The Role of Pacific Women in Peacebuilding and the Implications for Programming: Experiences and Case Studies from CPAD (Draft 3)
By Cameron Noble, Consultant for the UNDP Pacific Centre.
Draft 3 for UNDP Pacific Centre's Strengthening Capacities for Peace and Development (CPAD) project. CPAD is a regional initiative of the UNDP Pacific Centre designed to build a community of peace practitioners, strengthen the regional and national peace and security architecture, and support peacebuilding interventions. Since 2008 in Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea (in both Bougainville and the Highlands) CPAD has provided opportunities for governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) in the Pacific to work together on peace and development.
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Abstract
The roles that Pacific women play in peacebuilding were explored based on case studies emerging from UNDP’s CPAD project and the experiences of members in the CPAD community to identify how programming may be better designed to ensure that women’s roles can be strengthened and peacebuilding initiatives improved in general. Key themes of Pacific women’s work for peace that emerged included reaching across conflict lines, advocacy for cessation of violence, promotion of dialogue, and appealing to political and military figures on traditional, religious and moral grounds. It was found that Pacific women often utilise their roles as mothers, while older women also draw upon the traditional authority bestowed to community elders to achieve their aims. The study also established that women do participate in high level decision making to a degree but usually through influencing men and that their peace work is largely undervalued. Most importantly it was observed that the peacebuilding work undertaken by women was essential to building the necessary foundation upon which formal peace settlements and reconciliation could begin and later take root in conflicted societies. These findings suggest that women’s involvement in peacebuilding needs to be further supported through capacity building, financial aid and in-kind assistance. The paper acknowledges the important role of men in peacebuilding and that the positive role that influential male champions and young men who are supportive of women’s involvement in peacebuilding needs to be expanded to achieve better peacebuilding outcomes for all. Moreover, increasing the awareness of regional and global declarations, plans and conventions that region’s leaders have signed on to and that support women in peacebuilding and using them as advocacy tools is recommended. Spaces for women to participate in high level decision making processes should also be opened up and women empowered in those spaces while being sensitive and responsive to possible backlashes from men. International and national funding partner organizations also need to look beyond just NGOs, and explore how to support traditional mechanisms and faith based organizations through which women can also effectively work for peace. Lastly, organisations must actively aim to improve gender equality in all peacebuilding programmes and ensure gender analysis is included in broader conflict analysis when designing, monitoring and evaluating peacebuilding projects.
