Gender, Conflict and the Post-2015 Development Framework:

November 2012 UN Women Peace and Security Section

Rationale Conflict and state fragility were missing elements of the MDG framework. This has been recognized by many stakeholders and has even triggered a recently-developed adjustment in the international aid effectiveness framework: the New Deal for International Engagement in Fragile States. Conflict is no minor issue: 1.5 billion people live in countries affected by fragility1, conflict or violence and by 2025, 82 per cent of the world’s poor are projected to live in fragile states.2 The 2010 UN MDG review found that armed conflict remains a major threat to human security and development and that of the 34 countries farthest from reaching the MDGs, 22 are conflict-affected. Data shows that conflict-affected or fragile states struggle with:

60 per cent of the world’s undernourished;

61 per cent of people living in poverty;

77 per cent of children not in primary school;

64 per cent of unattended births

70 per cent of infant deaths;

and 65 per cent of people without access to safe water.3 While the effects of large scale armed conflict are well researched, we know less about the effects of low-intensity type conflict that characterizes fragile states. Many countries in Latin America have high levels of violence and homicide tied to conflict between organized crime factions and the state; with homicide rates double the global average and nearing a crisis point.4 Young men in some Latin American countries have as high as a 1/50 chance of dying from organized crime-related violence, while intimate partner/family-related homicide remains the major cause of female homicides globally. UNODC’s global homicide report for 2011 concluded that “the home is the place where a woman is most likely to be murdered, whereas men are more likely to be murdered in the street.”

1 The all-encompassing World Bank definition of fragility is “Periods when states or institutions lack the capacity,

accountability, or legitimacy to mediate relations between citizen groups and between citizens and the state, making them vulnerable to violence.” World Development Report (2011). 2 Homi Kharas and Andrew Rogerson, Horizon 2025: Creative destruction in the aid industry, ODI, 2012. 3 World Development Report 2011, p 62.

4 “The illicit activities of organized criminal groups are linked to drug trafficking, which is the root cause of the

surge in homicides in Central America in recent years. In the last five years, homicide rates have increased in five out of eight countries in Central America, with some countries seeing their rate more than double in the same period.” UNODC Global Homicides Report 2011

Evidence has shown that sustained peace and stability can bring rapid gains; Ethiopia more than quadrupled access to improved water after the war ended and Mozambique more than tripled its primary completion rate in just eight years. Peace, stability and development are interlinked and while it is considered desirable that the post-2015 framework should have universal relevance, a commitment to conflict prevention requires a degree of conflict-sensitivity in the components adopted. Not only has progress on the MDG targets been slowest in conflict-affected and fragile states, but these same countries have notably lagged on the gender-specific MDG areas.5 In spite of this, considerations about gender have been missing from the post-2015 conflict and fragility debates, and for that matter also from discussions about aid effectiveness in New Deal countries.6 This is of particular concern in view of the relatively well-known gendered features of conflict and recovery. A growing body of data demonstrates that women and girls are often the majority victims of displacement during and after conflict; are the primary targets of specific forms of violence such as sexual attack and subject to increased levels of intimate partner violence after conflict; lack access to basic recovery resources; are not the primary beneficiaries of post-conflict spending or jobs programmes; lack asset (notably land) security; and constitute up to 40% of household heads in the immediate post-conflict period. If conflict is understood only through a narrow lens of battle deaths (or fragility only through homicides) a gap will remain in terms of our understanding of the long term impact of conflict and fragility and holistic strategies to resolution and prevention strategies. As the 2010 SG Report on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding7 explains, this catalogue of abuse and exclusion constitutes a systemic and profound constraint on effective peacebuilding and recovery. Failure to prosecute crimes against women during and after war creates a climate of impunity that undermines the credibility of efforts to reassert the rule of law – which, after all, is at the core of successful peacebuilding. Women’s lack of property rights or access to post-conflict economic opportunities and markets undermines efforts to re-build food security in contexts where women are major food producers. Women’s fragile livelihoods and lack of access to secure incomes undermines family welfare and, new research shows8, community stability, because women are forced into low-reward and dangerous work (for instance sex work) and are not able to provide for their families. Poverty, social exclusion, and high on-going levels of violence can discourage women from engaging in public decision-making

5 MDG 3 on gender equality and MDG 5 on maternal mortality

6 The New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States builds on the principles articulated in documents such as the

Millennium Declaration and proposes key peacebuilding and statebuilding goals (PSGs), focuses on new ways of engaging, and identifies commitments to build mutual trust and achieve better results in fragile states. It is an agenda for more effective aid to fragile states, based on five PSGs (legitimate politics, security, justice, economic foundations, and revenues and services), stronger alignment and mutual accountability, and more transparency and investments in country systems based on a shared approach to risk management. The seven countries piloting the New Deal are: Afghanistan, CAR, DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Timor Leste. 7 Report of the Secretary-General on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding (A/65/354–S/2010/466)

8 Justino. Women Working for Recovery: The impact of Female Employment on Family and Community Welfare

after Conflict. UN Women Sourcebook on Women Peace and Security, New York, 2012.

in local or national public institutions, let alone from engaging in civic life through civil society organizations. This deprives public decision-making of women’s perspectives on social priorities; not just lessening the chances that the urgent needs of women will be addressed in public policy, but in the long run, weakening the quality of democracy. Overlooking conflict and fragility’s different effects on men and women means opportunities for engaging women as agents of change are missed, which may undermine long term strategies to reverse state fragility and advance development. This process begins long before the peacebuilding phase – it starts with the conduct of war and the negotiation of peace. The exclusion of women from the process of designing peace agreements and recovery frameworks means that often, insufficient attention is paid to redressing gender inequalities and addressing women’s insecurity. Women and girls’ needs go unmet and their capacities remain underutilized. This vicious cycle can be converted to a virtuous one, so that women’s engagement in peacemaking brings a gender perspective to post-conflict planning, generating improved outcomes for women and an enhanced capacity to participate in longer-term peacebuilding. For this to happen, gender-specific targets are needed that indicate achievement of gender-responsive approaches to building the rule of law, inclusive governance, effective public service delivery, non-violent dispute resolution, broadly shared economic security and market access. Whether this requires a specific goal on fragility and conflict is currently being debated in a global consultative process.9 In the UN Women Expert Group Meeting on gender issues in the post-2015 framework, the objectives with regard to peace and security are:

to clarify the rationale for a gender-specific focus in any conflict and fragility goal or targets;

to identify the most usefully indicative and measureable signals of gender-responsive conflict prevention and recovery;

to contribute to a global consensus regarding the value, relevance and practicality a of gender-responsive conflict/state fragility focus in the post-2015 framework.

The Challenge: The Millennium Declaration included strong references to fundamental values such as the freedom from fear of violence, oppression or injustice; goals on peace, security and disarmament; development and poverty eradication; and human rights, equality, democracy

9 The UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), the

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are co-leads for the Conflict, Violence and Disaster post-2-15 consultations, with support from the Government of Finland. There will be three regional consultations (Oct 2012, Nov 2012 and Jan 2013) culminating in a High-Level Consultation on Conflict, Violence, and Disaster and the Post-2015 Development Agenda in Helsinki in February 2013, to be hosted by the Government of Finland.

and good governance. Other normative frameworks, such as the five Security Council resolutions on women and peace and security, assert a foundational positive connection between women’s participation in peace-making and long-term sustained peace. Some of these resolutions, such as UNSCR 1889 (2009) insist on a connection between women’s levels of education and economic security and their capacities to engage effectively in long-term conflict prevention, immediate conflict resolution, and sustained peacebuilding. In order to build a credible case for gender and conflict to be included in the goals, targets and indicators of the post-2015 development framework, advocates must not only build political will to support the rights-based case but also demonstrate the causal connections between gender equality and women’s empowerment on the one hand, and peace, security, effective rule of law, good governance and rapid economic recovery on the other. There are serious challenges to address and Annex 1 outlines the current state of the evidence base. Many indicators of instability (particularly gender-specific indicators) are context-specific (for instance in Yemen, instability has triggered lower ages of marriage for both boys and girls; in South Sudan conflict between communities over cattle is related to steep increases in bride prices) and the most sensitive indicators on women’s status and condition (for instance maternal mortality) are exceptionally difficult to measure in conflict contexts. If data is weak on aspects of women’s social and political empowerment globally, this holds in particular for conflict contexts, were data is phenomenally scarce on crucial aspects of women’s lives such as property ownership rates, levels of participation in local government, economic engagement and types of market access, maternal mortality and general morbidity. Conflict-triggered population flight and displacement complicates the picture as some of the women most affected by conflict often simply disappear from national data-gathering frameworks. Surprisingly little is known about the proportion of post-conflict spending that targets gender equality and women’s empowerment, the proportion of demobilized combatants (and people associated with fighting forces) that are women, the proportion of reparations that target women and offer redress for crimes they have suffered, the percentage of post conflict prosecutions for war crimes inflicted on women, the numbers of women hired to deliver public services, the numbers of women participating in peace negotiations and in post-conflict planning. Another challenge is that within the current debates on whether to have a post-2015 focus on peace and security there is very little focus indeed on the gendered dimensions of the experience of conflict, nor on investments in conflict-prevention, such as gender balance in the foreign service, security service, and judiciary – which frameworks such as UN Security Council resolution 1325 suggest constitute a conflict-prevention measure. In the discussions of whether there should be a goal on peace and security in the post-2015 agenda (such as the goal articulated in the 2000 Millennium Declaration Spare no effort to free our peoples from the scourge of war, whether within or between States,10 which has also been referenced by the

10

Millennium Declaration, paragraph 8.

internal UN consultation on peace, security and the post-2015 framework11) there is no attention to gender-specific variations in the experience of conflict. In discussions of a goal on conflict and fragility suggested targets are ‘reduce violent crime’ and the suggested measures of this have been either ‘battle deaths’ or ‘intentional homicides’.12 Violent deaths are a conventional indicator of conflict.13 However, from a gender perspective, conflict can be prosecuted outside of the use of lethal violence, notably for instance when systematic and widespread sexual violence is used as a tactic to pursue inter-group conflicts, a fact recognized in UN SCR 1820. The most striking recent example of this were over 300 rapes – but not a single murder – in four days of conflict in the Walikale region of Eastern Kivu, DRC, in July-August 2010.14 In short, a measure of lethal violence may completely miss women’s experience of conflict, and may mean some types of conflict are ignored completely. Another relevant post 2015 discussion is on a potential goal around ‘personal security’. This is favored because a great deal of serious violence occurs outside of conflict and fragile state settings; The Global Burden of Armed Violence 201115 shows that about 526,000 people die violently each year and that about 396,000 of these deaths occur in countries that are neither fragile nor conflict-affected. The focus on lethal violence misses the exceptionally high levels of violence that women experience in private spaces, from intimate partners, and completely misses types of violence to which they are subject that is part of organized campaigns of mass rape or displacement or starvation, but does not necessarily result in death. The ‘personal security’ goal is receiving considerable support, and in a recent High Level Panel discussion supported by the UK, goals were discussed such as: “eliminating lethal violence from every community by 2030” or “reducing the number of people and groups affected by violence,” with indicators such as “changes in homicide per 100,000 population,” “reported violent crime per 100,000 population.”16 There is a possibility within these discussions of including a measure of the types of violence most often experienced by women such as: “changes in sexual violence against adults and children” (reduction in reporting rates). The human security framework referenced in the Millennium Declaration includes this concept of individual “freedom from fear”. Women’s and men’s fears and threats of violence often differ and the framework should recognize this. While a gender-sensitive measure of personal security is crucial in order to generate systematic monitoring of violence against women and to trigger preventive actions, it does not directly

11

UN System Task Team On the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda, Peace and Security, Thematic Think Piece May 2012 (p. 8). 12

UN System Task Team Think Piece (p 9). 13

“An armed conflict is a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in one calendar year.” Uppsala University, UCDP. 14

UN Secretary-General (UNSG), Conflict-related sexual violence: report of the Secretary-General, 13 January 2012, A/66/657*–S/2012/33. 15

The Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011, Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Conflict. 16

Mitigating the Consequences of Violent Conflict: What Works and What Does Not? IPI Meeting Notes, Oct 2012.

address conflict and fragility issues or the foundational concern to build national and international peace. This remains a core UN objective. A peace and security goal would build a focus on long-term conflict prevention globally, and on peacebuilding (strengthening governance, rule of law, and economic security) in fragile states. A gender-sensitive approach to a peace and security goal could likely build focus and actions in the arena of conflict prevention via investments in social, political and economic inclusiveness. Gender-sensitive indicators are also more likely to enable analysts to ‘drill down’ to some of the most highly sensitive measures and even early warning indicators of social and state instability (for instance the early marriage rates in Yemen mentioned earlier). Potential Indicators: It is not yet clear whether the post 2015 development framework will include a separate goal on peace and security and/or cross cutting indicators related to stability and conflict. There is an existing indicator framework on gender development and security: UNSCR 1889 (op 17) called for the creation of a set of global indicators to track and monitor the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. The resulting list of 26 indicators (organized into four pillars: Prevention, Participation, Protection, and Relief and Recovery) was presented to the Security Council in the annex of the 2010 Secretary-General’s Report on Women, Peace and Security (S/2010/498) and overlap between the two lists is indicated below in footnotes as well. 1. A measure of personal security disaggregated by age and sex: Any indicator on personal

security, such as violent deaths or homicides, should be sex and age disaggregated. 2. A gender specific measure of personal security:17 Women’s definition of security is often

different from traditional notions of security in that it considers the importance of security in both private and public spaces. The absence of an indicator on violence against women was a significant gap in the MDG framework. While many societal inequalities between men and women can be identified through sex-disaggregated data on poverty, education, health or employment levels, this is not the case with violence against women. These types of indicators will not reveal specific data about violence against women, an inequality that is not adequately addressed in existing and past international development frameworks and thus has not been fully recognized as an issue that when left unaddressed seriously impedes development efforts and results. Intimate partner/family-related violence does not discriminate between contexts, circumstances and locations and the vast majority of victims are females. In developed, fragile and conflict-affected states alike intimate partner/family

17

1325 Global Indicator # 1b: Patterns of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations: • Types of measures (proposed vs. implemented) • Types of violations • Type of perpetrator • Specific groups affected (ethnicity, geographical location, age) 1325 Global Indicator #14: Index of women’s and girls’ physical security. Survey-based indicator to measure three dimensions: • Perceptions of physical security of women and girls (by location, time of day) • Proxy variables measuring how women’s and girls’ ability to participate in public life has been affected • Proxy variables measuring how women’s and girls’ regular activities have been affected

related violence is the major cause of female homicides, and also leads to lifelong disabilities and lack of productivity as women victims are unable to hold employment, require medical care, lose their social networks; all factors that would otherwise contribute to development. In addition, in post-conflict contexts violence against women tends to increase, especially when a culture of impunity for violence exists.

3. A measure of the prevalence of small arms and light weapons:18 In many countries with

high homicide rates the share of firearm homicides is also greater and is often associated with the illicit activities of organized criminal groups. In addition, in the aftermath of conflict the prevalence of small arms and light weapons is an instability factor in and of itself.

4. A measure of military spending: Percentage of military spending of the total government

expenditure and GDP; or ratio of military spending vs. social spending. 5. A measure of women’s employment in conflict and post conflict contexts,19 particularly

stable/formal employment. Increasing women’s employment towards the parity zone in conflict and post-conflict contexts has proven stabilizing effects on households and communities.

6. A measure of women’s inclusion in peace processes:20 we know that exclusion is a driver of conflict – however women continue to be excluded from peace processes and peace agreements rarely have gender dimensions, which leads to non-responsive institutions and instability. The indicator could be the percentage of peace agreements that include a gender dimension. However there are so few peace processes in any given year, and each is so idiosyncratic that peace processes are difficult to compare to each other and this indicator would likely not meet standards of universal relevance.

7. A measure of inclusion of women’s needs and priorities in post-conflict financing and

planning.21 This could be an indicator linked to targets on international cooperation or aid frameworks, and would be consistent with the growing use of gender markers to track the ‘gender spend’ in aid flows. It would also support the UN’s own push for a 15% minimum level of spending on gender equality and women’s empowerment in peacebuilding contexts as mandated by the UN system’s 7 point action plan and Secretary General’s 2010 report on women’s participation in peacebuilding (A/65/354–S/2010/466).

18

Global Indicator on 1325 #17: Existence of national mechanisms for control of illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons (SA/LW). This indicator reports on: • Existence of a national coordination agency on SA/LW or National Focal Point (paragraphs 4 and 5 of Section II of the POA) • Record keeping on holdings and transfers of SA/LW (para 9 in section II of the POA) 19

Global indicator on 1325 #18: Percentage of (monetary equivalent, estimate) benefits from temporary employment in the context of early economic recovery programmes received by women and girls. 20

Global indicators on 1325 #8, 11a, 11b. 21

Global indicators on 1325 #22a, 22b, 23a, 23b, 24a, 24b

8. A measure of civic registration disaggregated by age and sex: There is support by a range of actors (UNICEF, UNHCR) to include universal birth registration in the post-2015 agenda. Evidence shows that civic registration is a pre-requisite for access to institutions, services, livelihoods and citizenship rights and that women are registered at lower rates than men in many contexts, in particular conflict and fragile ones. Displaced populations are particularly vulnerable to not having any documentation and women make up a disproportionate number of the displaced. In addition, if a mother has no documentation she often cannot register her child either. A measure of civic registration could look at birth certificates for children and identification documents for adults. Women and children’s access to identity documentation of this sort can be a good measure of an aspect of public sector effectiveness in fragile state contexts, and can be a human security investment particularly in contexts of displacement.

9. A measure of women’s access to services through a proxy indicator of ratio of women to

men service providers: We know that getting services to women is a critical step to achieving development goals. Evidence suggests that in post conflict contexts women service providers are a first step to reaching women with key services such as health and education. Increasing the numbers of women in public service delivery, for example as teachers and skilled medical attendants has an important development impact. A potential indicator could be ratio of women teachers to men teachers or women agriculture extension agents to men extension agents.

10. A measure of women’s representation in security, justice and Foreign Service sectors:22

Percentage of women disaggregated by rank/seniority. While gender balance in these non-traditional and core services for conflict prevention and civilian protection is a value in and of itself, there are many assumptions, and some evidence, that it results in greater gender-sensitivity in the delivery of services such as security and of justice. There is less evidence that it makes a difference in diplomatic services and regional and international conflict prevention. More data is needed on minimum essential levels of female participation in these services to make a difference.

11. Representation of women in senior leadership of regional organizations and the UN.23

This could be an indicator linked to international cooperation goals and is consistent with women and peace and security resolutions of the Security Council.

22

Global indicators on 1325 #16 23

Global indicator on 1325 #7

Annex 1 – The Evidence Base on how gender equality supports peace: As noted above, a gender-sensitive approach to a peace and security post-2015 focus can be made on a rights basis, but could also be grounded in an analysis of causal relationships between higher levels of gender equality and more resilient social and political systems able to resolve conflict (including domestic conflict) by non-violent means. To build this case and identify areas in which targets and indicators might eventually be developed, we review existing data on women’s experiences of core aspects of peacebuilding.

What We Know What We Don’t Know

Financing The study What Women Want: Planning and Financing for Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding

24, shows that there has

been considerable inconsistency in the analysis of and planning for women’s needs in post-conflict situations. Certain sectors show a striking lack of gender analysis and budget provision for women’s needs, notably in economic recovery, infrastructure, security and the rule of law. This is despite the UN system commitment in the 7 point action plan to put 15% of peacebuilding funds towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. Multi-Donor Trust Funds on average allocated 7.1 per cent of budgets in 2011 to spending designed specifically to benefit women. While an increase from 5.7 per cent in 2010, this remains a feeble allocation. The amount of the ‘gender spend’ in post-conflict budgets is in part determined by the prior analytical and planning instruments that identify needs and enable priority-setting. These often make insufficient provision for women’s needs, with less than three per cent of the indicative budgets of Post Conflict Needs Assessments or Poverty Reduction Plans dedicated to women’s and girls’ specific needs.

Thee neglect of investment in gender equality and women’s empowerment potentially undermines the speed of recovery and the extent to which peace dividends are available to all. However, there is no data demonstrating that where spending on women’s needs and priorities is higher, there is an increase in stability and the sustainability of peace , or economic recovery is hastened.

Employment Perhaps nowhere is the lack of investment in women after conflict more evident than in economic recovery programmes, in which job-creation efforts often target young men to absorb them away from conflict-related activity. Women devote a greater proportion of their income than men do to expenditures that benefit families — their own children and members of extended kinship networks. Women need jobs in post-conflict to address the urgent survival crises faced, in particular, by female-headed households, whose numbers usually swell during and after conflict, sometimes up to 40% of households. The paper Women Working For Recovery: The Impact of Female Employment on Family and Community Welfare After Conflict

25 examines, for the first time, large datasets on

women’s employment-seeking patterns in conflict and post-conflict situations. It notes a highly significant increase in

Does giving jobs to women destabilize post-conflict communities if men feel it is at their expense? What precisely is the investment in women’s economic security post-conflict? There is next to no data on the amounts spent on ensuring economic security and livelihood viability of women compared to men.

24

http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/05A-Planning-and-Financing.pdf 25

http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/05B-Women-Working-for-Recovery.pdf

women’s labor force participation during and after conflict, often in very low-wage and dangerous occupations. However, even when women earn significantly less than men, their contribution to family wellbeing is considerably larger than men’s. This finding confirms other studies regarding women’s propensity to spend a greater proportion of their incomes than men on family wellbeing. Moreover, the study suggests that these earning and spending patterns could have a positive impact on levels of consumption across local communities, contributing to post-conflict stability.

Although the findings need deeper testing against more household-level data from conflict-affected areas, they persuasively indicate that investing in women’s employment has a significant impact on family and community recovery, making jobs for women one of the most powerful peacebuilding investments possible.

Access to Services

Women require access to social services and productive assets in any context but double so in fragile state settings particularly when social and family structures have collapsed. They need state institutions adapted to the reality of female-headed households. One of the most valuable post-conflict capacity- building investments is to prioritize recruitment of women for front-line essential service delivery

26. Women police officers, teachers, health

workers and other service providers, if present in sufficient numbers (at least 30 per cent of the service) have been shown around the world to be more responsive than male counterparts to women’s and girls’ need, delivering both gender and poverty-sensitive public services

This argument regarding the gender and poverty-sensitive service delivery capabilities of women frontline service providers is made mostly through qualitative data analysis and anecdotal data. Is there quantitative data on this in post-conflict contexts?

Exclusion from services can be a driver of conflict in many contexts. Women have difficulty accessing services in post-conflict contexts, sometimes because they often do not have civic registration documents. Without an ID card women cannot access health, education, credit, property registration, inheritance, etc. Girls are at risk of early marriage without birth certificates. Women’s capacity to engage in public decision-making – even registering to vote – is also inhibited by their lack of identity documentation.

How many people living in fragile states lack civic registration documents? What is the ratio of men vs. women that lack civic registration documents? Is the distribution of Identity/civic documentation lower in fragile and conflict affected states than others? How good an indicator is it of state penetration across nations and state capacity? Is there a correlation between the proportion of women with civil documents and their participation in elections?

There is a strong relationship between the number of women police officers and levels of reporting of gender based and particularly sexual violence.

27 Evidence shows

Does increasing the number of women in the military make any difference to the responsiveness

26

Rickmers, Lisa: The Peace Dividends of Women in the Frontline of Service Delivery. Discussion Paper, 2012. UNDG Review of MDG 3. 2010. 27

Progress of World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice, 2011.

that women police officers are better able to gain the trust of the communities they patrol, which is critical to effective community policing. Increased numbers of women in police forces is correlated with an increase in reporting of sexual violence by both women and men.

of security forces on human rights issues? What is the minimum proportion (minimum ideal potential target) of women in security services that results in greater gender-sensitivity of the service?

Inclusive Peace

Women’s striking absence from peace talks has become one of the standard features of these important conflict resolution forums. Since 1992, fewer than 10 per cent of peace negotiators have been women, and there has been little improvement in this figure since the passage of resolution 1325 (2000). This situation cries out for determined and concrete action requiring mediators and members of negotiating teams to include women. Mechanisms are also needed to ensure regular consultations between mediators, parties to peace talks and women’s peace groups. Observer status should be granted to representatives of women in civil society from the very start of peace processes and not, as often happens, only at the very end.

How do we know that women’s inclusion will produce increased gender sensitivity in peace deals? Not all women are gender sensitive, least of all those selected to represent the interests of their specific party/militia/groups etc. Are there better measures of the influence of women on peace agreements for instance measures of the quality of peace accords or the level of access accorded to civil society groups?

Good Governance

Women’s representation in elected and appointed institutions is correlated with good governance. However causal directions are not clear. Does liberal democracy promote greater respect for women’s rights and greater openness to women’s representative office? Or do increasing numbers of women in public office cultivate greater acceptance of women’s rights issues? Where quotas are used in post-conflict contexts women’s representation meets and exceeds the quota level. Where quotas are not used women’s representation levels remain low and do not increase swiftly over time.

28 Women’s engagement as civic leaders and public officials both signals and encourages more inclusive forms of politics and governance. By contrast, where women are underrepresented in public office or women’s and girls’ rights are violated with impunity, political legitimacy can suffer. The result can be declining trust in government, deterioration in the rule of law and mounting difficulty in enlisting public support for collective action — conditions that undermine sustainable peace.

Does increasing women’s representation lead to stability or is the inverse true – does stability allow an increase in women’s representation? Or are they mutually reinforcing processes? In short; what do greater numbers of women in public office indicate? Simply the existence of quotas? Or the liberality of the political system? Is there a better measure of gender-responsive governance particularly in contexts of exceptionally weak governance?

Access to Justice

Failing to provide justice for conflict-related sexual violence perpetuates a culture of impunity and is linked to high levels of SGBV and domestic violence and continuing insecurity for women in the post-conflict context.

Does neglecting women’s access to justice contribute to instability and insecurity?

28

http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/05C-Gender-and-Post-Conflict-Governance.pdf

There is increased recognition of the need to deliver transformative and sustainable reparations for women in the aftermath of conflict, in order to address not just the single violation but the underlying inequalities which render women vulnerable to violence and shape its consequences. Nowhere however have we seen a comprehensive reparations programme that has delivered on these goals.

In contexts where women have received reparations for conflict-related sexual violence and other war crimes is there evidence this had increased their personal security as well as community stability?