Gender & mediation : Women at the Peace Table - Africa

Why bring senior level women active in peacemaking together?

Despite repeated calls and increasing commitment from governments for improved representation, there is still a strikingly low presence of female mediators in formal peace processes. The inclusion of gender considerations in decision-making to end conflicts also remains limited. The HD Centre believes that through greater representation consideration of gender related issues will improve and peace can be more sustainable.

What has the HD Centre done to address this? 

Since 2005, the HD Centre has been exploring ways of improving peace-making approaches to gender issues and women's representation in peace processes, and in particular enhancing the role of senior level women in political peace processes. In 2009, the HD Centre launched the Women at the Table projects to bring together high-level female mediators, negotiators and advisers in both Africa and Asia to identify and employ strategies for improving women's participation in peace processes. In November 2009, the HD Centre launched the first of these activities in Africa as part of the Women at the Table project. Twenty-five of the most senior level women active in peacemaking across Africa were brought together at a roundtable in Nairobi, Kenya on 10 and 11 November 2009, with the support of the Open Society Institute.

In March 2010, the HD Centre in Nairobi convened a second roundtable, specifically looking at the Kenya Dialogue and Reconciliation which took place in the wake of the post-election violence.  The roundtable looked at the role of women in this process, and brought women from political, civil society, media and private sectors together to reflect on the process and consider ways that women could be more engaged in the implementation of the agreements.  The reflections of this session will be part of a forthcoming case study on the role of women in the Kenya peace process.

Who was there and what was discussed?

Participants included female mediators, advisers to peace processes, members of negotiating teams, representatives of governments and multilateral and regional organisations. They held critical discussions on the roles and contributions of women in peace processes across the continent, and the challenges they face during high-level processes. They discussed how women reach the negotiating table; whether they, or other women, are truly representative; how to better leverage links between women in civil society and political spheres around mediation processes; how to address sexual violence in peace processes in line with UN Security Council Resolutions 1820 and 1888; and how to make better use of national, regional and international mechanisms to improve women representation in mediation. 

The roundtable was the beginning of a process to practically improve the participation of women in peace-making and identify examples of good practice in developing women's substantive participation and concrete recommendations around the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820. It was an important first step in networking between African women with experience in high-level peace processes.

What are the next steps?

To enhance understanding of the issues, the HD Centre will publish research and analysis on the practical contributions of women's perspectives to peace processes.  In particular, the HD Centre plans to critically examine the inclusion of women in the Kenya peace process led by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2008.

Women in peacemaking - Africa from Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue on Vimeo.