INTERNATIONAL: Women's Participation in Peace - How Does it Compare?

It may be International Peace day tomorrow but a study out today suggests women are being shut out of peace processes with low numbers of women participating in official roles.

The report published by the Institute of Development Studies, ActionAid and Womankind Worldwide, argues that although women play a crucial role in maintaining peace and harmony in their own homes and communities, their involvement is significantly absent from peace agreements.

Over the past 25 years only one in 40 peace treaty signatories have been women according to a report by the UN development fund for women, Unifem.

The latest report out today looks at women's roles in local peace building in Afghanistan, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan and Sierra Leone. Researchers spoke to over 550 women and men across the five countries being analysed. Julian Borger writes today:

"The survey of the five countries found that women and girls had a tendency to form groups and coalitions to deal with problems and got on with resolving conflicts up to the point when the process became formal, when the men took over. The higher and more formal the level of peace-building, the smaller the degree of female participation, the study found".

The report also highlights some key indicators such as education levels, labour force participation and the percentage of parliamentary seats held by women. A study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, published earlier this year showed slow advances in the political landscape - the number of lower houses hosting more than 30% women having risen slightly from 25 to 30 in 2011.

Of the five countries studied, Nepal holds the highest percentage of women in parliament at 33% with Afghanistan following at 28%. Sierra Leone records the lowest percentage with only 13% of all parliamentary seats being held by a woman.

Only 6% of the female population aged over 25 years old are educated to secondary education level, this rises slightly to 10% in Sierra Leone. Pakistan has the highest percentage of all the countries surveyed at 25%.