On 5 December 2018, PRIO and Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) are co-organising a panel discussion on Women and Peacebuilding in Africa as part of a research project funded by The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Women continue to be largely excluded from peace processes in many parts of the world, even 17 years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, which highlighted the importance of including women in such processes. However, women in Africa have been engaged in peacebuilding for a long time, and there are considerable experience and lessons that could be brought elsewhere regarding what strategies have worked and what have not. Although the inclusion of women into peace agreements has been weak overall, it is still stronger in Africa than in other parts of the world.
How are women included and excluded from post-conflict governance on the African continent, and in what ways are informal peacebuilding processes being used by women activists? How do women's legal rights represent a site of contestation? And how does the rise of extremist Islamic groups affect women and their role in peacebuilding processes? These are some of the questions to be raised and discussed at this event.
Programme
09.00–09.15: Coffee and light refreshments
09.15–09.20: Welcome and introduction: Torunn L. Tryggestad, Deputy Director, PRIO & Director, PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security.
09.20–09.30: Opening Remarks: Marita Sørheim-Rensvik, Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
09.30–10.00: Keynote: Aili Tripp, Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison: "Women's Political Empowerment in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding".
10.00: Panel discussion with*:*
- Aili Tripp, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Marita Sørheim-Rensvik, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Helen Kezie-Nwoha, ISIS-WICCE
- Endre Stiansen, UNDP Oslo Governance Centre
- CSO representative (TBC)
Plenary Q&A
Light refreshments will be served.
