Women, Peace & Security: Sensemaking Beyond 2020

 
We are excited to share a collection of nine Insights developed through a global public online consultation and in-depth discussions with peacebuilders on the ground.
 

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Our nine insights were created from the global online consultation on Engaging Women in Post Conflict Economic and Political Decision-Making from May to June 2020.

 

In many countries, women are building a decentralized social service delivery infrastructure. The difficulty that centralized peace processes, international organizations, and governments have in engaging decentralized movements means that capability frequently gets left on the table.

  • Women have been connecting with each other, acting as active agents addressing needs in their communities, from communal lending groups, to delivering emergency aid, to providing health and safety information, which have allowed communities to better cope with disasters and crises such as COVID. These groups often appear dispersed, ad-hoc, and ephemeral, leading them to be treated as volunteer efforts. In fact, they are building a valuable infrastructure for service delivery that complements or extends government capabilities, particularly for difficult-to-reach beneficiaries and areas.
     
  • Peace processes, international organizations, and governments better able to engage with decentralized movements can allow them to gain greater influence, resources, and improve service delivery for those at risk of being left behind. Connected and bound together, these groups can deliver services more continuously, be leveraged at a provincial or national scale, and be recognized as a critical and resilient service delivery infrastructure, especially in times of crisis.


OPPORTUNITIES

  • The scale and scope of the COVID emergency has provided an unprecedented opportunity to retain and connect these groups so they can be recognized as a critical service delivery infrastructure.

  • The opportunity to build on these communities has never been greater because they are actively supporting the COVID-19 response.

  • Invest in bringing together disparate community service initiatives so that they can be sustained beyond the immediate crisis and be engaged more systematically by governments and the international community.

 

#WPSBeyond2020

View released Insights: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

 

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