in the work of the truth commissions, among other dimensions. The mobilization of women organizations in obtaining the qualification of rape as a war crime has been central in the case of the International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia, for instance.

The role of women in psycho-social recovery
Many women's groups have taken the lead in addressing one of the most significant yet rarely acknowledged consequences of violent conflict deep rooted trauma. "In addition to providing psychosocial services, many of these groups are engaged in training and research in order to foreground the role that trauma plays in sustaining social conflict.
Participation and empowerment not only goes toward improving self-esteem, but also to issues directly related to living conditions that underlie improved mental health. Women often play a central protagonist role in ensuring that mental health and other dimensions of people psycho-social well-being be taken into consideration, and that these interventions are part of larger processes of social and political change. Women often hold different key roles as actors of change in their community. The role of women teachers is a particularly important perspective which leads the state to stay in peace without rebels.

Women's entrepreneurship for economic recovery and social change
Women can also play an important role in peace building and economic recovery through entrepreneurship. Women in poor countries typically engage in the labor market at the grassroots level through "informal" micro-level businesses due to limited access to education, capital and low social status. The down-side of this is that economic vulnerability and restricted economic opportunities can also force women into dangerous, damaging or illegal activities such as prostitution or smuggling of contraband articles. On the other hand, "women frequently have both the drive and the resourcefulness to make successful entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

The empowerment of women in the economic dimensions of the peace building agenda is an investment useful for the whole community and the society at large. Firstly, the extension of women's participation in employment and entrepreneurship strengthens the economy required for societal stability. Secondly, the economic independence of women contributes to their options for emancipation, which is a pre-requisite for a just and egalitarian society. Thirdly, such training builds women's confidence and capacity to challenge traditional power structures and exert pressure on decision-making processes, leading to a fully role in the reconstruction of society. Finally, the empowerment of women in the community provides greater recognition of the resources available and potential for leadership in civil society in its role in peace building.

REFERENCE
Anju Chhetri, August (2006) "Women's Intervention in the Peace Processes," Nepal Samacharpatra.
Asian Development Bank,(2003) "Policy on Gender and Development.
Duvury, Richard Strickland and Nata,(2003) Gender Equity and Peace building: From Rhetoric to Reality.
Jean Munro.(2000) Gender and Peace building (Peace building and Reconstruction Program Initiative, International Development Research Centre)
United Nations Development Program (2007), Empowered and Equal: Gender Equality Strategy (New York: UNDP).
United Nations (1997) "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women," 1979.
United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)(2006), "Cedaw and Security Council Resolution.

SOLUSI UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES
CONTEMPORARY WOMEN ISSUES IN AFRICA (IPCS 210)

DONE IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF COURSE OUTLINE: IPCS 210

QUESTION: Why is it important to incorporate a gender-equality perspective in peace building initiatives?

Presented by: Bhekinkosi S Dube
ID number: 2012050179

Lecturer: B Maphosa