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11. Women, peace and security beyond resolutions

Author:
Karmen Tornius, Marie Kolling, and Lars Engberg-Pedersen
Publication Date:
08-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Experiences of implementing the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda in African countries indicate a need to focus on engaging civil society and grassroots actors as well as developing adequate reporting systems. Denmark’s candidacy for the non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2025-26 would benefit from a strong position on the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda both nationally and locally by all UN member states.
Topic:
Security, United Nations, Women, Peace, UN Security Council, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Africa, Denmark, and Global Focus

12. Research Report: Women’s Meaningful Participation in Post-Conflict: Mechanisms and Challenges in Colombia, Nepal and South Sudan

Author:
Jocelyne Enriquez, Ali Foote, Alani Frace, Pía Madanes Quintanilla, and Siaira Milroy
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
Abstract:
The inclusion of women in peace processes and post-conflict governance has been shown to have positive effects on the duration of peace and on social inclusion.1 For instance, women representatives might encourage an increase of resources spent on public services rather than on the military2 and they improve public perceptions of the government which contributes to preventing conflict relapse.3 These conflict-prevention effects are highly desirable, reinforcing the call for the participation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional, and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict. This is reinforced by United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 and subsequent resolutions on women’s participation in peace processes: SCRs 1889 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2493 (2019). Post-conflict peacebuilding contexts generate opportunities for women advocates to demand the presence of women in decision-making spaces and the wider public sphere,4 which contributes to women’s empowerment.5 Research on the correlation between the end of war and women’s increased political participation further illustrates this point. Tripp’s 2015 research6 on Africa and Berry’s 2018 research7 in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina have found that conflict resolution in these contexts have had positive effects on women’s political agency.
Topic:
Governance, Women, Participation, Post-Conflict, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Colombia, Nepal, South Sudan, and Global Focus

13. Bridging or Breaking the Silos: Young Women’s Leadership in Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Action

Author:
Lynrose Jane Genon
Publication Date:
10-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
Abstract:
This research presents how adopting the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) resolutions has strengthened youth leadership, especially that of young women, in peacebuilding and humanitarian action. It showcases how meaningful inclusion and participation of youth need to extend beyond global policy to the design, implementation, and evaluation of the progress of the YPS agenda. It outlines recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers working in these areas globally. This publication was created with support from Global Affairs Canada’s Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOP), in the framework of the project “Empowering Rohingya Refugees, Burmese and Bangladeshi Women to Contribute to Sustainable Peace.”
Topic:
Security, Women, Leadership, Youth, Peace, Peacebuilding, and Humanitarian Response
Political Geography:
Global Focus

14. Participatory methods in peacebuilding work

Author:
Evelyn Pauls
Publication Date:
03-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Berghof Foundation
Abstract:
This policy brief provides guidance to peacebuilders and conflict transformation practitioners on incorporating participatory methods at all stages of a project's life cycle. Participatory methods can be utilised from conflict analysis through implementation and monitoring and evaluation of project outcomes. The policy brief offers practical recommendations to practitioners on implementing participatory approaches and highlights the potential benefits and limitations of these methods. It also includes a collection of resources for different participatory methods and demonstrates how they can be effectively applied in peacebuilding contexts.
Topic:
Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Planning, Monitoring, and and Evaluation (PME)
Political Geography:
Global Focus

15. Instruments for Sustaining Peace: The Contribution of Strategic Foresight

Author:
Emily Munro
Publication Date:
05-2023
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Abstract:
The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General recently observed that “We have war reporters, but there are no peace reporters”.1 Building and sustaining peace is a long-term endeavour and does not create the headlines that war does. However, it is not only the attention of the media, but also that of governments, regional and international organisations, and others that have difficulty focusing on the long-term efforts required to build and sustain peace, and instead focus on short-term crises associated with conflict. This perpetuates a cycle whereby the issues that are growing in importance are not tackled early enough and become the crisis of the day. How can this cycle be broken? The concept of sustaining peace provides one answer.2 This concept, as the UN proposed in 2016, emphasises “a comprehensive approach to sustaining peace, particularly through the prevention of conflict and addressing its root causes”.3 It recognises that the stages or phases of any conflict are not clearly defined categories, and therefore attempts to break down barriers between artificially defined phases. It also includes explicit direction for approaches that are integrated across all sectors, and emphasises early action based firstly on the input of a wide group of stakeholders from across the society of a conflict-affected country and secondly on strong local, regional and international partnerships.4 The implementation of the sustaining peace concept is ongoing.5 Another component of the answer to the question of how to break the cycle referred to above comes from strategic foresight. Strategic foresight is the “structured and explicit exploration of multiple futures in order to inform decision-making”.6 It thus includes both a strategic thinking dimension, but also one of action and agency. Strategic foresight has a long history of increasing application in the public and private sectors across a variety of topics.7 While rapid technological change and the growing impact of climate change were increasing the prominence and value of strategic foresight approaches prior to 2020, more recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have led to an increasing interest in this approach, including in the peace and security domain. How strategic foresight can support efforts to build lasting peace received strong support from the UN Secretary-General in his report entitled Our Common Agenda, when he recommended that the New Agenda for Peace (which is due to be published in the form of a UN Secretary-General Policy Brief in June 2023) focuses in part on “Strengthening international foresight and capacities to identify and adapt to new peace and security risks”.8 Initiatives by Mexico in November 2021 and Japan in January 2023 in the UN Security Council (UNSC) under their respective presidencies of that body have provided opportunities for debate on themes related to sustaining peace.9 A further debate scheduled by Switzerland during its UNSC presidency in May 2023 will renew attention on the issue in the lead-up to the Summit of the Future in 2024 and at a strategic time before the New Agenda for Peace is due. At least one permanent member of the UNSC, the United Kingdom (UK), explicitly encouraged the UN to strengthen its “foresight capabilities to anticipate risks and inform our responses” in the context of the prevention of conflict and the implementation of nationally owned peacebuilding processes during the 26 January 2023 UNSC debate.10 An important backdrop to these recent efforts is the overarching commitment made in the preamble of the UN Charter “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”,11 and renewed emphasis on what today’s policymakers owe future generations.12 This is an issue that Switzerland reminded the UNSC of in the 26 January 2023 debate, stating “the New Agenda for Peace must serve as leverage for building sustainable peace. In these dark times, we owe it to all generations, everywhere in the world, to join our efforts and seize this opportunity”.13 This Policy Brief will address the gaps that exist in the steps we need to take today to build long-term sustainable peace. At its heart it will be a discussion of the instruments that link insights on how the future may evolve with decision-making around building peaceful societies. It will be argued that these foresight instruments need to be both routine and agile, and that they should be embedded in institutions involved in building sustainable peace.
Topic:
United Nations, Institutions, Sustainability, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

16. Chronic Crisis Financing? Fifty Years of Humanitarian Aid and Future Prospects

Author:
Gary Milante and Jannie Lilja
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
This study maps trends of humanitarian funding in the context of total aid at the country level between 1969 and 2019 and estimates how these trends will change in the future. Historical trends show that the composition of aid has changed significantly in the last two decades: the humanitarian share of total aid to countries has increased from approximately 5 per cent in the 1990s to 23 per cent in 2019. Humanitarian aid was originally intended to respond to short-term emergencies, however, most of today’s humanitarian financing goes to protracted situations. Today many countries receive high levels of humanitarian assistance for a decade or longer, referred to in this paper as ‘chronic’ crises. More than half of total global humanitarian assistance (59 per cent) in the decade 2010–19 went to chronic crises, typically synonymous with conflict-affected, fragile and refugee-hosting settings. These chronic crises have become more prevalent since 1995. Conservative forecasts suggest that 71 per cent of humanitarian assistance over the next decade will continue to go to countries receiving high levels of assistance today. The study concludes with open questions to policymakers regarding the use of the humanitarian financing instrument. In chronic crisis settings, the strategic balance between humanitarian, development and peacebuilding financing and the interplay between these financing streams deserves attention.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Finance, Resilience, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

17. Pathways for Reducing Military Spending in Post-civil Conflict Settings

Author:
Alexandra Marksteiner and Diego Lopes da Silva
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
High military spending is a common and consequential legacy of civil conflict. Reducing military spending can yield valuable economic gains and further contribute to the recovery of post-civil conflict societies. However, little is known about the conditions that enable military spending reductions in a conflict’s aftermath. This SIPRI Insights on Peace and Security tackles this issue and provides a comparison of post-civil conflict conditions and military burden—military spending as a share of gross domestic product—outcomes. It builds on a comparative analysis of 19 post-civil conflict episodes between 1970 and 2020, as well as three detailed case studies, to identify common pathways to post-civil conflict military burden reductions. This research finds that reductions in military burden usually follow peace agreements that encompass trustworthy and legitimate verification mechanisms, the strengthening of institutional means to resolve grievances, and improvements in relations with neighbouring countries.
Topic:
Finance, Military Spending, Resilience, Post-Conflict, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

18. Reclaiming Power, Restoring Peace: Key Findings from ICAN’s 2022 Women, Peace, and Security Forum

Author:
Women's Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL)
Publication Date:
12-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
Abstract:
This briefing paper collates the perspectives and approaches of 63 women peacebuilders from 39 countries, members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL), who gathered in spring of 2022 during ICAN’s 9th Women, Peace, and Security Forum “Reclaiming Power, Restoring Peace”. Drawing on their analysis and experiences and reflecting on the decade that followed the first ICAN forum in 2012, the paper seeks to inform international policy debates and offer recommendations for programming.
Topic:
Security, Climate Change, Diaspora, Women, Conflict, Peacebuilding, and Activism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

19. Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis: 6 Opportunities to Strengthen Conflict Sensitivity across the HumanitarianDevelopment-Peacebuilding Nexus

Author:
Céline Monnier and Leah Zamore
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic, and efforts to control its spread—including lockdowns, social distancing measures, and border closures—have led to unprecedented health, humanitarian, and socioeconomic shocks worldwide. These shocks, in turn, are raising the likelihood that risks for many forms of violent conflict—crime, armed conflict, violent extremism—may increase. It is crucial for the United Nations (UN) to adopt a conflict-sensitive lens in all relevant operations across the humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding (HDP) nexus to prevent an increasingly volatile situation from deteriorating further.
Topic:
Development, United Nations, Conflict, COVID-19, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

20. Good Peacebuilding Financing: Recommendations for Revitalizing Commitments

Author:
Sarah Cliffe, Paige Arthur, and Betty N. Wainaina
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
At a moment of intense global pressure due to the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, support for prevention and peacebuilding remains as vital as ever. This brief offers action-oriented recommendations to advance new and more inclusive approaches to peacebuilding financing on the eve of the UN High-level Meeting on Peacebuilding Financing.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, United Nations, Finance, and Peacebuilding
Political Geography:
Global Focus