Blogs & Opinions

Gender Relations in Forestry: Beyond a Headcount

Apr 15, 2020 | Kate Evans

Women can play a huge role as ‘critical actors’ in defending and managing their forests, says Ph.D. candidate and gender researcher Priyanka Bhalla from the…

Pandemic Hits Women Harder, Says WSI

Apr 15, 2020

Is a gender viewpoint needed to examine the COVID-19 risks and impacts on fisheries and aquaculture? According to Natalia Briceño-Lagos and Marie Christine Monfort of…

In Frozen Negotiations over the Donbas, Environment Is Everything

Apr 15, 2020 | Gabriella Gricius

Despite the many issues plaguing negotiations to bring ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine to an end, one aspect that positively contributes to mutual cooperation and…

Environmental Effects of Chinese Projects in Myanmar

Apr 15, 2020 | Megha Gupta

The Chinese “project of the century” — the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is a transcontinental network of roads, railways and ports, covering dams,…

Women, Peace, and Security: Gender and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Apr 13, 2020 | Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe, and Albert Zhang

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, a number of commentators have stressed the need for gender analysis of the issue. Writing for The Atlantic, Helen Lewis discusses the…

The Greatest Story Never Told

Apr 13, 2020 | Meaghan Parker

“If the pope is interested, everyone is interested,” said Alexandre Roulin, accepting the 2019 Environmental Peacebuilding Research Award in Irvine, California. The University of Lausanne…

COVID-19 & ASM: Illicit Traders Cashing in on Vulnerable Miners in Conflict-Prone Areas

Apr 10, 2020 | Alan Martin and Joanne Lebert

We are particularly concerned about the pandemic’s impact on livelihoods, how it will fuel the illicit trade of minerals, and undermine peace and security in…

Women Leaders Call on UN Security Council to Address Covid-19 Crisis

Apr 9, 2020 | Group of Women Leaders, Voices for Change and Inclusion

This letter to President of the United Nations Security Council Mr. José Singer Weisinger was signed electronically on 8 April 2020 by a growing group…

Unfulfilled Ambition: Yemen's National Action Plan for Women Leaves Much to Be Desired

Apr 9, 2020 | Maha Awadh

As Yemen enters its sixth year of a vicious war, turning it into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, women bear the greater burden of the…

In Wasting Oil Wealth, Baghdad and the KRG Have More in Common Than Meets the Eye

Apr 9, 2020 | Nick Augustijn

With the slump in oil prices, and some analysts forecasting prices to head towards $10 per barrel, yet more hard times are ahead for Iraq and…

From ENMOD to Geoengineering: The Environment as a Weapon of War

Apr 7, 2020 | Gabriela Kolpak

Collateral environmental damage has long been regarded as an inevitable consequence of armed conflicts. But there have also been many examples of the intentional manipulation of…

Evaluating Environmental Peacebuilding: Difficult but Necessary

Apr 7, 2020 | Juha I. Uitto and Amanda Woomer

When you first hear the phrase “environmental peacebuilding,” you may think that these two words are not directly linked. Think again. Many conflicts around the…

India: Climate Change and the Need for Gender-Responsive Policymaking

Apr 5, 2020 | Akanksha Khullar

While climate change in general has negative implications, from a gender perspective, it entails greater risks for women than men. In India, as weather patterns…

Women, Peace, and Security - Challenges and Opportunities in Light of the Corona Pandemic

Apr 4, 2020 | Carmen Niethammer

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Resolution on Women, Peace and Security, also known as UN Resolution 1325. It specifically addresses how…

Opinion: Women Have a Major Role in Rebuilding Somalia-- the Private Sector Must Support Them

Apr 3, 2020 | Alice Laugher

When Zahra Ibrahim began studying at a university in Mogadishu, Somalia, she was told that computer science wasn’t for women. Her parents and teachers wanted…

COVID-19: Why Policymakers Need a Gender-focused Approach for Health and Economic Recovery

Apr 2, 2020 | Julia Arnold, Elizabeth Anderson, Smriti Rao, and Sarah Gammage

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to engulf the world, questions of post-disaster recovery must be at the forefront of the conversation. We’re still far from…

Renewable Energy as an Opportunity for Peace?

Apr 2, 2020 | Vane Moraa Aminga

Growth in global energy demands due to population and economic growth has caused energy-sector emissions to rise and surpass historic records. Clearly, efforts to sustainably mitigate climate…

With the World Pre-Occupied with Coronavirus, Israel Pushes a West Bank Land Grab

Apr 2, 2020 | Evan Gottesman

An emergency unity government to confront coronavirus: that’s been Benjamin Netanyahu’s pitch to his rivals in Kachol Lavan since Israel’s March 2 Knesset elections. Kachol…

Members Urge States and the IUCN to Address Conflicts and Biodiversity

Mar 31, 2020 | Stavros Pantazopoulos

The topic of the protection of the environment in relation armed conflicts (PERAC) is increasingly attracting the attention of the international community. The UN Environment…

Show Me! Laying the Foundation for the Next Generation of Environmental Peacebuilding

Mar 31, 2020 | Carl Bruch

As documented by the New Security Beat, environmental peacebuilding has grown dramatically as a field in recent years. Across the security, development, and diplomatic communities,…

Learning from Dalit Women Fighting for Land Rights in Punjab

Mar 31, 2020 | Tarini Manchanda

Stories about Dalit women often go untold, even though women of this social category continue to face discrimination in the caste system as the most oppressed social…

How Gum Acacia Trees Could Help Build Peace in the Sahel

Mar 30, 2020 | Ousseyni Kalilou

A special type of tree could facilitate peacebuilding in the Sahel. A stretch of semi-arid land south of the Sahara that runs from the Red…

Earth Hour Reminds us Tackling Climate Change Needs Gender Equality

Mar 27, 2020 | Kalpana Giri

Forests are vital to tackling climate change. But if we are to succeed in our efforts to save the Earth, we must think beyond conservation,…

Chitra Nagarajan on What’s Changed for Women in Lake Chad Region

Mar 27, 2020 | Wania Yad

“Women and men face very different risks and challenges,” said Chitra Nagarajan, a writer and journalist who covers climate change, conflict, and gender. She spoke in…

Beyond Title: How to Secure Land Tenure for Women

Mar 26, 2020 | Celine Salcedo-La Vina

The international community now fully recognizes the need to secure women’s land rights. The Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s blueprint for development, include women’s land ownership…

The Future of Climate Change and Peace

Mar 26, 2020 | Maxine Burkett and Maya Soetoro-Ng

As fires rage in Australia and in the Amazon, hurricanes ravage the Caribbean year after year, and glacial melt threatens entire communities in the high…

Women and Peace and Security in the Time of Corona

Mar 25, 2020 | Sanam Naraghi Anderlini

2020: It was always going to be a big year for the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda; twenty years since the UN Security Council’s…

Women Lose Most from the Climate Crisis. How Can we Empower Them?

Mar 24, 2020 | Tharanga Gunawardena

Extreme climate events are increasingly threatening countries and livelihoods. Devastating natural disasters and unpredictable weather have made communities more vulnerable and impoverished, especially women. According…

Women & Climate: Planting a Global Forest in a Connected World

Mar 23, 2020 | Rita Ann Wallace and Cynthia S Reyes

In January of this year, Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, shocked much of the world when they…

Gender and Climate-The Importance of Women's Leadership in Climate Action in Singapore and Hong Kong

Mar 23, 2020 | John Sayer

At the most recent UN climate talks in Madrid in December 2019, one positive outcome was the approval of a new Gender Action Plan that…