Why Gender Provisions in Peace Agreements Are Not Enough to Ensure Post-Conflict Progress for Women

Jul 20, 2020 | Nicole Smith
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The United Nations recently announced that almost 80 million people were forcibly displaced around the world last year due to war, conflict, or persecution. As COVID-19 continues to spread across borders and calls for a global ceasefire go unheeded, there is an urgent need not only for peace, but to build back better. Returning to normal after a crisis does not work for more than half the world’s population, if ‘normal’ includes discrimination against women, and if planning for recovery excludes them. At the same time, as the pandemic has exacerbated threats to peace and security around the world, there is an urgent need to ensure that progress towards building inclusive and sustainable peace is not lost. This requires women’s meaningful participation. A recent study by masters’ students at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs in partnership with the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, explored the effectiveness of gender provisions in peace agreements in terms of their influence on women’s political and economic participation after conflict. The findings take on new urgency as countries around the world look for ways to strengthen their societies during a global pandemic, a crisis that invokes aspects of social disruption associated with conflict.