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The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa pp 317–337Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Women, Gender, and Peacebuilding

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of Africa’s gender architecture and several mainstream efforts to achieve gender equality in peacekeeping and peacebuilding processes, while promoting new and trans-disciplinary suggestions for realising justice, equality, and harmonious relations between the sexes on the continent. The chapter commences by outlining the policy framework on gender and peace in Africa created by the African Union (AU), Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs), and the United Nations (UN). The chapter then identifies and problematises the focus on quotas for women as a key solution to gender inequality, and discusses and endorses the notion of militarism as presented by various African feminists. It puts forward several mainly theoretical recommendations for achieving progress towards gender equality, as well as suggestions for realising these recommendations in practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    By July 2017, 19 African countries had National Action Plans (NAPs) for the implementation of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325. These countries were: Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Côte D’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Togo, and Uganda.

  2. 2.

    Awino Okech, Gender and Security in Africa: Primer 2 (Accra: African Women’s Development Fund [AWDF], 2016), p. 9.

  3. 3.

    “Mrs. Mahawa Kaba Wheeler Addressed the Press on Activities and Theme on Women’s Rights”, press release, 31 January 2016, https://www.au.int/web/en/pressreleases/19688/mrs-mahawa-kaba-wheeler-addressed-press-activities-and-theme-women%E2%80%99s-rights (accessed 30 June 2017).

  4. 4.

    Article 4(l) of the 2000 Constitutive Act of the African Union (AU) identifies the promotion of gender equality as a founding principle. Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR), Women in Post-Conflict Societies in Africa, Seminar Report no. 20 (Johannesburg, 6–7 November 2006).

  5. 5.

    Thapo Rapoo, Gender and the New Africa Agenda: Examining Progress Towards Gender Equality in SADC, Policy Brief no. 49 (Johannesburg: Centre for Policy Studies, 2007), cited in Elizabeth Otitodun and Antonia Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”, in Chris Saunders, Gwinyayi A. Dzinesa, and Dawn Nagar (eds.), Region-Building in Southern Africa: Progress, Problems and Prospects (London: Zed, 2012), pp. 107–127.

  6. 6.

    Known also as the Maputo Protocol, it provides a continental legal framework for addressing gender inequality matters, and aspects of the norms that perpetuate women’s subordination.

  7. 7.

    Zanele Khumalo and Antonia Porter, “Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women (MDG Three)”, in Charles Mutasa and Mark Paterson (eds.), Africa and the Millennium Development Goals: Progress, Problems, and Prospects (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), pp. 69–90.

  8. 8.

    African Union, “Briefing Note: Mitigating Vulnerabilities of Women and Children in Armed Conflict”, PSC/PR/3 (CCXXIII), 3 March 2010. The 2003 protocol has been ratified by 37 AU member states. A further 12 member states have signed the protocol but have not yet ratified it, and six member states have not yet signed the protocol.

  9. 9.

    The 2004 Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) incorporates key issues raised during preparatory processes involving a range of women’s networks in South Africa, Senegal, and Mozambique.

  10. 10.

    The eight targets are: (1) creating an enabling and stable political environment; (2) legislation and legal protection actions against discrimination for ensuring gender equality; (3) mobilising stakeholders for implementing the AU Gender Policy; (4) rationalisation and harmonisation of the gender policies and programmes of the regional economic communities (RECs); (5) mobilising resources for implementing the AU Gender Policy; (6) capacity-building for gender mainstreaming; (7) implement gender mainstreaming in all sectors; and (8) maintaining peace and security, and promoting settlement of conflicts, reconstruction, and the effective participation of women in peacekeeping and security including efforts aimed at reconciliation in post-conflict reconstruction and development.

  11. 11.

    Khumalo and Porter, “Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women (MDG Three)”.

  12. 12.

    “Mrs. Mahawa Kaba Wheeler”.

  13. 13.

    Okech, Gender and Security in Africa, p. 9.

  14. 14.

    The five female AU Commission commissioners are: Cessouma Minata Samate of Burkina Faso; Amani Abou-Zeid of Egypt; Amira El Fadil of Sudan; Sacko Josefa Leonel Correa of Angola; and Sarah Mbi Enow Anyang Agbor of Cameroon.

  15. 15.

    Member states were requested to contribute 1 per cent of their annual national budgets to the fund. For more information, see Redi, “‘Women’s Decade’: Greater Attention to Implementation”, press release, 22 February 2010, http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/02/africa-womens-decade-greater-attention-to-implementation (accessed 2 August 2017).

  16. 16.

    AU Commission, Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa (Addis Ababa, July 2016), http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/pubs/2016womenpeacesecurity-auc.pdf (accessed 3 July 2017).

  17. 17.

    The AU reports that Agenda 2063 presents the impetus for enhanced political will to end conflict in Africa, while complemented by efforts to strengthen preventative capacity through enhanced early warning and structural vulnerability assessment tools and engagement in resolving conflict before it escalates, through a range of measures.

  18. 18.

    “Mrs. Mahawa Kaba Wheeler”.

  19. 19.

    Author telephone call with Victoria Maloka, AU Gender Directorate, 1 August 2017.

  20. 20.

    One of the goals of the gender directorate for 2017 is to encourage the 17 member states that have not yet ratified the Women’s Protocol of 2003 to do so.

  21. 21.

    Author telephone call with Maloka.

  22. 22.

    Khumalo and Porter, “Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women (MDG Three)”.

  23. 23.

    “Closing the Gap in Sexual Violence Response in the Great Lakes Region”, n.d., http://isis.or.ug/closing-the-gap-in-sexual-violence-response/# (accessed 29 July 2017).

  24. 24.

    AU Commission, Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa.

  25. 25.

    Southern African Development Community (SADC), http://www.sadc.int/issues/gender (accessed 28 July 2017.)

  26. 26.

    The protocol draws together existing instruments that address gender equality and conditions for women in Southern Africa, including constitutional and legal rights, governance, education, productive resources, gender-based violence, health (especially HIV/AIDS), peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and the media.

  27. 27.

    This is because nine ratifications amounts to more than two-thirds of the 13 signatories.

  28. 28.

    The Global Alliance is a strong network of women’s rights non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across SADC’s 15 member states.

  29. 29.

    GenderLinks, “Region: Alliance Urges Resolute Action Post-2015”, press release, 6 July 2016, http://genderlinks.org.za/pressreleases/southern-africa-alliance-urges-resolute-action-on-post-2015-gender-protocol (accessed 2 July 2017).

  30. 30.

    Southern Africa’s gender ministers also decided that the protocol should be accompanied by a strong monitoring, evaluation, and results framework. For more information, see GenderLinks, “Region: Alliance Urges Resolute Action Post-2015”.

  31. 31.

    It also upgrades the requirement for women’s “equal” participation in decision-making to “equal and effective” participation, in alignment with the language of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the protocol no longer incorporates the timeframes that previously distinguished it from other protocols, a fact that disappoints the Global Alliance.

  32. 32.

    GenderLinks, “Region: Alliance Urges Resolute Action Post-2015”.

  33. 33.

    This article now states that “state parties shall put in place measures to ensure equal representation and participation in key decision-making positions in conflict resolution, peacebuilding processes, and peacekeeping in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security and other related resolutions”. Quoted in Colleen Lowe Morna, Lucia Makamure, and Sifiso Dube (eds.), SADC Gender Protocol Barometer 2016 (Johannesburg: GenderLinks, August 2016), p. 16.

  34. 34.

    Otitodun and Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”, pp. 111–112.

  35. 35.

    Jan Vanheukelom and Talitha Bertelsmann-Scott, The Political Economy of Regional Integration in Africa: The Southern African Development Community (SADC) (Maastricht: European Centre for Development Policy Management [ECDPM], January 2016).

  36. 36.

    Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), “Policy Brief on Gender Equality in the East African Community,” n.d., http://eacsof.net/EACSOF/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/EA-Policy-brief-copy.pdf (accessed 2 August 2017).

  37. 37.

    East African Community (EAC), “Regional Implementation Plan on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security: 2015–2019”, n.d., http://www.eassi.org/eassi/files/mydocs/final-report-on-the-eac-regional-implementation-fr.pdf (accessed 3 July 2017).

  38. 38.

    United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), “Assessing Regional Integration in Africa, Volume 1”, p. 216.

  39. 39.

    AU Commission, Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/pubs/2016womenpeacesecurity-auc.pdf.

  40. 40.

    Bernardo Monzani, “Women, Peace, and Security in the Horn of Africa: Between Rhetoric and Reality”, 5 May 2016, http://www.peaceagency.org/en/2016/05/05/women-peace-and-security-in-the-horn-of-africa-between-rhetoric-and-reality (accessed 2 July 2017).

  41. 41.

    Make Every Woman Count, “Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD)”, 19 April 2012, http://www.makeeverywomancount.org/index.php/community/monitoring-african-regional-organisations/3374-intergovernmental-authority-for-development-igad (accessed 3 July 2017).

  42. 42.

    The membership of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICLGR) includes: Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

  43. 43.

    Okech, Gender and Security in Africa, p. 10.

  44. 44.

    Okech, Gender and Security in Africa, p. 10.

  45. 45.

    The Beijing Platform even included a chapter on “Women in Armed Conflicts”, and called for greater participation of women in peace processes, reduction in military spending, and the promotion of peaceful means to resolve conflicts. For more information, see Otitodun and Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”.

  46. 46.

    This resolution calls for all actors in peace agreements to protect and respect the human rights of women and girls, especially as they relate to the police, judiciary, and disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration.

  47. 47.

    Okech, Gender and Security in Africa, p. 7.

  48. 48.

    The additional eight resolutions on women, peace, and security are: UN Security Council Resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2272 (2016).

  49. 49.

    African Leadership Centre, “Gender, Peace, and Security”, n.d., http://www.africanleadershipcentre.org/index.php/research/research-projects/gender-peace-and-security (accessed 30 June 2017).

  50. 50.

    African Leadership Centre, “Gender, Peace, and Security”.

  51. 51.

    Joyce Laker, “Gender and Democracy in Africa”, paper presented at the biannual conference of the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS), Stellenbosch, 1–4 September 2010, cited in Otitodun and Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”.

  52. 52.

    Donna Pankhurst, “Women, Gender, and Peacebuilding”, Working Paper no. 5 (Bradford: Centre for Conflict Resolution, University of Bradford, 2000), p. 10, cited in Otitodun and Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”; Aruna Rao, cited in Jane S. Jaquette and Aruna Rao, “Setting the Context: Approaches to Promoting Gender Equity”, in Elizabeth Bryan and Jessica Varat (eds.), Strategies for Promoting Gender Equity in Developing Countries: Lessons, Challenges, and Opportunities (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2008), pp. 5–10.

  53. 53.

    Otitodun and Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”.

  54. 54.

    See “Strategic Summary 2016: UN Peace Operations by the Numbers”, n.d., http://peaceoperationsreview.org/strategic-summary-2016-un-peace-operations-by-the-numbers (accessed 2 August 2017); and UN Peacekeeping, “Summary of Troop Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations by Mission, Post, and Gender”, 30 June 2017, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/gender/2017gender/jun17.pdf (accessed 2 August 2017).

  55. 55.

    Yolande Bouka and Romi Sigsworth, “Women in the Military in Africa: Kenya Case Study”, September 2016, https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ear7.pdf (accessed 2 August 2017).

  56. 56.

    Yaliwe Clarke, “Security Sector Reform in Africa: A Lost Opportunity to Deconstruct Militarised Masculinities”, in “Militarism, Conflict, and Women’s Activism”, Feminist Africa no. 10 (August 2008), p. 52.

  57. 57.

    Cheryl Hendricks, “Gender and Security in Africa: An Overview”, Discussion Paper no. 63 (Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2011).

  58. 58.

    Lindy Heinecken, “Challenges Facing Women in Peacekeeping”, 5 May 2016, https://sustainablesecurity.org/2016/05/05/challenges-facing-women-in-peacekeeping (accessed 2 August 2017).

  59. 59.

    Angela Nicole Alchin, “Are Women Making a Difference in Peacekeeping Operations? Considering the Voices of South African Women Peacekeepers”, MA thesis, Stellenbosch University, March 2015, http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/96843 (accessed 2 August 2017).

  60. 60.

    Some such essentialist ideas are that women are non-competitive, more emotional, and more nurturing than men.

  61. 61.

    Lindy Heinecken, “Are Women ‘Really’ Making a Unique Contribution to Peacekeeping? The Rhetoric and the Reality”, Journal of International Peacekeeping 19, nos. 3–4, (2015), pp. 227–248.

  62. 62.

    Heinecken, “Challenges Facing Women in Peacekeeping”.

  63. 63.

    Heinecken notes that the findings show that the ability of women peacekeepers to make a difference is limited by their training, in which they are expected to perform “just like men”. For more information, see Heinecken, “Are Women ‘Really’ Making a Unique Contribution to Peacekeeping?”.

  64. 64.

    Clarke, “Security Sector Reform in Africa”, p. 60.

  65. 65.

    Sandra Whitworth, Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping: A Gendered Analysis (Boulder, CO: Rienner, 2004), cited in Alchin, “Are Women Making a Difference in Peacekeeping Operations?”.

  66. 66.

    “Militarism, Conflict, and Women’s Activism”, Feminist Africa no. 10 (August 2008).

  67. 67.

    See, for example, UN Security Council Resolution 1820 of 2008, which explicitly links sexual violence as a tactic of war, with women, peace, and security issues. Resolution 1820 also requires parties to armed conflict to take immediate action to protect civilians from sexual violence, such as by training troops appropriately. See also Resolution 1888 of 2009, as a follow up to Resolution 1820, which mandates that peacekeeping missions protect women and children from sexual violence during armed conflict, and requested the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special representative on sexual violence during armed conflict. Resolutions 1960 of 2010 and 2106 of 2013 place even greater operational detail on responding to conflict-related sexual violence.

  68. 68.

    Okech, Gender and Security in Africa, p. 5.

  69. 69.

    Amina Mama and Margo Okazawa-Rey, “Editorial: Militarism, Conflict, and Women’s Activism”, in “Militarism, Conflict, and Women’s Activism”, Feminist Africa no. 10 (August 2008), p. 3.

  70. 70.

    Yaliwe Clarke, A Lost Opportunity to Deconstruct Militarised Masculinities?, in “Militarism, Conflict, and Women’s Activism”, Feminist Africa no. 10 (August 2008), p. 50.

  71. 71.

    For the list of recommendations, see AU Commission, “Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa”, July 2016, pp. 42–44, http://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/pubs/2016womenpeacesecurity-auc.pdf (accessed 3 July 2017).

  72. 72.

    Antonia Porter, “‘What is Constructed Can be Transformed’: Masculinities in Post-Conflict Societies in Africa”, International Peacekeeping 20, no. 4 (2013), pp. 486–506.

  73. 73.

    According to Sonke Gender Justice, others include the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development; the 1995 Programme of Action of the World Summit on Social Development and its review in 2000; the 26th special session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS (2001); and the 48th and 53rd sessions of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) (2004 and 2009).

  74. 74.

    Clarke, “Security Sector Reform in Africa”.

  75. 75.

    Sonke Gender Justice, http://www.genderjustice.org.za/regional-programmes/menengage-africa/african-union-regional-economic-communities (accessed 2 July 2017).

  76. 76.

    Porter, “‘What Is Constructed Can Be Transformed’”.

  77. 77.

    Since its official launch in 2002, the Gender Is My Agenda Campaign (GIMAC) has taken place bi-annually in advance of the AU summit of heads of state and government to engage AU member states on African women rights, issues, and concerns. Members of GIMAC include reliably progressive feminist organisations such as Senegal’s Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), Uganda’s Isis-Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), and Ghana’s Abantu for Development.

  78. 78.

    Women’s Situation Rooms—with minor variations—have been established during elections in countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe. For more information, see AU Commission, “Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa”.

  79. 79.

    AU Commission, “Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa”.

  80. 80.

    AU Commission, “Implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in Africa”, p. 42.

  81. 81.

    The Global Fund for Women reports that the platform has also enhanced women’s skills and opportunities to resolve conflicts as they arise within the local community and armed forces. For more information, see Global Fund for Women, Tipping Points: Economic and Political Empowerment, October 2016.

  82. 82.

    Global Fund for Women , Tipping Points.

  83. 83.

    The Global Fund for Women anticipates that with targeted investment in a cohort of strong, well-connected activist grassroots groups, important outcomes would ensue such as increased engagement among communities to advocate for peace processes; improved livelihoods for women that increase economic and food security for their families or their communities; and increased women’s and girls’ participation and influence in peace processes.

  84. 84.

    Porter, “‘What is Constructed Can be Transformed’”.

  85. 85.

    See http://www.genderworks.org for more information.

  86. 86.

    Otitodun and Porter, “Gender and Peacebuilding”.

  87. 87.

    “Gender fatigue ” is described as a lack of enthusiasm for gender equality and gender-sensitive peacebuilding within national governments and even within development and peacebuilding institutions.

  88. 88.

    Scilla Elworthy, “Working for a World Without War”, The Ecologist, 23 May 2017, http://www.theecologist.org/magazine/features/2988966/working_for_a_world_without_war.html (accessed 1 July 2017).

  89. 89.

    Elworthy, “Working for a World Without War”.

  90. 90.

    The Tree of Life is a therapeutic process for adults and children that enables them to strengthen their relationships with their own history, their culture, and significant people in their lives, in ways that build their self-esteem.

  91. 91.

    The idea that there are specific values associated with masculinity and femininity is not universally agreed upon.

  92. 92.

    Heinecken, “Challenges Facing Women in Peacekeeping”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Consultant, Cape Town, South Africa

    Antonia Porter

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  1. Antonia Porter
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. N’Zarama Centre for Peacebuilding, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

    Tony Karbo

  2. Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, South Africa

    Kudrat Virk

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Porter, A. (2018). Women, Gender, and Peacebuilding. In: Karbo, T., Virk, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62202-6_18

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