Integrating Gender in the DNA of Peacebuilding: Learning with Peers

The so-called WPS (Women, Peace, and Security) Agenda, starting with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, explicitly linked "women" to the context of peace and security and reaffirmed the particular disadvantages suffered by women and children in conflict and the importance of their role in conflict resolution and peace building. Despite the various frameworks that have been put in place to realize the WPS agenda and the numerous research findings on the correlation between gender equality and conflict, significant obstacles remain to achieving the vision that was initially expected. Why is that? In addition, peacebuilding organizations around the world that are working on Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding (which could be interpreted as almost equal or complementary initiatives for promoting WPS) find it even more difficult to mainstream gender within their own organizations than to introduce a gender perspective in their programs.
 
This report is the result of an effort to bring together gender experts from 13 peacebuilding organizations around the world, led by Conciliation Resources in the UK and CMI - Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, a Finnish peacebuilding organization, to share and learn from their experiences in gender mainstreaming within their respective organizations. The Sasakawa Peace Foundation participated in the discussions and helped produce the Japanese version of the report.
 
The report also emphasizes that gender mainstreaming is a political process, not simply a transplantation of (gender) expertise, and the need to strike a balance between the two (expertise and politics). Furthermore, it suggests the importance of  clarifying where each organization sets their level of ambition in mainstreaming gender lens, across a spectrum ranging from gender discriminatory to gender transformative approaches.