Peace Research Institute Oslo

From conceptualization to implementation: women in peacebuilding revisited

Research Challenges on Women , Peace and Security, 11-12 November 2010

Torunn L. Tryggestad

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Women, Peace and Security

Open debate of UN Security Council 2010:• Reinforced political commitment• Record number of statements• Record number of high level officials• Hillary Clinton:– “Women’s inclusion in the work for peace is

a necessary global security imperative”

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The UN Peacebuilding Architecture

Three components:• The UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC)– Inter-governmental body – 31 members (Organisational

Committee)– Country configurations– Working Group on Lessons Learned

• The UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO)– Headed by Assistant Secretary-General– Supportive function to the PBC

• The UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF)– “seeks to minimize the risk of relapse into conflict by

addressing the most immediate challenges facing post-conflict countries”

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The UN Peacebuilding Architecture

Mandate of the Peacebuilding Commission:• Provide advice on how to develop integrated

strategies for post-conflict peacebuilding• Marshal resources for post-conflict recovery

activities• Improve the international community’s attention

to countries in a precarious post-conflict phase• Improve coordination at the strategic level

among all actors involved in peacebuilding activities

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The UN Peacebuilding Architecture

Research findings:• Provisions of Resolution 1325 was surprisingly well

integrated– Formative resolutions– Separate thematic meetings– Field missions met with women’s organisations– Language on women and women’s concerns

integrated into peacebuilding strategies for first two countries on the PBC agenda (Burundi and Sierra Leone)

– Gender advisor at PBSO– PBF funded women’s projects

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The UN Peacebuilding Architecture

Research findings:

• The PBC Working Group on Lessons Learned:– “the integration of a gender perspective is a key

principle and element of peacebuilding”– “resolution 1325 constitutes a normative

framework that enjoys widespread acceptance”

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Women and Peacebuilding – two years on

• Secretary-General’s report on peacebuilding–Hardly any mentioning of women• Separate report on women and peacebuilding– Peacebuilding agenda?–Women’s agenda?

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Women and Peacebuilding – The Report

• Programming and budgetting: have failed to translate political commitment and guidance material into gender sensitive projecs• Only low percentage of budgets are allocated

to women’s needs and the advancement of women• Efforts must be accelerated • Women as ’add on’ is still prominent

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Women and Peacebuilding

Five recurring priorities of peacebuilding:• Safety and security• Confidence in the political process through inclusive

dialogue and elections• Access to basic services such as water and education• Functioning public administration • Economic revitalisation

• Highly relevant - also for women – but not analysed and planned from gendered perspective

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Research Challenges

• Too much research conducted by women’s NGOs and advocacy groups – easy target of criticism

• More field based research is needed conducted by trained researchers

• Pairing of feminist researchers with mainstream (male) researchers

• Fascilitate dialogue between mainstream scholars and policy makers within the peace and security field and scholars and activists within women/feminist studies

• More research on the gendered dimensions of peace and conflict – also focus on men.