Calming the Waters, Ploughing the Sea – Can Gender-Responsive Approaches to Intra-State Water Conflicts Lead to Peacebuilding? Evidence from Lebanon and Nepal
Publisher: Springer
Author(s): Henri Myrttinen
Date: 2017
Topics: Dispute Resolution/Mediation, Gender, Governance, Renewable Resources
Countries: Lebanon, Nepal
Access to water, among other resources, has been and continues to be an implicit or explicit driver of intra-state conflict, and both access to water and conflicts are intimately linked to gendered power dynamics in any given society. While water as a conflict driver and the gendered nature of conflict have received relatively extensive attention from academics, policy-makers as well as practitioners of peacebuilding, the more positive approaches of using water and/or gender relations as entry points to conflict transformation and societally inclusive peacebuilding have been less researched. Drawing on case study examples from Nepal and Lebanon, the chapter explores some of the possibilities, necessary conditions and challenges of gender-responsive peacebuilding in the context of intra-state water conflicts.