Strengthening Practice : Mediation and gender

What is the HD Centre's objective in developing this programme?

The HD Centre is interested in exploring all avenues for improving the quality of peace processes. One of these avenues is to evaluate the impact of women's involvement and the consideration of their views as well as of gender issues more broadly, on a peace process; or more pertinently, what impact the neglect or exclusion of these factors has.

Despite UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and growing commitment by governments and international organisations to implementing the latter, women's presence at peace tables, and the inclusion of gendered views in decision-making to end conflict remain very limited.

The HD Centre's programme aims to highlight the costs ofcontinued exclusion and benefits of increased inclusion, and to use focused research, analysis and advocacy to help peace process actors take gender issues seriously.

What steps has the HD Centre taken to achieve this programme?

The HD Centre has been at the forefront of promoting gender in mediation since 2005, as part of its efforts to make UN Security Resolution 1325 a reality in conflict mediation.

On the Resolution's 5th anniversary in 2005, the HD Centre sparked an ongoing debate with its Opinion Piece We the Women - Why Conflict Mediation is not just a Job for Men. This paper offers a cogent set of reasons as to why the impediments often cited to women's participation in peacemaking at Track One level are surmountable or irrelevant, and suggests practical options to counter the discrimination and inertia which remain.

Since then, the HD Centre has convened senior level decision-makers in and around the UN system in New York and at its flagship annual meeting for senior conflict mediators, the OSLO forum, to continue raising awareness of the issues and to identify and push practical options for action. OSLO forum participants in 2006 and 2007 offered names for potential mediators and peace process actors, and started to outline strategies to involve women and gender perspectives in peace processes. One result has been the development of an informal database of names of potential women candidates to be suggested for senior peacemaking vacancies. OSLO forum participants also called for the issue to remain central to the event's agenda in coming years.

What activities are planned for the programme in going forward?

The programme will continue to maintain, expand and informally network the database of names of potential women candidates.  It will publish research and analysis to enhance understanding of the issues in particular through spotlighting the empirical and practical contributions of women's perspectives to peace processes.  At the 2008 OSLO forum, mediators will devote a session to sharing and identifying practical strategies for including women and their views at peace tables.