WHAT ROLE FOR WOMEN IN PEACE BUILDING?

August 4, 2004 - (This Day) Over the years, women have been relegated to the background in the area of peace building, whereas, they bear most of the negative consequences of violent conflicts. Andrew Ahiante writes on the new focus to engage their participatory role in decision making and execution in peace building and conflict resolution.

Before the count of two, the number of conflict situations in Nigeria are numerous to mention, though, most have been forgotten, some remain fresh in the mind.

The Fe/Modakeke, Agulere/Umulere, Ijaws and Itsekiris, Hausas/Yorubas, the Benue/Jukun axis, among others. Most prominent and recent are the clashes between the Christians and Muslims in both Plateau and Kano States, while Adamawa also had its baptism of fire.

Thus, while the conflicts are growing in number by the day with far reaching consequences, the mechanism for resolving them, let alone, nipping them in the bud, remains elusive.

It is not surprising therefore that women are adopting strategies to now play prominent roles in conflict resolution and peace building.

Women suffer most along side their children in crisis situations. They are neither consulted nor partake in such conflicts, but forced to bear the loss of their husbands in some cases to such conflicts, tend to those who returned with injuries, among other inadequacies of having to contend with displacements and sometimes loss of livelihood.

For instance, they contend:.."Men are given the stereotypical roles of planning for warfare, being on the frontlines and defending communities, while women are described as innocent passive victims who need to be protected".

Thus, for Elizabeth Joseph, Programme Officer of the Women in Peacebuilding Programme (WIPNET), an arm of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), who launched participants into the training of trainees for women journalists on preventive peacebuilding, penultimate week, the phenomenon of war and peace are highly gendered activities, as women and men not only have different access to power structures and material resources before, during and after the escalation of a conflict, they also experience the pre-conflict phase, the open conflict and the post-conflict situation in rather different ways.

They reasoned that the description of men and women roles during violent conflicts and wars reinforce patriarchal structures which are not finding resonance in contemporary wars.

"While it is still true that it is men who predominantly fight and women stay behind to fend for families and communities, gender lines during conflict are becoming blurred. The experiences of recent wars reveal women as combatants fighting alongside men at the war fronts, rising to high ranking positions of authority and sharing responsibilities and roles alongside their men counterparts. This phenomenon creates new opportunities and possibilities for women in peacebuilding", they said.

The training, was to explore opportunities and define strategies for engaging women in the media to effectively participate in issues of peace and security within the Nigeria socio-cultural, civil and political space.

Though the contribution of men during wars have been he forum among others, also seeks to establish an institutional relationship between WANEP and media women as peace actors and to provide opportunities to access media women's participation and contribution to peace and conflict issues in the country.
On hand to assist Elizabeth Joseph, were Naomi Akpan-Ita of Impact for Change and Kunle Fagbami of WANEP.

According to the group, though both men and women are victims of violent conflicts, women and girls are systematically and deliberately targeted for rape, assaulted sexually, forced into prostitution and are used as instruments of warfare, while men and boys are mostly targeted to fight and be recruited into armies to perpetuate violence against their female counterparts.

Though the contribution of men during wars have been articulated, there has been inconsistencies in stating what women's contributions are. Consequently, women have decided to feather their own nest not only by coming out boldly, but also engineering training for their female folks.

Bringing the training to close, the group took participants through the issues of empowering women in peacebuilding, why involving women in peacebuilding, challenges, resources and strategies for women in peacebuilding and experience sharing as well as coalitions and networking strategies in peacebuilding.

According to experts, the challenge for the field of women in peacebuilding is that it not only examines the status of women during violent conflicts and wars, but also examines their daily existence during peacetime and how this informs the way they are treated and seen during conflict.

"The importance of influencing policy makers to ensure that women's peace is given a place of priority cannot be over emphasised. Their content will have a direct bearing on women participation, and as a reflection of women's inclusion in decision-making process, a determinant of their involvement in conflict and peacebuilding", the group said.

For instance, the activities of the Amazons in pre-colonial Dahomey empire, in the present day Republic of Benin, still endure today. It is not surprising that any woman or group of women who demonstrate such courage and miens are referred to as the Amazons.

In pre-colonial Nigeria, the exploits of such women as Queen Amina of Kano, Idia of Benin, the Aba Women in the famous Aba Women Riots, among others, on peace and development, cannot be glossed over.

Though, the role of women in peacebuilding has gained prominence in the last few years as a result of concerted efforts by NGOs and international agencies to address the issues of gender and peacebuilding, the greatest impetus was the Resolution 1325 of the United Nations Security Council on Women, Peace and Security.

The Resolution which was adopted on October 31, 2000, calls on all actors to adopt a gender perspective when negotiating and implementing peace agreements and to address the special needs of women and girls during repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration and post conflict reconstruction.

The report of the Secretary General on Women, Peace and Security, presented to the Security Council in 2002, recommended stronger measures to integrate women in all steps of peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace-building and urged that all peace agreements fully and explicitly integrate gender perspectives and needs. It is in this context that WANEP focus its programme to implement the recommendation.

Launched in Accra, Ghana in the year 2001, the group said, the main purpose was to address the under representation of women in the promotion and maintenance of community and national peace and security.

Since then, they said, WANEP-Nigeria, through its Women in Peacebuilding Programme (WIPNET), had organised key initiatives in the areas of training women as peace actors in keeping with WANEP' philosophy.

Presently, area of focus, the group said, include restive zones as in Niger-Delta and Kaduna, where the group has organised workshops on preventive peacebuilding.
Thus, for media women to become actively involved in peacebuilding, WIPNET said, they must be provided with adequate training in the relevant aspects of peacebuilding, stressing that such opportunities have unfortunately been rather few.

"The limited training opportunities available in peacebuilding field have rather favoured men. The media has a responsibility to educate the public and can influence social change in their communities. In the realms of conflict and peacebuilding, media personnel can play a significant role in either escalating or de-escalating conflict. They can influence public opinion about a conflict situation and can contribute positively to promote peace a and reconciliation. For this to be balanced, media women must also be involved. The needs to increase the profile of media women, empower women through skill acquisition and bridge the gaps between men and women to participate as equal partners is the approach the women in peacebuilding aim to promote through this programme strategy", they further said.

The women emphasised that the media in Nigeria has failed to provide adequate scientific dis-aggregated reports even in the local conflicts like the one in the Niger Delta or in the perennial ethno-religious conflicts of Northern Nigeria.

For this to change, they said, it was imperative that women are sensitised about the significant roles that they can play in building a peaceful culture and communities.

"They must be provided with the appropriate training to enable them cover conflicts and report on them appropriately. With appropriate training in the relevant fields of peacebuilding, they can serve as vanguards for promoting peaceful co-existence and reconciliation", the WIPNET submitted.

The overall objectives being to train a critical mass of women groups as monitors in conflict, have a grip of mechanism to embark on early analysis, warning and response methodology.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200408040903.html