Foreign, Commonwealth
& Development Office

Guidance

UK national action plan on women, peace and security 2018 to 2022: guidance note for implementing strategic outcome 1: decision making

Published 13 June 2022

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About this guidance note

This is one of a series of guidance notes being produced on each of the Strategic Outcomes of the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2018 – 2022) to support implementation of policy and programme interventions in each area:

Decision-making
Peacekeeping
Gender-based violence
Humanitarian response
Security and justice
Preventing and countering violent extremism
UK capabilities.

It is intended to support HMG staff and partners in meeting commitments under Strategic Outcomes 1 of the NAP: Decision-making.

Suggested citation: UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2018-2022: Guidance Note Implementing Strategic Outcome 1: Decision-making (2021).

Acknowledgements

This draft guidance note was written by Sarah Furrer. The draft note was informed and reviewed by a cross-HMG core group including Ruby Weaver, Helen Lindley-Jones, Palika Bhasin, Gemma Standeven, Erin Bourke and Bea Parkes. It was informed by discussions with experts from across HMG, including Zarina Khan, Sandy Scott, Rebecca Ingram, Justina Demetriades, Rose Wright, Ali Naqvi, Harriet Macdonald-Walker, Flo Carson, Lt. Col Charles Cooper (MOD), Tom Palmer, Thomas Walker (MOD), Lt. Col. Carolyne Moller (MOD), Lydia Stone, Rachel Grant, and Toral Pattni.

Many thanks to experts and partner organisations for their time, expert inputs and insights including Hannah Bond (Gender Action for Peace and Security, GAPS), Helena Gronberg and Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini (ICAN), Mireille Affa’a-Mindzie (UN Women), Charlotte Goemans (OECD), Laura Aumeer (Conciliation Resources), Prof. Aidara Ndiaye, Eleanor Nwadinobi, and Florence Waller-Carr (Plan International).

Executive summary

Why it matters

Women have a right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives. Women’s inclusion in decision-making also improves immediate and long-term policy outcomes before, during, and after conflict. Yet, women continue to remain underrepresented in formal, high-level processes related to peace, security and political decision-making. Those who face intersecting discrimination like young women, women with disabilities or women discriminated against because of their social status are even less likely to be represented.

At the same time, women from diverse constituencies are brokering peace or shoring up community resilience at the local level. Many engage prominently in civil society. These roles need to be valued and linked to decision-making processes at all levels to make conflict prevention and resolution more effective, sustainable and help avoid harm. Transitions also present critical windows of opportunity to increase women’s political participation in the longer term. For structural shifts to take root, strong women’s rights organisations and early and sustained opportunities for women to participate in the decisions that inform and shape the post-conflict political settlement are key. Failure to invest in women’s participation in decision-making in conflict contexts misses an important opportunity for long term positive change.

Strategic Outcome 1 commits HMG to:

influence and transform the political environment in fragile and conflict-affected states to enable and encourage the participation of women in decision-making
support interventions that tackle the obstacles to women’s leadership and meaningful political participation

Types of interventions to directly support women’s participation in decision-making:

individual skills of women leaders
finance and logistics support for participation
support to women’s collective action strategies
support to women mediators
support to women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations working on peacebuilding and gender equality
quotas and other affirmative action for women’s political participation
targeted gender expertise
girls and young women’s empowerment interventions

Types of interventions targeting the enabling environment:

institutional gender mainstreaming (e.g. family friendly policies, recruitment and career advancement policies, safeguarding and harassment policies)
social norms interventions: Gender transformative interventions that challenge power relationships, including working with men as champions
women’s economic empowerment programming with gender transformative components
girls’ education

Essential building blocks:

promote decision-making spaces that are inclusive

a. conduct gender and power analysis and identify barriers and enablers for women’s participation

b. influence and design processes that actively facilitate women’s meaningful and representative participation (e.g. gender criteria for participation, mediators with gender expertise)

c. provide dedicated support for women’s participation to help overcome barriers
support women’s influencing strategies, for example through coalitions and spaces for women to develop joint positions and facilitating access to decision-makers
promote an enabling environment for women’s participation in decision-making, addressing social norms, safety and safeguarding, institutional bias and working with communities and gatekeepers

Principles for supporting women’s participation in decision-making:

always take the context as the starting point and consult women to design support interventions
start early
apply a conflict sensitive and intersectional approach, recognising that women are not a homogenous group and that different groups of women face different barriers and represent different interests
value, support and invest in diverse women’s and women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations as the key conduit for women’s participation
combine multiple strategies to support women’s individual and collective agency to participate
take a multi-layered and cross-cutting perspective to support women’s participation at all levels
address safety and safeguarding risks, including access to psycho-social support for women leaders facing threats
apply gender expertise to support decision-makers and decision-making processes that are inclusive

Key contextual considerations:

understand gender norms and ideologies defining women’s leadership and decision-making roles: Negative stereotypes, stigma and attacks on their reputation, morality, or qualifications are a key barrier for women’s participation in decision-making
understand how types of politics affect women’s political participation: Informal and patronage politics generally tend to exclude women, democratic systems with proportionate representation are more favourable. Where gender inequality is high, quotas have been found to be effective in increasing women’s political participation
women’s rights organisation. Women peacebuilders and organisations working on peacebuilding and gender equality are key: Understand the history and shape of women’s movements to calibrate support to the needs in the context
operate under the assumption that violence against publicly active women is a risk in the context, and work with women to identify context-specific strategies to mitigate risks

Entry points for an HMG approach to promote women’s participation in decision-making:

diplomacy and influencing - strategic dialogue with bilateral partners. Influencing multilaterals. Engaging with WROs. In-country lobbying with host governments, conflict parties, and political parties. Defence engagement
stand-alone programming - funding for women’s rights organisations. Stand-alone components of core peacebuilding and governance programming (including elections, political governance and civil society). Core gender equality programmes
mainstreaming women’s participation in decision-making across HMG’s interventions

Role modelling meaningful and representative participation: key resources

HMG Guidance:

a. stabilisation Unit Guidance: Applying a gender perspective to the Joint Analysis of Conflict & Stability

b. guidance Notes on the UK NAP WPS Strategic Objectives 2 to 6
external guidance:

a. Beyond Consultations Tool

b. UN Women WPS resources

c. Gender Action for Peace and Security Resources

d. ICAN’s Better Peace Tool

e. ICAN’s “She Builds Peace” Framework for Action

f. UN Guidance on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies
advisory support: CSSF Gender Advisers, WPS team in the OCSM, Social Development Advisers

Common acronyms

DFID	Department for International Development
DM	Decision-making
DRC	Democratic Republic of Congo
FCDO	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
FCO	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
GAPS	Gender Action for Peace and Security
GBV	Gender-based Violence
HMG	Her Majesty’s Government
MOD	Ministry of Defence
NAP	National Action Plan
NATO	North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
OECD	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
P/CVE	Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism
PCR	Project Completion Report
SEAH	Sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment
TCC and PCC	Troop Contributing Countries and Police Contributing Countries
ToC	Theory of Change
UN	United Nations
UNSCR	United Nations Security Council Resolution
UN Women	United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
VAWG	Violence against women and girls
WHRD	Women Human Rights Defenders
WO	Women’s organisations
WPB	Women peacebuilders
WPE	Women’s political empowerment
WPP	Women’s political participation
WPS	Women, Peace and Security
WRO	Women’s rights organisations

1. Introduction

Strategic Outcome 1: Decision-making (DM) – An increase in women’s meaningful and representative participation in DM processes, including conflict prevention and peacebuilding at community and national levels.

UK policy has emphasised the importance of women’s participation in DM in conflict and stability since the adoption of the landmark United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on Women Peace and Security in 2000. The former Department for International Development’s (DFID, now Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO), Building Stability Framework (2016) highlights the importance of women’s leadership and meaningful participation in conflict resolution processes. Women’s political participation is also key to the UK’s broader strategy to promote gender equality globally as was reflected in DFID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality (2018) and HMG’s Integrated Review (2020).

The UK National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) is the five-year strategy for how the UK Government will integrate a gender perspective into its work building security and stability overseas, protecting human rights of women and girls, and promoting their meaningful participation in conflict prevention and resolution. The NAP outlines seven strategic outcomes that set the vision for the UK’s WPS implementation in conflict settings. Strategic Outcome 1 focuses on the UK’s support for processes that directly aim to prevent or resolve conflict, including through early warning, mediation, dialogue, and reconciliation processes, and through support for legitimate and effective institutions of governance in places affected by conflict.

Strategic Outcome 1 commits the UK to:

pursue diplomatic policies at the bilateral and multilateral level to influence and transform the political environment in fragile and conflict-affected states to enable and encourage the participation of women in DM
support programme interventions that tackle the obstacles to women’s leadership and meaningful political participation

This guidance note offers practical advice to HMG staff on how to promote women’s meaningful and representative participation in DM in conflict settings in line with Strategic Outcome 1 commitments. It is divided into 3 main sections. The first section explores why this is such a crucial area of focus and investment for the UK Government. The second section identifies entry points for promoting their roles in conflict settings. The third section sets out practical advice for how to promote women’s DM in programme, policy, defence and diplomacy work.

Box 1: International and UK frameworks on women’s political participation in conflict settings^{[footnote 1]}

Relevant UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR)

UNSCR 1325 (2000) asserts women’s leadership and role in conflict resolution, peace talks and recovery. Commitments include increasing numbers of women in UN decision-making on peace and security and ensuring women participate in peace talks
UNSCR 1820 (2008) highlights the commitment to ensure women are represented in peacebuilding institutions
UNSCR 1888 and 1889 (2009) commits the UN Secretary General to appoint more women as mediators and asks for a strategy to increase numbers of women in conflict-resolution DM (including female peace making and peacekeeping decision-makers). States must promote women’s participation in political and economic decision-making from the earliest stage of peacebuilding
UNSCR 2122 (2013) creates stronger measures to include women in peace-processes and calls for regular briefings and reports on WPS issues to various organisations and members of the United Nations. It sets out concrete methods for combating the lack of women’s participation. Acknowledges critical roles of women’s civil society

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

5.5 commits countries to “Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of DM in political, economic and public life”
16.7 commits countries to “Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels”

The Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Article 7 and 8 outlines women’s rights in the public sphere with an emphasis on political life and representation at national and international levels. Article 4 establishes that temporary measures to accelerate gender equality will not be considered discrimination.

UK frameworks:

the UK National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2018-2022)
DFID’s Strategic Vision for Gender Equality (2018) includes a commitment to support women’s political empowerment, recognising that challenges faced by girls and women are interlinked, complex and deep seated and need to be addressed in a holistic way
UK International Defence Engagement Strategy and Joint Services Publication 1325 (2019) provides policy guidance on the application of WPS commitments in the context of implementing a human security approach in military operations
the Governance for Growth, Stability and Inclusive Development, DFID Position Paper (2019), includes a commitment to increase meaningful and representative participation and leadership in informal and formal power and decision-making structures
DFID’s Stability Framework (2016) highlights the importance of women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution

Definitions^{[footnote 2]}

Elites are those that hold a disproportionate amount of political power, who are able to influence decisions, mobilise popular support and implement policies at national, sub-national and transnational levels.

Elite bargains: a discrete deal or bargain, or series of bargains that explicitly re-negotiates the distribution of power and resources between elites. Elite bargains are fluid and evolve constantly.

Peacebuilding: is defined by the UN as “a range of measures targeted to reduce the risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management and to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development”.

Peace agreements: Formal or semi-formal agreements entered into by warring parties, often but not exclusively brokered by external actors.

Political settlements: the distribution of power on which a polity and society is based, which results from conflict and negotiation between contending elites. Political settlements are dynamic processes rather than static entities that are historically specific to each state.

State-building: action to develop the capacity, institutions and legitimacy of the state in relation to an effective political process for negotiating the mutual demands between state and societal groups.

Tracks of diplomacy refer to different types of peace-making activities and actors:

track I: Official and formal negotiation/mediation processes. Main actors are governments, multilateral organisations, and main parties to the conflict
track II: Unofficial mediation efforts that bring together conflict parties and other actors to build progress towards peace. Main actors are civil society, influencers, think tanks, private sector and researchers
track III: Unofficial peacebuilding activities at the grass-root level. It includes local mediation, peace deals and early warning, but also trauma and human rights work. Main actors are local communities and individuals within the broader population, but also humanitarian and development actors

Transition out of conflict: the move away from crisis to situations that are likely to still be fragile not entirely violent or hostile, allowing for longer-term development activities to build further stability.

Women’s organisations: diverse groups of organised women. Women groups can be informal and formal.

Women’s rights organisation: civil society organisations with an overt women’s or girls’ rights, gender equality or feminist purpose. Women’s rights organisations play a central role in spearheading change in support of gender equality^{[footnote 3]}.

Women Peacebuilders: individuals and women-led organizations committed to non-violence; they are propeace talks and support human rights and women’s rights. Some advocate for justice, others work to address the impacts of conflict and/or to promote peace with a gender perspective^{[footnote 4]}.

2. Conceptualising women’s participation in decision-making (DM)

2.1. What do we mean by women’s meaningful and representative participation?

Meaningful participation means that women are not only present in DM spaces but are able to exert real influence, including (but not only) on the issues that particularly affect women and girls^{[footnote 5]} “Representative” means that a diversity of women’s views and experiences are represented in DM processes. It does not mean women represented in DM fora are expected to speak on behalf of all other women.

Important distinctions:

women’s representation in DM is an important end in itself, but women’s numerical representation in DM does not automatically lead to greater influence or to greater gender equality in society^{[footnote 6]}. Whilst women’s participation has been shown to increase the likelihood of gender responsive provisions in process outcomes, it has broader benefits
women’s influence in DM processes depends on women’s collective influencing strategies and the enabling environment for their influence, which are discussed in section 2.3 and 3.2
key factors for gender equality outcomes in DM processes are sustained advocacy by feminist and pro-gender equality organisations that put pressure on decision makers to adopt and maintain provisions that promote gender equality. Gender expertise to DM processes is important to ensure provisions in agreements address differential needs of men and women

Types and dimensions of women’s participation^{[footnote 7]}

Exclusion

Looks like:

no representation
no viable transmission mechanisms for influence decisions

No influence.

Tokenistic participation

Looks like:

some numerical representation in DM fora
no dedicated strategies to support women to participate and limited transmission mechanisms for influencing
no/limited partnerships with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations to support women’s influence

No/limited influence.

Indirect participation

Looks like:

no direct representation in DM fora, but mechanisms for external women and women’s right organisations to influence discussions
varying degrees of support to women’s indirect participation and influencing strategies, for example partnerships with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations support women’s influencing and champions amongst decision makers
varying degrees of gender expertise is to promote gender responsive provisions and meaningful consultations with women to feed into DM

Varying levels of influence depending on transmission mechanisms and influencing strategies. Can lead to increased participation and direct representation over time.

Substantive participation

Looks like:

women are represented in DM fora
partnerships and coalitions with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations to support women’s influencing
dedicated support for women’s participation and gender expertise to DM processes: Women’s practical needs like funding, transport, logistics and training are addressed. Processes are designed in a way which promotes women’s contributions
strategies to support a diversity of women’s perspectives to feed into DM are in place
champions amongst decision-makers actively advocate and support women’s participation

Women influence DM.

Transformative participation

Looks like:

women’s representation and participation in DM is institutionalised
implicit norms and social values that underpin institutions change (e.g., men and women’s perceptions and expectations about men and women’s roles in DM)
gender-equitable policies, budgets and laws are put in place and implemented to promote gender equality and protect against discrimination
there are accountability mechanisms in place to maintain women’s inclusion – for example, watchdog roles in institutions and civil society

Women influence DM and root causes of gender inequality are addressed.

Box 2: Benchmarking women’s meaningful and representative participation

The Beyond Consultations Tool helps to assess the extent to which consultations conducted in the context of DM processes are supportive of women’s meaningful and representative participation. The tool allows users to score consultative processes using a traffic light system. It helps donors, policy makers or practitioners identify additional steps to improve the effectiveness of engagement strategies. The tool can be adapted and applied to different types of processes.

Beyond Consultations Principles for women’s meaningful participation

all women have a right to meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their lives
women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations should be engaged as equal partners in the planning, design and implementation of DM processes
women should be supported to participate through a variety of appropriate, context-specific methodologies
women should be supported, prepared and reimbursed for their participation
women should be able to set and shape agendas
women’s participation should be representative of women in all their diversity
participation should be accessible, ensuring women’s access and resource needs are met
participation should be safe, empowering, respectful and not extractive
knowledge and learning generated by consultations should be shared with the communities from which it was informed on an ongoing basis
meaningful participation is not an end in itself – women should experience tangible benefits through their engagement

The Beyond Consultation Tool was developed by GAPS UK, Saferworld, Womankind Worldwide, Women for Women International and Amnesty international. Read the access tool.

What do we mean by participation in “decision-making”?

SO1 focuses on women’s participation in DM processes that directly aim to prevent or resolve conflict, including longer term support to inclusive, legitimate and effective institutions.

Preventing conflict: Women shore up community resilience, prevent conflict and are increasingly present in DM and ensure women’s experiences and needs are understood and addressed.

regional, national and local early warning mechanisms that gather information on conflict drivers and link information with responses to triggers
informal and formal local mediation and dispute resolution mechanisms (e.g., local peace committees, traditional dispute resolution mechanisms)
international and regional DM architecture to prevent conflict
broadening DM structures at all levels to make them more inclusive (long-term conflict prevention)

Containing and responding to violence: Women participate in local, sub-national and national conflict resolution to help find agreement and solutions, broaden the range of issues discussed and build momentum for women’s future representation.

high level, formal track I peace processes
informal track II peace processes
national and local peace dialogue processes
track III informal and formal local mediation and dispute resolution mechanisms (e.g., local peace committees, traditional dispute resolution mechanisms, local cease-fire negotiations)
mechanisms that monitor implementation of provisions in peace agreements
international and regional DM architecture to respond to conflict, including humanitarian responses

Transition out of conflict: Women participate in political processes at all levels, and engage as active citizens with increasingly inclusive and legitimate state institutions.

constitution-making processes
transitional justice and reconciliation mechanisms
political governance mechanisms (elections, parliaments, transitional and permanent governments)
institutional and administrative reforms, for example security sector reform processes
local governance mechanisms
community level DM processes (e.g., community development committees)

DM processes are non-linear and should not be seen as static categories. Different processes can overlap and happen at the same time. They are shaped by the social, political and cultural context within which they operate. New and emerging conflict management structures may co-exist with existing traditional dispute resolution mechanisms at the local level. Women’s participation in DM processes is multi-layered and cuts across local, subnational, national and regional levels.

Women’s ability to participate and influence DM processes is particularly restricted by informal DM structures^{[footnote 8]}. These include informal networks within formal institutions and patriarchal, male dominated customary institutions. Understanding different formal and informal DM processes in each context - how they relate to each other, and how they include or exclude women - is critical. Where there is a mismatch between formal and informal rules and institutions, formal commitments to women’s greater participation in DM face significant challenge and require engagement with informal institutions.

2.2. Why is women’s participation in decision-making a priority for the UK in fragile and conflict affected settings?

The UK is committed to promote women’s meaningful and representative participation in DM as a building block for lasting peace and open and inclusive societies. Women have a right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.

When women participate in political life, policymaking is more inclusive, with the needs and concerns of women better represented. At the local level, women’s representation and influence in public DM has been shown to improve the provision of services, including clean water, immunization, schooling, and infrastructure^{[footnote 9]}. Women in politics are also shown to prioritise women’s equal rights, reproductive and sexual health rights, childcare, and stopping violence against women. They tend to prioritise education, welfare, and healthcare more than men^{[footnote 10]}.

Global evidence shows that women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution can improve outcomes before, during, and after conflict^{[footnote 11]}. Women broaden the range of issues that are discussed in peace talks, which in turn may contribute to greater durability of the peace agreement^{[footnote 12]}. Women’s participation has also been found to increase the likelihood that parties to conflict find agreement^{[footnote 13]}. Women’s participation in peace processes leads to a greater inclusion of gender sensitive-provisions in final agreements^{[footnote 14]}. Addressing inequalities, exclusion and discriminatory gender norms and ensuring women’s participation in DM are essential elements for structural conflict prevention that addresses root causes of conflict and builds community resilience^{[footnote 15]}.

Women remain underrepresented in formal, high-level processes related to peace, security and political DM before, during and after conflict. Globally, there has been a steady but slow increase in women’s political representation in governments and legislatures, but progress has been much slower for peace and security related DM processes^{[footnote 16]}.

Box 3: Key statistics

between 1992 and 2019, women constituted, on average^{[footnote 17]} 13% of negotiators, 6 per cent of mediators, and 6% of signatories in major peace processes worldwide. About 7 out of every 10 peace processes did not include women mediators or women signatories
between 2015-2019, only 11% of ceasefire agreements included gender provisions, compared to 26% of other peace agreement types. Worldwide, the proportion of peace agreements with gender equality provisions increased from 14 to 22% between 1995 and 2019^{[footnote 18]}.
women’s representation in national parliaments (lower chamber and unicameral parliaments) reached 24.9% in 2020. At the local level, women hold a higher level of seats in local deliberative bodies: 36.3%^{[footnote 19]}

Even when women are at the forefront of movements demanding peace or change, that does not automatically translate into their equal representation in negotiations or in power arrangements during transitions. For example, in Sudan, women were visible at the forefront of protests which brought an end to Bashir’s regime in 2019 but have remained underrepresented in Sudan’s transitional arrangements and the peace talks held since.

Women’s continued exclusion from conflict related DM is linked to gender bias inherent in these processes: If conflict is about bargaining for power, those that are seen as its protagonists – those with military, political and economic power - are likely to be men^{[footnote 20]} Giving women a greater say is not often seen as the most pressing issue and “can wait until later”. As a result, women’s participation is still often seen as an “add on” or a “nice to have” in peace or political transition processes.

The focus on women’s absence from formal peace and transitional DM processes masks important nuances and less visible roles women hold in civil society and at the local level. Many women are brokering peace or shoring up community resilience^{[footnote 21]} at the local level. They engage prominently in civil society to pressure and encourage conflict parties to find agreement. Women have successfully mobilised and influenced processes even when they did not have a direct seat at the table. They are often the first to become aware of rising tensions, and work within their communities to resolve disputes or prevent recruitment, contributing to conflict prevention. At the same time, women also have roles as combatants, recruiters in extremist networks or behind the scenes as part of broader elite networks with a stake in conflicts.

Transitions present critical windows of opportunity to increase women’s participation in DM for the longer term. During conflict and times of social change, women often take on new and different roles. Traditional gender norms can become more fluid. These change processes can open spaces for women’s more visible and active participation and representation in DM or enable conditions for them to make their voices heard across a range of political, social and economic issues affecting the long-term transition away from conflict^{[footnote 22]}.

But the norms and structures that define unequal power relationships between men and women have also been found to be resilient.^{[footnote 23]} Gains – including women’s increased participation - are susceptible to reversals, particularly in societies in transition. If new rules are significantly misaligned with how power is organised and continues to be exercised, changes may not be implemented or take time to take root. Traditional gender norms can also become more entrenched during conflict. Continued and sustained efforts to prevent backsliding and embed shifts are required, including through support to women’s rights organisations (WRO).

2.3. Barriers and enablers for women’s participation in decision-making

Women’s political empowerment is closely connected to women’s social and economic empowerment and shaped by the power dynamics and cultural and social norms that define the public and private roles of men and women. Women have to overcome multiple barriers to enter the public DM space, and this is compounded where gender inequality is high, and gender norms restrict women’s roles to the private space. Women in public leadership roles can face negative stereotypes, stigma and attacks on their reputation, morality, or qualifications^{[footnote 24]}. Even when women manage to overcome barriers they are often faced with abusive and violent backlash, serving as a further deterrent to other women and sometimes silencing those who have spoken out.

In many fragile and conflict affected settings, the factors that constrain women’s political empowerment and participation in DM are often even more entrenched. Autocratic and patronage-based politics pose additional barriers for women to enter and advance in public leadership positions and influence decisions. Patriarchal, customary institutions that traditionally exclude women often play important roles in shaping DM in fragile and conflict settings. Informal DM can be more pronounced, and political organisations are even more likely to be highly personalised around male leaders. High levels of insecurity and violence can make it difficult for women to physically access DM spaces or create a permissive environment for violent backlash.

Even where DM processes provide spaces for women’s representation, women can face a range of practical barriers which limit their ability to participate and contribute. For example:

lack of access to finance to cover costs of participation
lack of support with logistics (e.g. visas or travel, especially when DM processes happen abroad)
lack of provisions for child-care or chaperones, if required in the context
insufficient time and spaces to prepare for meetings and contribute substantively
lack of knowledge on specialist negotiation topics that puts them on uneven footing
location/timing of DM processes that present security and reputational risks for women or that do not consider women’s schedules and domestic responsibilities
lack of digital access and rights

Enabling factors:

women’s rights groups and women’s movements are essential for promoting women’s participation in DM at all levels. Where there is a strong movement, there are greater opportunities for participation
supportive international and regional actors – including mediators - can help facilitate women’s participation in DM in conflict settings where they have influence over process design and can influence elite actors
supportive elites and male champions play an important role in opening up DM spaces

Barriers and enablers are context specific. Visual 1 shows main societal, institutional, immediate environment and individual level features that influence women’s participation. Barriers and enablers need to be assessed in each context and in relation to each DM process to identify pathways to support women’s increased leadership and participation.

Visual 1: Barriers and enablers

Societal:

unequal gender dynamics
patriarchal norms that discriminate against women
levels of poverty
gender norms (definition of masculinity, expected social role of men and women, norms defining women leaders, norms on mobility and sexuality)
ideologies – e.g. attitudes towards liberal values and “Western States”

Institutional:

elite support or resistance to women’s inclusion
strength of women’s movement
space for civil society
types of politics (patronage, democratic governance)
role of women in political parties
discriminatory or pro-gender equality laws and policies
political systems (electoral systems, quotas, type of system, political party structures) Design of peace process and transitional institutions (quotas, gender-sensitive provisions for participation, selection criteria etc)

Immediate:

attitudes and behaviours of families and partners towards leadership roles Decision making in the household and division of labour between men and women
attitudes and behaviours of communities (supportive or restrictive, e.g. harassment, rumours, threats
attitudes and behaviours of community leaders and infuencers (traditional, religious leaders, local government, peer influencers)
access to organised (community) groups – women’s rights organisation, womens groups, churches, civil society
immediate safety environment – ongoing conflict, insecurity and criminality, travel risks, location of meetings
level of violence against women in the public space (threats, attacks, abuse)

Individual:

social capital: family connections, connection with other organised women, networks Psychological capital: self confidence, role models, agency
economic capital: access to resources, economic empowerment, access to finance/child care
human capital: literacy/education, specialist peacebuilding traning, communication skills Technological capital: access to technology, digital literacy
technological capital: access to technology, digital literacy
mobility: ability to leave home, accompanied, unaccompanied
identity: age, race, ethnicity, class, LGBTI, disability status, urban/rural, elite/non elite, combatant

Examples of mitigating actions to address barriers

Institutional

design DM processes that are inclusive, e.g. introduce gender criteria in the selection of participants. Promote structural reforms of formal DM structures (e.g. through electoral reform processes, constitution-making processes, institutional reforms)
change discriminatory rules that minimise women’s contributions: for example, if literacy is a requirement for leadership roles in local DM mechanisms and therefore excludes the majority of women in that context, make processes accessible for non-literate women
support alternative networks for women to counter the power of informal networks which exclude women

Society

integrate understanding of social norms into language that frames the positive contributions of women’s participation
highlight and promote female role models
target elites and immediate communities, working with champions with interventions that seek to address social norms and behaviours

Immediate environment

conduct outreach to community leaders and influencers to create a supportive environment for women’s participation
target mothers and male guardians with activities to promote (young) women’s participation
conduct assessments of risk of backlash jointly with women and develop mitigation strategies
link up women that participate in DM processes with organised women’s groups to increase collective bargaining power

Individual

understand women’s calendars and daily routines to inform DM design
understand the implications of DM process location and timing for women’s participation, e.g. whether meeting timing or location exposes women to negative rumours. If so, move meetings to a location where it is acceptable for women to be in the public space
provide practical support to alleviate barriers (logistics, funding, child-care, travel etc)
identify and respond to women’s training needs on specialist topics. Also, in some contexts, women may not be able to speak freely in mixed settings and may need separate spaces or assertiveness training to speak up

New shocks and crisis can amplify existing barriers, create new ones, and impact enabling factors for women’s participation.

Box 4: Case study - impact of new shocks on barriers: COVID-19 crisis

In a survey of 30 countries, on average, women made up 24% of national-level committees established to respond to COVID-19^{[footnote 25]}. Yet, women are the majority of those responding to the crisis at the frontline, as health care staff or as community responders.

Women are affected disproportionately by the crisis: Increased domestic and child-care burdens tend to fall on women, squeezing time to engage in the workforce and in public leadership and advocacy. Women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations have reported significant cuts in their WPS funding^{[footnote 26]}. Women peacebuilders and women human right defenders have experienced increased violence and restrictions.

When DM spaces move online due to the crisis, new barriers can emerge for women with limited access to digital technology, or those that face barriers using mainstream technology. At the same time, the COVID-19 response highlights many examples of women’s rights organisation’s advocacy to put pressure on responses to take account of women’s needs. Women are organising at the grassroots to respond to community needs. Increased digitalisation can reduce some barriers for women – for example, overcoming the physical distances to the spaces where decisions happen, or - potentially - affecting the power of informal DM.

Learn more about GAPS UK COVID-19 resources.

2.4. Intersectionality

Multiple facets of people’s identities intersect to mean that different groups of women face different and overlapping barriers in accessing DM processes at different times in their lives. Age, race, religion, geographical location, sexual orientation and gender identity, ethnicity, relationship status, (dis)ability, class, IDP status, and other social categories relevant to the specific operational context shape different groups of women’s experiences, needs, access and influence over DM.

Women with different identities can have different preferences towards outcomes of DM processes. Conflict can divide groups along identity lines and women’s identities may align them with different sides of a conflict. This creates specific challenges when women are expected to represent joint positions and speak with one voice. For example, a woman from a mobilized minority group in a conflict setting might prioritise different issues in relation to a peace process to a woman in the same region who identifies as a member of a majority group.

Intersecting group identities can also result in greater social exclusion, stigmatisation and lower realisation of rights for particular groups of women. For example, women with (dis)abilities can experience social stigma and practical barriers like physically inaccessible DM spaces or materials that are not adapted to their full participation. Poor rural women can be left out because DM takes place in capitals and urban centres. Women from lower castes and class can find it more difficult to be heard in local DM spaces that are dominated by local elites^{[footnote 27]}. Elite dominance of political DM spaces tends to be exacerbated as women from elite backgrounds are more able to overcome barriers to participation than non-elite women.

Adolescent girls and young women face double discrimination due to their gender and age, and often fall between the majority of youth-focused peacebuilding interventions and women-targeted peacebuilding interventions^{[footnote 28]}. Young people are significantly under-represented in current processes, as recognised by the UNSCR 2250 (2015) on Youth, Peace and Security.

Box 5: Young women’s participation

FCDO DRC supported the Girls-led Research Unit (GLRU), a group of 15 adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) from a range of socio-economic backgrounds in Kinshasa. The GLRU received training and sustained mentoring support throughout the programme and led peer-research on the lives of AGYW in Kinshasa to help understand barriers and opportunities for their empowerment. The La Pépinière programme co-developed with adolescent girls the Girl Participation Principles to guide the programme. Throughout the programme, the GLRU played a vital role in shaping and designing the programme’s implementation strategy. The researchers were ambassadors and advocates of the issues that their research uncovered, delivering key messages to donors, the government, local civil society, their communities and other young people. Young researchers engaged systematically with the programme’s Gender Champions - established Congolese leaders in politics, civil society, the women’s movement and the private sector - who engaged with the programme as an informal network to amplify research findings and take concrete actions to support young women in their areas of work. Summarised from the Project Completion Report (PCR) (2018) and the Adolescent Girls Resource Pack (2020).

Intersecting identities can lead to greater risks for some groups of women. For example, there are likely to be increased safety and safeguarding risks for adolescent girls and young women in conflict settings, and for young women with disabilities. Adequate policies and procedures to prevent violence and abuse – including by partners, staff, volunteers and others involved in implementing interventions - need to be in place.

3. Women’s participation in decision-making before, during and after conflict

This section provides an overview of different forms of women’s participation in DM processes. Women’s participation in immediate conflict prevention and response is explored. Strategies for women’s participation in peace processes are discussed in more depth because of their centrality for WPS. Broadening women’s participation in the context of state-building processes is critical for longer term conflict prevention and is explored as part of transitions away from conflicts.

3.1. Women’s participation in immediate conflict prevention and response

Early warning systems (EWS) involve the collection and analysis of information on actual or potential drivers and triggers of violent conflict to anticipate outbreaks of violence. This information is then fed back to actors who are able to respond, including governments and civil society^{[footnote 29]}.

Key considerations include:

ensuring women’s participation at all stages of the early warning chain can help to identify risks which may otherwise have been missed and support women to be involved in responses to conflict
participatory conflict analysis methods are practical tools to involve both women and men in collecting and using information. Methods include interviews, participatory workshops or access to technology for participants to share information with international or national actors that can take action
participatory conflict analysis and mapping can be designed as transformative peacebuilding interventions in themselves, addressing power dynamics between men and women, and between other social groups as part of the process, helping to bridge divides between different groups of people
research and data collection processes for early warning should be designed so that they are not extractive but directly benefit women who participate and help them be involved in responses
women’s participation does not automatically lead to the inclusion of gender-sensitive indicators in EWS. Practitioners need to ensure early warning systems include gender sensitive indicators, disaggregate data and make sure analysis is gendered
national and regional monitoring and early warning mechanisms can be encouraged to directly increase women’s participation, for example, by deploying senior women as part of teams and ensuring systematic consultations with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations in country. Local level early warning mechanisms that include or are led by women can also be used more systematically to inform higher level DM

Women-led conflict prevention and early warning:

women’s Situation Rooms (WSR) are an example of women-led early warning systems, originally implemented in the context of monitoring electoral violence. They have been replicated as a successful model for women’s leadership in early warning in a range of African countries since 2011
women’s leadership roles often tend to be more prominent at the sub national and local levels and in civil society. These roles are less visible but are important for community resilience^{[footnote 30]}. For example, research of communal violence and its prevention in central Nigeria found that neighbourhoods with stronger women’s groups and monitoring of young and unemployed men at risk of being drawn into fighting were better able to establish effective conflict management and prevent killings^{[footnote 31]}.

Resources on gender sensitive early warning:

Saferworld, Gender and Conflict Early Warning, Briefing, 2014
UN Women, Gender-Responsive Early Warning: Overview and How-to Guide, 2012
IFES is developing WPS indicators as part of Enhancing Predictions of Political Violence: Developing and Piloting Women, Peace, and Security Indicators project

Mediation is a process whereby a third party assists two or more parties, with their consent, to prevent, manage or resolve a conflict by helping them to develop mutually acceptable agreements^{[footnote 32]}. Mediation takes place at local, sub-national, national and international levels, and can be formal or informal.

Women mediators are now more visible, owing to their global recognition as an important strategy for women’s participation in conflict related DM processes^{[footnote 33]}. Despite global commitments, however, women mediators still remain underrepresented as high-level peace process mediators. Women mediators are important role models that can help break stereotypes about women in peacebuilding. There is a distinction however between the role of women as participants in processes who advocate for women’s rights, and the role of the women mediator, who acts as an impartial intermediary between parties^{[footnote 34]}.

Over recent years, there has been an expansion of women’s mediation networks as an important strategy to promote their participation. Networks of female mediators encourage linkages between women mediators operating at local, national and international levels, support individual members in their work and advocate collectively for a greater role of women mediators across DM spaces. Intergenerational approaches within women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations can promote young women’s leadership^{[footnote 35]}.

Examples of women mediator networks:

Box 6: Case study - Women Mediators across the Commonwealth project

The CSSF Commonwealth 18-20 Fund Fairness programme supported women’s leadership in conflict resolution through the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth project. The project enabled more women to lead, influence or be meaningfully involved in peace processes, from grassroots peacebuilding initiatives to international level. In Garissa County in Kenya, which has a long history of ethnic violence and conflict, related to resource allocation and extremism, the CSSF funded confidence building and skills training for mediation, conflict resolution and negotiation for 21 women who work in local peace committees. As a result, the women have used innovative approaches to foster collaboration and communication between warring communities and have prevented the escalation of disputes, for example, between farmers and pastoralists. The women who trained as mediators are keen to ensure a legacy remains. They have formed the Garissa Township Women Peace Movement, which supports women mediators from different sub-counties to work together, share ideas and mentor each other (CSSF Annual Report 19/20).

Resources on gender sensitive early warning

UN Guidance on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies
Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers in the Mediation Support Unit within the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs: network of senior leading mediation experts that UN Envoys can draw upon to inform mediation processes
UN Women Knowledge Resources: includes a range of resources with gendered perspectives on mediation processes

3.2. Women’s participation in peace processes

Peace processes “attempt to bring political and/or military elites involved in a conflict to some sort of mutual agreement as to how to end the conflict”^{[footnote 36]}. They can aim to reduce immediate violence (for example ceasefires) and/or focus on agreeing the terms for lasting and sustainable peace (e.g. comprehensive power-sharing agreements that initiate long term reforms).

Women participate in peace processes in a range of ways. Directly - as part of political, conflict and civil society negotiating teams or women’s delegations - or indirectly through consultations, as official observers and as advisory groups informing delegations and mediators.

Women are often excluded from directly participating at the formal negotiating table in Track I peace processes and elite bargains to end violence. Their presence may be highly contested or even ‘a red line’ for conflict parties. In these contexts, it is important to support women to influence DM and find ways for women’s positions and inputs to reach decision makers,^{[footnote 37]} whilst continuing to advocate for women’s full inclusion.

Women engage substantively with local and informal peace processes. A recent systematic analysis of women’s involvement in “informal peace processes”, in track II, found clear evidence that identifiable women’s groups were involved in 71% of negotiations in the case studies reviewed^{[footnote 38]}. Making visible, supporting, and valuing women’s participation in DM in track II and III, and connecting women engaged in these processes with formal track III processes is an important strategy to support women’s participation in peace related DM.

Factors supporting women’s participation and influence in peace processes^{[footnote 39]}

Women’s influencing strategies

coalitions and networks between women connected into informal and formal elite DM spaces and women outside those networks with a collective aim of advancing women’s inclusion and peace are important. Spaces that allow diverse women to develop joint positions as part of coalitions are key. Civil society coalitions between women groups and other civic groups that promote rights of excluded groups (“Rainbow coalitions”) have also been engaged to advocate and influence processes^{[footnote 40]}
transmission mechanisms that support women’s positions and inputs to reach DM are needed, especially if women are not at the table. For example, strategic gender advice in key institutions can facilitate connections and supportive consultative processes. ICAN’s Operational Guidelines for Participation of Women Peacebuilders^{[footnote 41]} recommends that delegations of women peacebuilders regularly speak to official delegations about issues on the negotiating table. The guidance also recommends inviting women peacebuilders to negotiate solutions on all issues on the negotiating table which are then shared with negotiating teams
a combination of “insider strategies” and “outsider strategies” that mobilise public support have been found to be effective^{[footnote 42]}. In this strategy, women directly submit proposals to mediators and negotiating parties (see transmission mechanisms) whilst at the same time promoting public statements and public campaigns that reinforce women’s messages and put pressure on parties
mass campaigns by diverse women have been used in a range of contexts to pressure negotiating parties to find agreement or increase women’s inclusion. Women - more than any other group - have come together to stage mass action calling for an end to conflicts and for participation^{[footnote 43]}. For example, in Liberia, the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement which started in 2003 conducted a number of protests which contributed to the end of the second civil war. Mass actions included street protests, blocking exits of meetings and threatening to strip naked when peace talks stalled
combining strategies at the grassroot level (track III) and in civil society (track II and III) with the high-level track I process has also been highlighted as a successful influencing strategy. For example, in the Philippines, civil society organised on tracks II and III backed the official track I process, with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations^{[footnote 44]}
leveraging international norms: International normative frameworks – e.g. the WPS framework, international human rights frameworks and international humanitarian law - are used by international actors, mediators, and conflict actors as reference points to inform peace processes. Normative frameworks promoting equal rights can be part of discourse used in power sharing agreements to protect minority rights. If different groups advocate for identity-based quotas in power sharing agreements, this can create openings for women to leverage WPS and advocate for special provisions supporting women’s inclusion^{[footnote 45]}

DM process design

early involvement of women in the process is important, including at the pre-negotiation stage. When women are involved early in discussions, or when initial agreements like ceasefires mention women’s participation, it is more likely that they are included substantively at later stages of processes
gender criteria for participation, for example quotas for women to participate in negotiating party delegations, or provisions for separate women’s delegations, are important. ICAN’s Operational guidance on participation recommends separate delegations of women peacebuilders to be included at the negotiating table. Mechanisms for selection should be specified (e.g. criteria- based selection, elections)^{[footnote 46]}
addressing intersectionality and diversity: For example, young women’s participation in DM processes can be increased by integrating gender criteria with age disaggregated criteria to ensure greater diversity in representation^{[footnote 47]}.
DM rules: Research on group dynamics show that women influence more in group DM that is based on finding a consensus, rather than a majority vote. Rules that ensure women have equal access to the floor create a more equal playing field are important where women may be present but not encouraged to speak on equal terms
support structures for women prior to and during negotiations as well as for the implementation process. Support can include technical advice to allow for women’s preparedness on technical issues, or financial support and logistical support for their participation in consultations. ICAN Operational Participation Guidance recommends rapid response mechanisms that allow women peacebuilders to take up opportunities at short notice. Longer term, permanent institutional support structures throughout peace and transition processes have also been highlighted as important strategies^{[footnote 48]}.

Supportive actors

an active women’s movement (or movements) comprised of diverse women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations that help build coalitions amongst different constituencies and build grassroot momentum and pressure for changes
supportive mediators with gender expertise, and supportive champions within elites. ICAN’s Operational Guidelines^{[footnote 49]} recommend that all delegates have access to gender training and tools, including gendered analysis of all topics in delegates’ briefings
supportive international actors, including role modelling of inclusive behaviours in their own delegations and representation
pressure from international actors on the negotiating parties, supporting women’s influencing strategies and amplifying women’s voices
funding to enable women’s quality participation and address barriers

Resources

ICAN’s Better Peace Tool provides detailed guidance on how to support women’s participation in peace negotiations and includes practical arguments and approaches on how to make the case for inclusion when there is resistance
ICAN: She Builds Peace Frameworks for Action. This includes detailed Operational Guidelines on Participation, Protection and Funding for women peacebuilders
PeaceFem App (linked to PA X Peace Agreements Database to explore women’s strategies that influenced different peace processes
Inclusive Peace: Research and resources on women’s participation in peacebuilding
Council on Foreign Relations Data on Women in Peace Processes and case studies of women’s engagement with peace processes
Inclusive Security: Research and training resources on women’s participation in peacebuilding
learning brief and case study on working with women and youth across different tracks in Yemen: SDDirect/CARE (2020) Overcoming the barriers to an interlinked three-track peace process in Yemen, SDDirect and CARE International, London, UK

3.3. Women’s participation and transitions away from conflict

Transitions are important opportunities for embedding structural shifts that promote women’s political participation in the long term. Peace and transition processes define how past grievances are dealt with, establish new rules and institutions and can initiate reform and transformation processes. The deals and agreements that are made throughout the conflict define how women participate in DM processes in the future. For example, references to women’s future participation and representation in an early ceasefire agreement can increase women’s participation in a larger peace process down the line. The resulting peace agreements and power sharing arrangements can make provisions for inclusive transitional and permanent post-conflict institutions which can guarantee greater participation in DM for women in post conflict political settlements^{[footnote 50]}.

Constitution-making processes define the formal post-conflict political settlement and women’s DM power within the new structures governing the distribution of power. Constitutions have the potential to shift – at least on paper - existing power dynamics and expand women’s political rights. Women can engage in constitution-making through their direct inclusion in commissions and drafting committees, and through external influencing and advocacy to put pressure on processes^{[footnote 51]}.

Women’s participation in the design and implementation of transitional justice mechanisms is important to ensure women’s distinct experiences of conflict are addressed. Transitional justice measures and mechanisms can reinforce gender stereotypes, deal inappropriately with issues such as sexual violence, or institutionalise new forms of hardship or unfairness for women^{[footnote 52]}. They are seen as important places to shift gender power dynamics. Women’s participation in transitional justice mechanisms can include:

influencing the design of mechanisms by influencing agreements that define them
women’s representation in commissions/committees that implement mechanisms, including consultative women groups to engage with implementation and feed in women’s perspectives
women’s groups’ support to women participating in processes (e.g., for transport, psychological support, security etc), or to document experiences of diverse women in different regions to feed into reporting

A focus on increasing the role of women in politics is important for women’s longer-term inclusion in high level public DM. Global evidence suggests that women’s political representation generally increases in postconflict settings^{[footnote 53]}. There are “windows of opportunities” in transitions that support these structural shifts.

Formal measures that incentivise women’s political participation in political institutions: Recent research shows the introduction of quotas in peace agreements predicted women’s increased political representation in parliaments post-conflict by 9.2%^{[footnote 54]}. In post-conflict contexts reviewed, women used each successive election to increase their share of parliamentary seats. Reserved seats were identified as the most effective at ensuring increases in women’s political representation^{[footnote 55]}. Electoral reforms that promote proportional representation and legislated quotas for women can increase women’s participation. In conflict and post-conflict countries with legislated quotas, the share of women in parliament is more than twice that of those without such quotas^{[footnote 56]}.

Women’s political participation can also increase when transformations of political parties happen during transitions^{[footnote 57]}. This finding is important because political parties tend to be barriers for women’s political participation^{[footnote 58]}. Factors affecting how far transitions lead to shifts in political parties include the length and depth of the transition, and women’s role in influencing the processes that shape transitions. The strength of an autonomous women movement and whether party leadership, attitudes and ideologies are supportive of women’s greater inclusion also matter^{[footnote 59]}.

In addition to women as political leaders, other forms of women’s participation in DM post-conflict include women as voters, women’s engagement in civil society and their representation and participation in local governance, policy planning and implementation.

Participatory governance mechanisms that focus on promoting marginalised groups’ inclusion are key for building more inclusive and legitimate institutions in the long term. Participatory approaches refer to a wide range of formal and informal mechanisms that encourage engagement between DM and citizens to build trust in institutions and help make institutions more effective in their responses to diverse citizens’ needs. They are designed to increase the influence of marginalised groups of people over DMs in contexts where there are systemic failures in how marginalised groups can participate in DM.

Examples include participatory planning and budgeting processes, and participatory approaches to local level service delivery, including citizen oversight through social audits and score cards processes (referred to as social accountability mechanisms). Analysis^{[footnote 60]} found that social accountability initiatives that were successful in promoting women’s empowerment addressed gender norms around participation and developed an effective coalition of actors at the local level to support women’s voice and agency.

3.4. Cross-cutting considerations for women’s participation

3.4.1. Women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations

When there is an active women’s movement it is more likely that women will influence DM processes and that women will benefit from transitions.^{[footnote 61]} Lasting gender equality gains require sustained feminist mobilisation through women’s rights organisations’ collective action to contest gender inequality and roll back on gains.^{[footnote 62]} Even where there has been significant push back on women’s rights,^{[footnote 63]} and where space for civil society is closing, women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations continue to operate, often at high personal costs. Despite their recognised roles, women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations and activists for gender equality often remain ignored and under-resourced in conflict affected settings.^{[footnote 64]}

How do women’s movements support women’s participation in DM?

coalitions, collective action and mass mobilisation from the grassroots: Women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations and movements operate across local, national, regional and international levels, and across elite and non-elite, urban-rural, and other divides. They offer multiple avenues for locally led collective action
pathways to leadership in politics: Women’s rights organisation, women peacebuilders and organisations and movements are important places for women leaders to develop political skills and build influential networks. Where it is difficult for women to rise through the ranks of party politics, civil society can offer an alternative pathway to establish women as leaders and facilitate their entry into politics
investment into women’s leadership roles: Women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations respond to rights and needs of different women in their contexts and take on leadership roles in their communities, building up momentum and role modelling women leadership from the grassroots.

Women’s movements and women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations are shaped by historical and cultural legacies in each context. There can be tensions between women’s groups with diverse identities and constituencies. The transition from immediate conflict to longer term transitions can sometimes weaken solidarity amongst women’s groups where ending violent conflict was a unifying goal. Understanding the context, history and politics of women’s movements and women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations and applying a strong conflict sensitivity lens is important. Considerations:

women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations that are visible to international actors are not automatically representative of the diversity of women’s lived experiences
not all women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations have a pro-gender equality agenda
women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations may align with different sides of conflict divides. Some women-led groups may actively marginalise groups representing other excluded groups, such as sexual orientation and gender identity minorities

Demystifying terminology

Women’s movement: movement of women and groups of women that advocate for equal rights for men and women. Also referred to as feminist movements.

Women Human Right Defenders: broadly defined as women who defend the human rights of all, or individuals of all genders who defend the rights of women.^{[footnote 67]}

Women’s organisations: diverse groups of organised women. Women groups can be informal and formal.

Resources

womankind resources on supporting civil society in FCAS
OECD 2014 study of donor support to Southern women’s rights organisations. Provides recommendations on how donors can support women’s rights organisations

3.4.2. Women’s economic empowerment and their political participation

Women’s economic empowerment is seen as a prerequisite for marginalised women to participate in public and political life and can be leveraged to support women’s political participation. During conflict, women’s economic roles change, and this may lead to their greater political empowerment. But overall, the links between women’s economic empowerment and political empowerment in FCAS are not yet well understood.^{[footnote 68]} There are documented case studies and research which highlight that combining economic empowerment approaches with women’s collective action strategies over sustained periods can advance women’s political empowerment especially in contexts with wide-spread poverty and high levels of gender inequality.^{[footnote 69]}

Box 7: Case Study - Care’s Matu Masa Dubara Initiative in Niger

The Matu Masa Dubara’s (MMD’s) are Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) in Niger, based on voluntary participation of about 20 women who contribute to a saving fund and make joint decisions about the use of savings. These developed at scale over a 25-year period, with over 25,000 groups established since the 1990’s. Formalised networks of MMDs started to be established from 2001 onwards to support individual MMD’s to access larger financial credits.

Over time networks also organised into federations operating at municipality level. Whilst the initial motivator was to promote women’s financial inclusion in a context of widespread poverty, over time, networks and federations were seen to prioritise non-financial collective action to promote women’s rights, including girls’ education, combatting FGM, access to land and supporting women’s entry into politics. Collective MMD structures engaged with broader civil society and local governance structures using their collective power to advance gender equality. Leadership within the MMD was identified as a fertile ground for women to extend their leadership roles in communities.

Analysis of Niger’s 2011 election results showed that 67% of women elected in rural areas were women who participated in MMDs. Federations joined gender platforms and other local structures to advocate for increasing quotas for women in elections (quotas were increased from 10% to 15% in 2014). Extracted and summarised from Political Consciousness, Leadership and Collective Action in the Mata Masu Dubara Structures in Niger, December 2017, Care.

3.4.3. Violence against women in leadership roles

Women active in the public DM space are at increased risk of experiencing violence. Women political candidates and leaders, and Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRD) can be targeted for their visibility, influence, or activism during and after conflicts, in an attempt to silence, undermine, and discredit them.^{[footnote 70]}

Senior female administrators, judges, or journalists also face threats and risks because of their visibility and symbolism. Violence can be perpetrated online or offline, directly or indirectly, by formal or informal actors, and by known or anonymous perpetrators.

Three characteristics^{[footnote 71]} define violence against politically active women: (1) It targets women because of their gender; (2) In its very form it can be gendered, as exemplified by sexist threats and sexual violence; (3) Its impact is to discourage women – in particular from being or becoming active in politics.

Examples of violence against women leaders

gendered violence: Accusations of sexual promiscuity and tarnishing of reputation; public verbal attacks that use sexual slurs or sexual undertones; threats of assault and rape; online abuse and harassment with sexual undertones, gendered defamation via social media platforms
violence targeted at women leaders: Threats to women’s children and family; death threats and killings; (attempted) kidnappings; physical attacks; state sanctioned harassment and intimidation such as detention, interrogation and accusations of criminality leading to sanctions; online abuse

High profile women politicians and women activists are disproportionately targeted by online abuse and disinformation attacks,^{[footnote 72]} with examples across high income and low-income contexts. This pattern seems to be more pronounced for female political leaders from racial, ethnic, religious minority groups, those that are visible in the media, and those that are visible on feminist issues.^{[footnote 73]}

Gendered disinformation campaigns use tactics like sexualised information or images and videos intended to ridicule women. Automation is used to amplify attacks that aim to polarise debate around gender equality, create fear and break down social cohesion. The UK Government Quick Guide on Gender and Countering Disinformation gives an overview of gendered disinformation threats and provides entry points on how to counter gendered disinformation.

4. How to support women’s participation in decision-making

4.1. Evidence base on interventions supporting women’s participation in decision-making

The tables below provide an overview of different types of interventions to directly support women’s participation in DM (table 1) and to support an enabling environment for participation (table 2). It is largely based on analysis and non-systematic reviews of external interventions. Overall, the evidence base for donor interventions is still patchy and scarce, and even more so in fragile and conflict affected settings. Systematic studies that compare the effect of different types of interventions are lacking. The effectiveness of most types of interventions depends on enabling factors in the context, contextually informed design, and the quality of implementation.

Table 1: Interventions to directly support women’s participation in DM

Individual skills of women leaders

Intervention types: Training for women leaders (tailored to the need in the given context – ranging from technical expertise for negotiations to leadership, and security focused training). Mentoring and coaching schemes.

Considerations and examples: Reviews of donor interventions to support women’s individual political leadership capacity have focused more on non-FCAS settings and have generally found mixed results when looking at individual interventions (see for example the 2018a K4D review of donor interventions in support of women’s political leadership^{[footnote 74]}). Effectiveness depends on contextually informed design and quality of implementation. The combination of different types of interventions and working at different levels, and targeting different stakeholders is important. In general, classic, short-term trainings were seen to be less effective than sustained support with mentoring, peer learning techniques, experimental learning and opportunities to apply skills. Sustained and combined interventions tackling barriers at both individual and collective levels are highlighted, focusing on groups of women, not individuals, and delivering support through collective structures and building collective capacity. For women participating in peace and transition DM, targeted capacity building support for preparedness for technical negotiation areas where there is less expertise is important to enable full participation (e.g. DDR, SSR).^{[footnote 75]}

Financial and logistics support

Intervention types: Support to cover costs of transport and visas, logistics (like access to printing, physical space for meetings), child-care, and access to individual security plans and self-care.^{[footnote 76]}

Considerations and examples: The importance of financial and logistics support for women’s participation in DM processes is underscored across existing guidelines and analysis. Strategies promoted include:

access to flexible and responsive funds to respond to opportunities. For example, in Myanmar, in late 2017 the US Agency for International Development (USAID) established a Women’s Participation Fund to lower practical hurdles to participation such as travel, childcare or translation support. Requests are approved within hours allowing women to seize critical opportunities in relation to peace processes related events^{[footnote 77]}
flexibility built into grants to women’s rights organisations and women peacebuilders and organisations, so that they can use funds to respond quickly to opportunities^{[footnote 78]}

There is no comparative analysis of different types of interventions, but evidence points to the need for systematic, long term support structures for women’s participation in peace and transitional processes, ideally delivered through permanent institutional structures.^{[footnote 79]}

Collective action strategies^{[footnote 80]}

Intervention types: Convening/brokering networks, relationships and dialogue between different actors, developing capacities of individuals and organisations, providing funding for coalitions, advocacy, and policy dialogues.

Considerations and examples: For peace and transition DM processes, support to coalitions of women and collective action are highlighted as a key area for women’s influencing. Combinations of “insider strategies” (direct access and submission of proposals to DM) and “outsider strategies (public statements, mass action) are identified as important features of effective collective action to influence processes.^{[footnote 81]} Spaces where women can develop joint positions are identified as an important strategy to support influence.^{[footnote 82]} Support structures (see above) are important interventions to create an enabling environment for women’s collective action strategies. The 2018b K4D review^{[footnote 83]} of different donor interventions in support of collective action that facilitates women’s political empowerment points to the importance of the quality of the design and the quality of the implementation. Elsewhere in the literature, women caucuses and networks are highlighted as an important strategy to support collective action of women across party lines. Similarly, networks of professional women within other institutions have been seen to support collective action to advance women leadership.

Women mediators

Intervention types: Capacity building, support to networks, influencing to support women mediators to be selected for peace processes.

Considerations and examples: Support to women mediators is an important strategy to increase women’s representation in peacebuilding DM. Strategies identified in the literature include:

support to women mediation networks (peer-to-peer support, advocacy for women’s participation, support to individual members’ work, and linkages across different tracks I, II and III)
identifying and supporting women on lists of nominees for UN envoy positions and active support to those women who are appointed to positions
supporting countries to identify women mediation capacity across local and national levels to make it visible and available
tackling institutional barriers that prevent women mediators to pursue career pathways from across different levels and across civil society into government-led systems
targeted training for women mediators, including on how to bridge the gap from local to national and national to international level mediation

In terms of effectiveness, similar considerations to those highlighted under individual leadership and collective action should be considered. Based on evidence reviewed, support to women mediation networks is likely to be one of the most effective interventions to support their role. An over focus on “building capacity” of individual mediators risks distracting from barriers within processes and institutions that contribute to the exclusion of women mediators when decisions about mediation teams and their composition are made. There also needs to be more research to unpack assumptions around women mediator influence on gender sensitive provisions in agreements which tends to be conflated with women’s roles as mediators.^{[footnote 84]}

Women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations

Intervention types: Core funding to organisations, project based funding for women’s rights. organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations, and organisational capacity building support.

Considerations and examples: There is significant evidence highlighting the importance of an independent and diverse women’s movement to promote and facilitate women’s participation across DM spaces during and after conflict. WROs and feminist organisations are seen as important for advancing gender equality within the decisions that they influence. Women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations can provide and sustain spaces where women can engage, network, and develop individually and collectively to conduct wider social action, even in the most difficult contexts. Funding can be provided to specific organisations, to networks, or to grant-making entities supporting WROs in their activities and advocacy. Predictable, flexible multi-year core funding^{[footnote 85]} is generally seen as more effective than project-based funding. Core funding is unrestricted funding that allows organisations to pursue their mission and set their own priorities and strategies. Core or project-based funding can be combined with organisational capacity building. Catalytic funding can be provided to emerging organisations but should not be at the expense of larger, core funding.

Targeted gender expertise

Intervention types: Gender advisers in key DM bodies, and gender expertise and gender training provided to mediators.

Considerations and examples: Gender expertise to inform process design and improve DMs’ understanding of gender dimensions is important. Gender expertise was found to be targeted at mediators, but less so at negotiating parties and other DM. Analysis reviewed suggests that the positioning of the gender expertise – for example a senior gender adviser - is important – i.e. it needs to directly access and influence senior DM, including different elites participating in DM processes. For HMG, support to such roles is most impactful when there is close collaboration with HMG, rather than a “fund and forget” approach. HMG can facilitate adviser’s political access and they can help identify where HMG influencing support is useful.

Quotas and electoral/political system reform

Intervention types: Design and advocacy for quotas (across DM processes, political institutions and government administration), and political parties and systems.

Considerations and examples: Women in politics are more likely to progress in mixed or proportional representation electoral/ legislative systems as opposed to simple “first past the post” systems.^{[footnote 86]} There is strong evidence^{[footnote 87]} supporting well designed quotas as an important strategy for women’s increased representation in DM processes and institutions. Through their role modelling effect, quotas or affirmative action are also seen to influence societal perceptions of women as leaders and social norms.^{[footnote 88]} Quotas are particularly effective where gender inequality is high.^{[footnote 89]} Quotas’ effectiveness is linked to their design and enforcement, women’s collective action, and broader changes in institutions and society which support their implementation (e.g. addressing and resourcing the removal of institutional barriers, shifting social norms). In peace processes, the adoption of quotas is important for women’s presence, but on its own does not automatically lead to greater influence of women on processes or gender-sensitive provision in the outcomes of processes.^{[footnote 90]} Women’s delegations have been found to have a stronger effect on women’s influence than quotas for negotiating parties. Donor interventions that work to make political parties more gender-responsive have been of mixed effectiveness overall.^{[footnote 91]} It is important to engage with political parties because they are often a key barrier^{[footnote 92]} for women’s political participation and transitions away from conflict can present opportunities and entry points for reforms.^{[footnote 93]} Effective strategies identified include^{[footnote 94]}: (1) Adopting measures, including action plans or quotas, to ensure women’s participation in party DM structures. (2) Addressing gender equality in governing documents of the party, such as internal statutes and rules, and gender mainstreaming into policies. (3) Establishing women’s sections that are formally/strategically integrated into party structures and fully resourced.

Girls and young women’s empowerment

Intervention types: Interventions targeted at adolescent girls and young women’s empowerment.

Considerations and examples: For young women’s political empowerment, the literature^{[footnote 95]} highlights mentoring and education initiatives (e.g. school-based initiatives to build interest in politics and programmes to mentor women leaders) to help empower girls and young women to participate in networking and convening to learn about their political rights and routes for their engagement. There has been a growing focus on Adolescent Girls Safe Spaces or Girls Clubs, as an effective strategy to empower and build life and leadership skills for adolescent girls and young women, including in FCAS. Some of these programmes have included modules on peacebuilding and civic engagement. The long-term effects of these interventions on young women’s future leadership in communities or politics are not yet understood, as these programmes are relatively new and these effects would only become clearer 5-10 years after the end of programming. Facilitating inter- and intra-generational dialogue to foster inclusion, and develop strategic alliances between younger and older women, especially within civil society networks, is identified as a promising strategy. Young women’s engagement can also be prioritised as part of interventions that build individual skills and collective action and make processes more inclusive. For example, by supporting participation criteria that incentivise young women’s participation, funding young women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilding organisations and their participation in processes and tackling gender- and age-related stereotypes.

Table 2: Interventions supporting an enabling environment for women’s participation in DM

Institutional gender mainstreaming

Intervention types: Policies with a focus on promoting women’s career progression and retention in public sector institutions. Institutional capacity building to women’s machinery.

Considerations and examples: Policy provisions to support women’s career advancement and retention in institutions include provisions for child-care, changes to discriminatory recruitment and HR policies and policies that protect women from gender-based bullying and harassment in the workplace. Institutional gender equality strategies and action plans can help identify and implement required changes in policies and institutional culture. The K4D review of support to women’s political leadership found that institutional mainstreaming approaches reviewed as part of making parliament more women-friendly (including better rearranging of sitting hours, entitling members to parental leave, providing breastfeeding rooms, and establishing childcare centres in parliament and engagement with men parliamentarians and citizens), appear to have largely been effective. Institutional leadership buy-in and adequate resourcing is critical for mainstreaming gender at the institutional level. Interventions in FCAS have included support to women’s ministries or institutions, through institutional capacity-building, donor influence, and sectoral gender audits, but success of these interventions was generally found to be “slender and very context-specific”.^{[footnote 96]}

Intervention types: Social norms change programming with components on women’s political participation. Gender transformative interventions that seek to change norms and behaviours that are mainstreamed into other interventions.

Considerations and examples: There are gender equality programmes that successfully combined social norms change interventions and collective action interventions to generate positive effects, for example, the V4C programme in Nigeria (see box 11). Design features included social network analysis, intensive gender interventions targeting influential traditional and religious leaders and influencers combined with message diffusion strategies, collective action and coalition building to support changes in social norms defining women’s leadership and DM and transform institutions.

Mainstreaming: Gender transformative interventions that seek to address gender norms and behaviours have been mainly integrated into programming addressing violence against women and girls (VAWG), women’s economic empowerment programming and programming on uptake of health and family planning interventions. Analysis suggests that substantive social norms mainstreaming is largely absent in core governance and peacebuilding programmes. Given existing learning and success elsewhere, there is significant scope to develop and test social norms mainstreaming interventions to support women’s participation in DM. Key considerations include:

work with male advocates, role models or change agents: The engagement of men and boys should be done across all levels of society, from the individual, to the community to the institutional and systemic levels, and should include the engagement of community, religious and political leaders, most of whom are still men^{[footnote 97]}
the length, quality and intensity of interventions are important: Shifting deep-seated social norms cannot be achieved through ‘light touch’ interventions and short timeframes. Evidence from VAWG programming that integrate interventions tackling social norms suggest pilot interventions can achieve results within 18 to 36 months of implementation, depending on the context, but need to consider 12 to 18 months from design and adaptation before implementation can start^{[footnote 98]}
create opportunities for women and girls, men and boys to actively challenge gender norms: for example, consider adapting community mobilisation interventions that have been successful (for example SASA^{[footnote 99]}) to mainstream social norms change into community level governance and peacebuilding approaches that focus on women’s participation

Economic empowerment programming

Intervention types: Interventions targeted at economic empowerment combined with collective action and movement building.

Considerations and examples: There is still limited understanding of economic empowerment interventions that contribute to women’s political empowerment in conflict and post-conflict settings. Some evidence from What Works^{[footnote 100]} suggests that economic empowerment combined with gender transformative interventions can shift social norms in the area of women’s DM, but there is limited analysis of how these programmes have affected women’s DM power in the public space. There are examples of economic empowerment programmes that included deliberate interventions strengthening women’s collective action. These appeared to support political participation where this was seen to contribute to women’s movement building and developed over a sustained period of time.

Girls’ education

Interventions types: Broad investments into girls’ access to quality education.

Considerations and examples: Girls’ education is a critical factor for fostering women’s political leadership.^{[footnote 101]} In countries with large gaps in educational attainment between men and women, education is a barrier to women’s entry and advancement in politics.^{[footnote 102]} Broad investments into girls’ education are necessary to expand the pool of women leaders beyond elites.

4.2. Essential building blocks and principles for supporting women’s participation in DM

Building blocks:

Promote women’s influencing strategies

Women-led influencing strategies for DMs

support to locally rooted coalitions and collective action to support women’s participation and influence
making visible and investing in women’s leadership roles
facilitating spaces where women can develop joint strategies and positions
supporting networks that bring together diverse women for joint action across international, national and local levels (whilst allowing spaces to discuss disagreements)

Promote decision making spaces that support inclusion

Analysis of gender power dynamics and context specific barriers in DMs

analysis of different barriers and power dynamics for women from different constituencies
gendered conflict analysis
Gendered Political Economy Analysis

DM Processes are designed to facilitate participation

where possible, participatory design of processes
gender sensitive selection criteria for participation
rules for participation: for example, how much time women have to speak
gender expertise and training of process facilitators
feedback loops between participation and results

Dedicated support for women’s participation in DM

addressing logistical, financial and practical barriers
building expertise on technical issues
engaging with gatekeepers to facilitate participation
addressing security and safeguarding risks
facilitating diversity and addressing specific barriers for groups of women that tend to be excluded
mental health and wellbeing
childcare

Promote enabling environment

Gender norms: Integrate interventions that address negative gender norms

Institutions: Shift institutional cultures Funding for women’s organisations Engage with decision-makers

Immediate environment: Complementary interventions to promote safety of politically active women Complementary interventions targeting communities and families to create a supportive environment

The following key principles guide how effective interventions are designed and implemented:

take the context as the starting point: Successful interventions are rooted in an understanding of gender and power dynamics and how these dynamics intersect in the local context. They promote locally-led, politically-aware and adaptive approaches based on a thorough and nuanced understanding of women’s roles
start early: Efforts need to be made from the outset. In order to achieve long-term inclusion, women’s participation should not be approached in an ad hoc manner, as an add-on or afterthought
support diverse women’s groups: Meaningful and sustained partnerships with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations are critical for effective interventions. This includes consulting WO’s views to inform engagement with DM processes
apply a conflict sensitive and intersectional approach, recognising that women are not a homogenous group and that different groups of women face different barriers and represent different interests. Women’s representation and participation should be diverse and cut across ethnicity, race, age, (dis)ability, class and geographic location. Whilst it is important to support and create spaces for the development of shared agendas by diverse women, space also needs to be created for women to discuss disagreements
identify and implement multiple strategies and interventions that reinforce women’s individual and collective agency to support women as change agents. Successful interventions work at multiple levels, with multiple actors and connect women leaders at the local, subnational, national and international levels to influence processes
implement a cross-cutting and multi-layered approach: Women’s participation in DM needs to be integrated across all HMG programmes and influencing strategies. It should not only be a siloed, stand-alone programme but mainstreamed across broader peacebuilding and state building interventions
address safety and safeguarding risks: Interventions should support women and women’s groups to assess potential risks from their engagement and jointly develop plans to protect their safety and wellbeing. Proactive support for women’s mental health and wellbeing should be considered as part of a holistic programming approach. Complementary interventions to strengthen the protection environment for politically active women should be designed and implemented. Safeguarding considerations should be front and centre of engagement with young women, and women in situations of vulnerability such as, but not limited to, survivors of sexual violence
draw on gender expertise and political economy analysis to design and influence inclusive DM processes. Expertise can be provided by external experts or local feminist organisations. Prioritise use of local expertise and local organisations to reinforce feedback loops. Promoting an enabling environment for women’s participation
mainstream a focus on transforming gender norms. Restrictive and socially conservative gender norms are a main barrier to their participation in public DM and limit women’s economic, social and political empowerment. Understanding and addressing norms is critical to transforming the power dynamics that exclude women from DM
target and include male DM as important champions and gatekeepers for women’s participation
target families and immediate communities with complementary interventions, especially for those women who experience additional barriers that marginalise them in DM spaces, for example young women or women with disabilities

4.3. Suggested entry points for an HMG approach

4.3.1. Context analysis

The UK’s engagement strategy and specific interventions to support women’s political participation should be driven by an understanding of the social, political and conflict context.

conduct gendered conflict and political analysis to develop smart, context adapted strategies to support women’s participation in DM processes. The SU guidance note on ‘Applying a gender perspective to the JACS’ is a useful starting point. Other tools for integrating gender, conflict and political economy analysis are summarised in Annex B
partner with women and women’s groups to develop and shape analysis jointly: Use participatory analysis to identify contextually relevant pathways to increase women’s participation in DM

Questions to help identify entry points into DM processes:

where are decisions about resources, status and rights being made at local, subnational and national levels – informally and formally?
what are women’s diverse roles in relation to these processes?
what are the informal and formal norms and mechanisms that exclude/include women from DM processes?
what are the rules that constrain behaviour/roles and what are the incentives to shift these?
how far is conflict shifting gender roles and norms in relation to DM processes (more fluid, static, more entrenched)?
what are the different norms and rules affecting diverse women’s access and influence of DM spaces (non-elite women, young women, women with disabilities, minority women, LGBTI women, poor women)?

Stakeholder mapping:

map women and men actors relevant to the DM processes in (e.g. politicians, religious leaders, traditional leaders, women leaders, influential international actors, groups that are excluded etc). What are their attitudes to women’s participation? What is their influence?
map women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations: What types of organisations are they and what do they represent? Which areas do organisations engage on? What is their influence? Who do they connect to – elite/non-elite? What areas don’t they engage on? Who is missing? How does intersectionality affect organisations?
map women peacebuilders and women leadership (e.g. female mediators in the context, repositories of female leaders across politics, business, civil society) and identify how these interact with DM processes identified
map other stakeholders promoting a pro-women’s participation agenda (e.g. government gender machinery, parts of civil society, men champions for gender equality)
map connections between stakeholders

Identify entry points and pathways of change:

are there connections and change agents that we previously overlooked?
are there political or institutional reform processes underway that would allow for greater inclusion of women as leaders?
are there key trends, or government-led/international processes/initiatives under design that can be influenced in the future?
what evidence is available? Where are the major research gaps?
what types of interventions are underway by other actors? What worked, what didn’t? What can be re-enforced/complemented?

Box 8: Case study - Working with politically informed approaches to promote participation

The Peace Leadership Programme in Myanmar (led by the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies) has trained a selection of women peace leaders in support of more gender-inclusive peacebuilding efforts. The programme has included gender as a key lens within conflict and political analysis. It has worked with a selection of women identified as having high levels of trust and legitimacy within their local contexts, with a “unique ability to directly and/or indirectly influence conflict parties and behaviour by way of direct mediation, advocacy, and/or building consensus with negotiating parties”. Although women formally have very limited roles in Myanmar’s peace processes, the analysis has enabled the programme to work with women with informal change-making potential, and has also identified persistent and significant gaps in women’s DM power. Based on this analysis, the programme works with women to support and expand their influence and participation in peace processes in the country. (Source: Rebecca Haines and Tam O’Neil, Putting Gender in International UK political economy analysis: Why it matters and how to do it, Practitioners’ Guidance Note, Gender & Development Network, 2018).

Box 9: Case Study - Using PEA to inform influencing and programming on women and elections

FCDO DRC’s Evidence, Analysis and Coordination Programme (EACP) delivered tailored political economy analysis across the UK’s thematic engagement areas in the DRC. In 2015, ahead of the delayed 2018 elections, the EACP conducted an analysis on Women and Elections. The analysis identified key barriers and opportunities for women’s participation in the electoral processes and made recommendations for priority advocacy, policy and programming actions. The analysis was used by donors to support coordinated lobbying towards members of parliament and the Electoral Commission and helped identify priority areas for electoral support for women’s political participation. It was used by donors to influence the UN-led electoral support programme and to develop stand-alone support to women’s participation. FCDO DRC, through NDI, supported the Cartel des Femmes Politiques Leaders Actives as part of its support to national elections in 2018. This platform brought together women in politics from different political parties and supported them to run for elections. Key learning from the process was that it was important for the analysis to be owned beyond those working on gender equality and WPS in order to inform engagement with electoral processes. (Source: DFID Annual Reviews and Project Completion Reports for both programmes, KII).

4.3.2. Developing an HMG strategy for women’s participation in decision-making

HMG can support women and girls’ participation in DM related to conflict prevention and response across its diplomacy, programmes and policy. Stand-alone interventions, mainstreaming and diplomacy in support of women’s participation in DM should be combined to develop a “whole of portfolio approach”. It is important that linkages between different parts of the HMG portfolio are identified and strengthened. When women leaders and women groups are systematically consulted, included and partnered with across the portfolio this allows HMG to draw on diverse women voices to inform its own DM and influence DM processes.

Questions for establishing HMG’s baseline on women’s participation in DM

what is HMG’s previous experience working on women’s participation in DM?
how far does portfolio-level analysis and prioritisation identify entry points and pathways for women to influence diverse DM processes underway at different levels? *how does HMG currently engage with women leaders and women’s groups across its political and programming work? Who is missing from engagement?
how far is engagement with women and women’s groups systematised across the portfolio (e.g. regular consultations with diverse women’s groups to consult and inform on decisions, advisory boards, joint reviews with women’s groups)
is there accountability for how far teams and units have prioritised women’s participation?
can existing partnerships with women’s groups be expanded to support increased focus on women’s participation across the portfolio?
is there dedicated gender expertise at the portfolio level – in the form of technical advisory capacity, or in the form of partnerships with WROs - which can be drawn upon by teams to inform design of DM processes that promote women’s inclusion?
what is the level of financing for diverse partnerships with women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations and groups across the portfolio?

HMG role models women’s meaningful and representative participation:

Diplomatic engagement

Systematic engagement with women’s organisations. Influencing to ensure DM processes prioritise WPS Political support for women as leaders, for example women mediators

Stand-alone programmes

Stand-alone gender programming to support women’s political participation Core components of stability, governance and human rights programming support women’s participation Funding to women’s rights organisations

Mainstreaming into policy and programming

Consultative and participatory elements are mainstreamed throughout the portfolio. Funding for organised women’s groups is prioritised. Support to women’s leadership across politics, society and business.

Box 10: Case Study - Building political support, donor coherence and coordination, and support to WROs in Iraq

The UK in Iraq does significant work to advance the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda through strategic political and diplomatic engagements, including with other donors at the bilateral and multilateral level, and with the Iraqi government. WPS is raised in political engagement, including at ministerial and ambassadorial levels. The UK is co-chairing the International Gender Group with Canada and is part of a Gender Champions Group with other embassies. The UK played a leading role in getting the UN, embassies and donors to agree on WPS priorities, improving coordination and continuity in a context of high staff turnover. The agreed priorities are: 1) increasing women’s political participation; 2) providing documentation for women only households including in camps for internally displaced people and for children; 3) delivery of the Iraqi NAP; and 4) the passage of the anti-domestic violence law.

The UK’s WPS political and diplomatic engagements are informed by ongoing consultations with Iraqi WROs, including supporting the meaningful participation of women’s rights organisations (WROs), women peacebuilders organisations in drafting content for the anti-domestic violence bill. This ensures that work is aligned with their priorities and maximises impact, including taking advice on what issues the UK can advocate for publicly and which are better supported “behind the scenes”. The UK also directly supports women’s rights organisations, women peacebuilders and organisations through the FCDO’s human rights international programme and the CSSF MENAFEM project with funding, capacity strengthening, advocacy support and training on how to mitigate and respond to threats against women human rights defenders. The CSSF programme is implemented by the feminist INGO Kvinna till Kvinna. Kvinna provides funding for WROs to conduct peacebuilding activities in their respective areas of expertise - including trauma work, leading a network of WHRDs, re-integrating women perceived to be affiliated with the Islamic State, and advocacy on women’s participation. Capacity building focused on increasing the WRO’s capacity in financial management, monitoring and evaluation, as well as in security and risk management. Source: HM Government, Evaluation of the UK’s National Action Plan Women, Peace and Security (2018 -2022), Strategic Outcome 7 – UK Capabilities, Evaluation Report and CSSF Reporting.

Portfolio-level do and don’t

Do:

sustain engagement on women’s participation for the long term, and actively involve women and WROs, women peacebuilders and organisations in design and implementation of engagement
develop dedicated stand-alone interventions as part of core state building and peacebuilding programming to support women’s political participation/women as change agents
value partnerships with WROs, women peacebuilders and organisations and support them to influence decisions across the portfolio. Identify how parts of the portfolio that support women and girls’ empowerment and WROs, women peacebuilders and organisations can be connected with each other, and to parts of the portfolio that work with decision-makers and DM processes
systematise engagement with women leaders and women’s organisations across the portfolio, and at all levels. For example, consider setting up an Advisory Board comprised of diverse women’s groups and representatives to engage in continued strategic dialogue with HMG in a particular country context or policy area. Integrate women’s participation into portfolio level or interventions level oversight and review mechanisms, for example, through integration into third party monitoring mechanisms
identify relationships between different parts of the portfolio – for example – girls’ education, investment in women-led business or women’s economic empowerment, and interventions tackling gender-based violence – and women’s participation in DM
make sure that the full HMG footprint (including HQ funding streams) with women leaders, women’s organisations and organised women is understood and informs influencing strategies on women’s participation
ensure dedicated gender expertise and gender and political economy analysis expertise is available to help teams develop and commission quality interventions that support women’s participation in DM
role model good practice in all processes (see Beyond Consultations Tool). Promote women’s leadership across sectors by all staff. HMG uses its social and political capital to link women leaders with decision makers
proactively identify risks for women engaging as change agents at the portfolio and intervention level and develop portfolio level strategies to mitigate risks

Don’t:

work in silos within departments or within sectors and interventions
limit interactions with women organisations and women leaders to staff leading on WPS and gender equality. Democratise and own these relationships at all levels and in all sectors
be extractive in engagement with women’s organisations and women leaders. Engagement needs to be systematic, based on partnerships and have mutual benefits

4.3.3. HMG diplomacy and influencing

Diplomatic engagement has a key role to support women’s participation in DM. The UK has influence as a member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), its global leadership on international development, and its important roles in networks like the Commonwealth, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The UK, across its diplomatic missions maintains influential relationships with diverse political, social and economic actors who are also key actors for women’s political participation (WPP).

Area: Strategic dialogue with bilateral partners

Tools and examples: The UK can support collective action with like-minded bilateral partners to influence broader international stakeholder groups. Dialogue can focus on identifying feasible actions and joint messages to support women’s participation in DM. In contexts where the UK supports conflict prevention, reduction and transitions through coalitions with other partners, the UK can show-case approaches that work and encourage others to scale up effective practices:

informal and formal gender champions groups with key bilateral partners to coordinate and amplify messages
active participation and chairing of Gender donor groups with a priority focus on WPP
championing women’s participation as a core agenda of political, humanitarian and peacebuilding bilateral partners’ and Head of Missions groups

Area: Influencing multilateral architecture to implement WPS commitments

Tools and examples: The UK can systematically engage with the multilateral architecture to support commitments to women’s participation in DM and hold institutions to account for delivery of existing commitments:

proactive engagement in support of Women Envoys
proactive engagement with UN Missions to ensure guidelines to promote participation are being implemented. For example, ensure UN missions visiting countries include meetings with WROs and gender experts to discuss women’s participation
ensure Peacekeeping Mandate Renewals include locally relevant language promoting women’s participation
encourage close coordination between UNDP, UN Women and the UN’s Political Mission to support women’s political participation and hold actors to account for delivery of commitments
advocate for IFIs to prioritise women’s participation in DM as part of their dialogue with partner governments, and as part of their practice when developing support packages
proactive engagement with the humanitarian system to advance commitments to women’s participation in DM at all levels

Area: Engaging with WROs and providing platforms for women’s voices

Tools and examples: The UK can systematically engage with WROs, support their initiatives and amplify their voices by integrating their messages into strategic dialogue with bilateral and multilateral partners and lobbying host governments, political parties and other conflict parties:

cultivating diverse and systematic relationships with a wide range of WRO and women activists at all levels – at post, regional and international level - with regular formal and informal meetings which inform UK messages
facilitating dialogue and direct engagement and partnerships between WROs and those parts of the UK machinery that are directly involved in shaping and influencing relevant DM processes (Ambassadors, Heads of Political Sections, Governance and Conflict advisers, Stabilisation Advisers, Humanitarian Advisers)
identifying creative strategies to facilitate relationships between WROs and Women Human Rights Defenders and political and security DMs

Area: In-country lobbying with host governments, conflict parties, and political parties

Tools and examples: Lobbying can focus on amplifying women’s voices and making the case for the importance of women’s inclusion in DM, for example in the design of peace processes, national laws, or policies and systems to promote changes supportive of women’s participation:

develop an HMG influencing strategy/core brief for WPP
communications strategy and strategic communications integrate a focus on women’s participation – e.g. access to briefing for women journalists and women’s organisations, visibility and support for women leaders across society
avoid deploying all male UK delegations to “lecture” DMs on women’s participation

Area: Leadership and support on women’s participation at the UN and other multilateral (ML) fora

Tools and examples: The UK can use its soft influence to continue to provide leadership and amplify messages towards formal and informal multilateral fora.

high level messages promoting women’s participation delivered in the UN Security Council, and in UK engagement with important multilateral fora for regional peace building efforts such as the AU, ECOWAS, IGAD, OCDE and NATO
invite WROs, women peacebuilders and organisations, women human rights defenders and other civil society representatives to informally brief the Security Council/other ML fora on their assessment of the situation and/or on how a particular peace operation is implementing commitments to women’s participation
when inviting women peacebuilders and civil society organisations to brief the UN Security Council/other ML fora, or to international conferences, apply Beyond Consultations good practice
show-case work and recognise female leaders and activists (in line with their wishes)
support the SG’s gender parity strategy, i.e. the nomination of greater number of women leaders in key multilateral positions, including in Peace Keeping Operations and Humanitarian Coordinator roles and in Envoy roles

Area: Defence diplomacy engagement (see Guidance on SO 2 for more detail)

Tools and examples:

advocate for partners that are Troop Contributing Countries and Police Contributing Countries (TCC and PCC) to increase the numbers of women that they deploy and encourage countries to join the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations, aimed at addressing barriers for women in uniform deployed into military and police roles in UN peacekeeping
during routine diplomatic and defence engagement, encourage partners to increase the number of female candidates nominated for UK-provided courses, and to highlight that the MOD requires that 15% of places on international Tier One UK-funded courses are reserved for international women officers
invitations to training courses can encourage applications from female candidates or set aside a minimum number of spaces for female participants as appropriate. Where numbers are low in a particular branch of the security services, the UK can encourage nominations of more junior female candidates with leadership potential or female candidates with potential to be re-trained in functions that will be deployed on peace operations^{[footnote 103]}

4.3.4. Stand-alone programming

Wherever possible, dedicated programming to support women’s participation in DM should be developed as part of HMG’s core peacebuilding and state building strategies.

Gender programmes with a focus on women’s political empowerment or advancing women’s leadership within institutions aim to shift structural barriers for women’s participation and create an enabling environment for gender equality. Stand-alone gender programmes should be designed with strong synergies into the broader HMG portfolio to avoid risks of being siloed. In order to deliver change at scale they need to be adequately resourced and take a long-term view to change.

Women’s political empowerment (WPE) programming can be designed as a dedicated component of broader peacebuilding and state building programmes, alongside mainstreaming approaches. In these programmes, WPP and empowerment are identified among the core objectives from the outset and are integrated into ToCs. They are resourced substantively during design and implementation. Funding to women’s organisations and networks working on WPS in FCAS can be designed as a stand-alone gender programme intervention or as a stand-alone component of broader peacebuilding and state-building programmes.

Box 11: Voices for Change: improving the enabling environment for adolescent girls and women in Nigeria (2012 to 2017)

Voices for Change (V4C) was an innovative, large-scale gender-transformative programme that aimed to strengthen the enabling environment for girls and women’s empowerment in Nigeria. The programme combined interventions at the individual, societal and structural level to support women and girls to make informed decisions and life choices and shift gender norms through a diffusion model, targeting influencers amongst young women and men, traditional leaders and religious leaders. V4C also implemented a digital campaign which promoted gender-equitable values for young people to aspire to. A large-scale, end-line study found that attitudes of young men and women towards women taking leadership roles and behaviours towards women’s DM in the household had improved.

The programme used social network theory to identify and engage key influencers – connected young people and custodians of social norms in society, such as religious and traditional leaders, to shift attitudes and behaviours including on women’s leadership. V4C supported the passing of two pieces of landmark legislation (full case study - Thinking and Working Politically for Legal Reform on Gender Equality). At the local level – mainly driven by participants to the programme themselves - a number of changes to both formal and informal institutional structures were noted. For example, changes in policy on women’s leadership in student bodies and institutionalising women leader’s participation in traditional leaders’ structures (case study - Traditional Leaders).

Clubs in tertiary education institutions and state level platforms for including women in politics supported broader movement building and advocacy, resulting in successful female candidatures for leadership positions in provincial parliaments and Unions. (source: based on DFID PCR 2017 and ITAD Legacy Outcome Paper 2017).

Box 12: Example of a Theory of Change (ToC) - FCDO Somalia SNAP programme (source: PCR 2021)

The Social Norms and Participation programme (SNAP) in Somalia worked with a UN Women and UNDP to support Somali WPP in elections and other political processes. At the same time, it worked with different INGOs to shift harmful social norms at the local level, working with community organisations. The ToC below shows how different strands of the programme were designed and interacted with other FCDO Somalia programmes to support women’s social, economic and political participation.

Infographic showing how different strands of the SNAP were designed and interacted with other FCDO Somalia programmes to support women’s social, economic and political participation.

Examples of integrating WPE components into peacebuilding and stability funding

Funding windows for women’s organisations Support structures for participation and influencing

In Myanmar, the Peace Fund supported a WPS window with core funding for WROs to support peacebuilding and reconciliation activities at the local level. The Gender Peace and Security (GPS) window was established in 2016 within the Paung Sie Facility as a targeted funding mechanism to support sub-national organisations seeking to promote gender equality and women’s rights in Myanmar. The GPS window has applied a three-pronged approach, including:

(1) Core funding provided to the selected organisations, covering staff salaries, office rental, flexible transportation, childcare support, office equipment and communications. (2) Organisational Development and technical support, to enhance organisations’ ‘institutional strength’ to plan and engage more effectively in and towards the peace process. (3) Strategy development aimed at helping partners define and develop their strategic orientation.

This three-pronged strategy contributed to increased self-confidence and capacity for organisations to engage and influence DM spaces. It enabled long-term strategic planning and sustainability, agenda setting and locally driven problem-led actions. Organisations improved their networking capabilities, strategic coalitions and recognition in civil society, in communities and in their own households. Increased voice and influence of GPS implementing partners was evident in their work through peacebuilding activities, engaging with legal and policy change, engaging with government bodies and DMs, responding to GBV survivors in their communities, contributing to social norms change and increasing the visibility and status of implementing partners, which shifted their ability to influence. (source: Learning Brief Paung Sie Facility^{[footnote 104]})

Women led early warning and conflict resolution

The FCDO-funded Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme created ‘Observatories’ in five states to gather and analyse data on VAWG, and established multi stakeholder Observatory Steering Committees (OBSTECs) in the same states. OBSTECS brought together government, CSOs and relevant administration that played a role in tackling violence. The advocacy undertaken by OBSTECs influenced response agencies (including Police, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Health) to review policies and practices on VAWG, leading to enhanced responses. The PCR found growing government ownership of the OBSTEC and Observatories influence on other donors. For example, USAID’s Reacting to Early Warning and Response Data in West Africa (REWARD) project used the Observatory model for data collection and analysis tools working with ECOWAS to enhance conflict early warning and response systems to reduce the risk of violence in 15 ECOWAS member states. (Source: PCR 2018).

Examples of integrating WPE components into political, governance, citizen engagement and institutional reform

Women as voters and elected women

Women’s engagement as agents of change at the grass-root level

The CSSF Pakistan’s Consolidating Democracy Programme included a central focus on WPP. The programme adopted multiple strategies operating at different levels targeting individual, collective and systemic change. Interventions included:

supporting policy changes and support for traditionally marginalised women to gain national identity cards and register to vote
support to Gender and Disability Working Groups to engage and influence the work of the Electoral Commission
civic education targeting women
support to coalition building and capacity building of women representatives in parliament

In the immediate run up to the 2018 elections, the CSSF programme also developed joint programming with the FCDO led AAWAZ programme which supported women as change agents in local communities to engage in local conflict mitigation and social accountability efforts. AAWAZ’ local Aagahi hubs -local citizen hubs for women and other marginalised groups – engaged local groups in delivering civic education campaigns for elections. The A4E research on Pakistan found that the “UK’s government’s support to democratic spaces, in both demand and supply side programming (such as the AAWAZ and CDIP programmes) has been valuable to generate support towards electoral reforms affording greater protection and inclusion of women voters, and generating capacity at the grass-root level for engaging in participatory processes”.^{[footnote 105]} (sources: CSSF reporting, PCR and A4E).

Women’s leadership

As part of its Programme for Democratic Change, FCDO Myanmar supported IFES’ flagship women’s leadership program, “She Leads”, which has trained women (including young women, women from conflict affected areas and IDP camps) through beginner, intermediate and advanced courses, as well as programs tailored for women from conflict communities in Shan and Kachin States. As a result of the program, “She Leads” alumnae developed formal and informal personal networks, increased their self-confidence and taken on leadership roles to advance WPP, taking on leadership roles as elected officials, local government leaders and advocates.

4.3.5. Mainstreaming women’s participation in decision-making across programmes and policy

All HMG staff should ensure that their initiatives and programmes include analysis and measures to support women to meaningfully participate in influencing DM. Mainstreaming interventions to support women’s participation can encompass a very wide range of practices. Key factors for successful mainstreaming are adequate resourcing of mainstreaming and the application of gender expertise in the design of interventions. It is important to combine mainstreaming at the level of interventions with a portfolio approach that identifies strategic priority areas for increasing women’s participation with dedicated stand-alone interventions.

No mainstreaming leads to women’s exclusion: design includes limited analysis of gender and power dynamics, and limited identification of barriers to women’s participation in DM. Status quo is accepted and reinforced.

Limited mainstreaming risks women’s tokenistic participation: the design stage recognises importance of women’s participation. Some provisions are made to increase participation, for example requirement that women are represented in all trainings and participate in meetings and committees. But there are no resources dedicated to actively address barriers that women face in accessing and influencing processes. Design ambitions to include women are not followed up or prioritised during implementation. M&E includes data on women’s numerical participation at best, but no qualitative analysis of changes in their influence over processes

Mainstreaming to support meaningful and representative participation in DM: mainstreaming approach actively identifies gender and power dynamics in DM at the design stage and dedicates resources to address barriers and pursue opportunities during implementation. Contextually informed strategies are designed and implemented. Progress is continually reviewed and interventions are adapted based on learning.

Tools for mainstreaming women’s participation in DM across programming and policy:

gender expertise to support the design and implementation of mainstreaming approaches. Where practitioners are seeking to implement gender training or gender transformative interventions, consider partnering with local WROs to deliver interventions, rather than delivering interventions with international consultants. This is both cost-effective and builds WROs networks and relationships with institutional actors
mainstreaming participatory approaches to DM. This can include gender criteria that provide for women’s participation in all DM processes supported by programmes and support structures to address barriers for women’s meaningful and representative participation
mainstreaming consultative elements into DM: Encourage quality consultations with diverse women and women’s groups to feed into DM processes. Where HMG practitioners support consultations to inform DM processes, apply principles identified in Beyond Consultation Tool to model good practice
systematic partnerships with formal and informal groups of women relevant to the sector are built and down-stream implementing partners are incentivised to develop partnerships with local groups of women, women’s organisations and women-led civil society. This can include, for example, earmarking part of broader funding support to civil society to WROs
mainstreaming support to women’s leadership in partner institutions. This can draw on approaches that have been applied in standalone programmes. For example, mainstreaming support to women leadership could include supporting networks of professional women, or networks of retired leaders that provide mentoring and peer-to-peer support. It could also include support to women’s participation in activities that could help advance their careers
pilot gender transformative interventions tackling gender norms and behaviours with key influencers and DMs (see social norms in evidence of interventions section 4.1). Design should be mindful of length and intensity required to deliver meaningful interventions that address social norms

In Eastern DRC, DFID implemented a large-scale Community Driven Reconstruction Programme, Tuungane, between 2007- 2016, reaching over 1000 villages and 2.6 million people with participatory implementation of local infrastructure and basic services. Design features included a requirement for gender parity in local development committees.

Towards the end of its implementation, the programme tested a small-scale gender pilot specifically targeting women and men leaders in committees to increase women’s influence in DM. Pilot activities included improving the leaders’ skills and tools for gender inclusive leadership by applying participatory social network analysis to identify DM spaces and appreciative inquiry techniques to identify diverse women’s needs. Confidence-building and networking between female leaders were facilitated. Activities were applied in two settings: with women leaders-only groups and with mixed leaders’ groups. The pilot suggested some promising results with higher levels of engagement and confidence reported by female leaders, although scale-up and rigorous testing was not possible due to the programme coming to an end. Randomized control trials studying short-term and long-term effects of the programme did not show impact of women’s participation in Tuungane supported committees on broader perceptions of gender roles. The RCT showed increased participation of women in other village committees, but the result was not statistically significant.

The findings of the gender pilot and impact evaluations suggest that in addition to promoting women’s physical representation in committees, programmes need to design and test complementary gender interventions to support women’s meaningful participation and transform their DM roles. Source: Based on PCR, IRC’s Gender Pilot Assessment 2016 and WB Policy Research Paper, Assessing the longer term impacts of community-driven development programs, 2020.

Considerations across programming and policy areas relevant to WPS

Peacekeeping:

increase women represented in leadership of civilian and Military Peace operations, and as part of TCC and PCC contingents
meaningful consultations with diverse WROs, WPS and civil society
consultations with women in communities with active PKs are done in line with good practice
document good practice through vignettes and scenarios used in pre-deployment training

The Guidance Note on SO 2 provides more detailed guidance on how to promote women’s leadership in peacekeeping

Gender-based violence:

mainstream interventions to prevent and respond to violence against politically active women, WHRD and WPBs into VAWG programming
support local WROs working on GBV to engage in DM processes to make voices of survivors heard (whilst respecting safeguarding and safety protocols)
support women-led early warning mechanisms that track data on violence against women

The Guidance Note on SO 3 provides more detailed guidance on how to design interventions to prevent and respond to VAWG

Humanitarian response:

AAP: Meaningful and representative women’s participation as part of Accountability for Affected Populations (AAP), Citizen Engagement and SEAH
localisation agenda: Representation and participation of local WROs and women-led CSOs in humanitarian architecture (Cluster system)
funding: Increase funding to WRO and women-led CSOs for implementation of response through humanitarian mechanisms
institutional: Support UN SG in ensuring parity in leadership in UN organisation leadership in the humanitarian architecture
protection: mainstream protection for WHRDs and women peacebuilders into protection frameworks

The Guidance Note on SO 4 provides more detailed guidance on engaging with the humanitarian system.

Security and justice:

funding to women groups engaging in security policy dialogues
support participation of diverse women in community level security management mechanisms
mitigating risks of women’s exclusion when working with male dominated traditional dispute resolution mechanisms by identifying pathways for women’s increased participation and influence in these mechanisms
promoting women’s career advancement within security sector institutions
mainstreaming prevention and responses to violence against political women, WHRD and women peacebuilders into interventions seeking to address VAWG

The Guidance Note on SO 5 provides more detailed guidance on engaging with the Security and Justice sector.

4.3.6. Monitoring and learning from interventions to promote women’s participation

Key considerations include:

focus on measuring changes in power relationships, not numbers of women who participated
promote participatory M&E methods and tools. Role model women’s meaningful and representative participation as part of the implementation of these tools. Use reviews, field visits and beneficiary feedback mechanisms, role model good practice for meaningful participation
use monitoring to support continued learning from interventions, applying methods that are suitable for adaptive programming, for example^{[footnote 106]}:
- outcome harvesting, outcome mapping, most significant change approaches that focus on measuring changes in relationships between stakeholders
- action research into changes in power dynamics
- peer researchers and peer monitors to highlight experiences of hard-to-reach groups of women (see box 13 on La Pépinière M&E working with peers)
- social network analysis and measuring changes in social norms to assess how power relationships evolve over time (see box 11 on V4C)
- combine quantitative and qualitative M&E approaches to measure changes
document and share learning systematically

Examples of indicators and tools for measuring women’s political participation:

Quantitative indicators:

number/% of women who are chair/co-chair or hold other influential roles in local committees
number/% of women in DM roles (parliament, cabinet, local government, senior levels of core institutions (finance, security), customary leadership
% women in local committees’ leadership
% of local committees where women’s membership is above 30%
of incidents of physical, sexual, psychological violence against women participating in DM.
and type of security incidents involving WHRDs
postings with online harassment, abuse and bullying against politically-active women

Perception indicators for women’s influence:

% of women who feel that decision-makers are addressing their concerns
% of women who feel that they can influence decision makers

Indicators measuring broader shifts/enabling environment alongside political participation (indirect measures):

women’s DM autonomy
women’s participation and influence in the household and community DM
changes in men and women’s division of labour, women’s ability to access and control assets

Social norms indicators^{[footnote 107]}

Norm = Dominant expectation (or rule) of behaviour shared within a cultural or social group). Indicators should aim to measure an individual’s perception of how common the behaviour is, the behaviour, factors influencing the behaviour and the sanctions or rewards driving the norm.

Examples:

% of respondents who practice X behaviour (e.g. women do not speak in public)
% of respondents who think that X behaviour should stop in their communities
% of respondents who believe that X norm still holds
% of respondents who think that most people support X behaviour in their community/and believe that X norm still holds
% of respondents who can identify negative consequences for abandoning X behaviour

Stereotype = a widely held expectation about a group’s personality, attitudes and behaviour (e.g. women are less dominant than men).

Example of measuring attitudes:

% of men/women who believe men make better leaders
% of women who feel they are able to express political opinions without fear

Systematic disaggregation of quantitative data by socio-economic status, rural/urban, minority status – religion, ethnicity (if feasible from a protection perspective), disability status, or other categories relevant to the context:

Qualitative:

document stories of change: e.g. change in practices, or informal polices. Most significant change techniques involve selecting change stories that appear most significant through rigorous processes and feeding information back to the local level
qualitative tools to track the quality of collective efforts towards advancing specific reforms, e.g. scales measuring progress on policy reforms)
record and track women’s inputs in DM meetings, and analyse information to identify blockages or improvements. Qualitative analysis of the extent to which outcomes of decisions reflect priorities raised by women (for example analysis of gender sensitive provisions in peace agreements, analysis of implementation of gender-sensitive provisions compared to other provisions)
vignettes and case studies

Box 14: Case study: Peer-to-peer led M&E

In the DRC, La Pépinière trained girls as peer researchers to identify the key barriers and opportunities for girls’ empowerment in Kinshasa. The peer researchers were involved in the design of pilot projects to support girls’ empowerment. The M&E system for the pilot projects applied a range of quantitative and qualitative strategies. The peer researchers conducted regular interviews with the pilot participants to collect M&E data. Analysis found that the participatory process involving peers was effective in gathering M&E information that would normally remain hidden from monitors.

The peer-to-peer M&E strategy could also be explored as a gender transformative strategy as participants reportedly experienced the peer-monitors as empowered and empowering role models to aspire to. Recognising these benefits, young women trained as peer monitors were engaged by other donors to conduct monitoring of activities with adolescent girls and young women in Kinshasa. Source: Discussions with project participants.

4.3.7. Identifying and managing risks^{[footnote 108]}

It is crucial to identify and mitigate risks when implementing interventions to support women’s participation in DM. Risks are context specific, but the table below outlines some common risks and examples of mitigating actions.

Risk: Key stakeholders – such as political and traditional leaders, influential family members– oppose women’s participation in DM.