Post #4769

Involving women in peace deals reduces chance of a conflict restarting by up to 37% Twenty-five years ago, on October 31, 2000, the United Nations unanimously adopted its landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 (WPS 1325). The resolution on women, peace and security reaffirmed "the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction." It also stressed the "importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security." The significance of women to building sustainable peace is undeniable. Our research has found that, on average, the incorporation of measures to include women in post-conflict society in a peace agreement reduces the probability of conflict recurrence by 11%. Even more significantly, if this process occurs alongside UN leadership, the probability of conflict recurrence is reduced by 37%. So the anniversary of WPS 1325 should be a reason to celebrate. Instead, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, opened his report to the Security Council's annual debate on women, peace and security on October 6 with a warning. Guterres said the UN too often "falls short when it comes to real change in the lives of women and girls caught in conflict." He specifically noted the lack of inclusion of women in peace negotiations, the failure to protect women and girls from sexual violence, and the underfunding of women peacebuilders. Over the past 25 years, the Security Council has adopted almost 1,000 resolutions related to WPS 1325. In 2015, Resolution 2242 aimed for the more systematic integration of the women, peace and security agenda into "all country-specific situations on the Security Council's agenda." To facilitate this, the UN Security Council set up an informal group of experts. There is no doubt that the women, peace and security agenda has had a positive impact. Guterres noted that "gender provisions in peace agreements have become more common, and women's organizations have helped transform post-conflict recovery and reconciliation in communities worldwide." He declared that "women-led civil society and women peace builders … are the drivers behind holistic and sustainable peace." Yet according to a UN Women survey in early 2025, global cuts to foreign aid budgets make it harder for women to make these vital contributions to peace and security. The situation is similarly challenging for UN peacekeeping. The cumulative budget shortfall in mid-2025 stood at almost US$2.7 billion (£2.04 billion), with the US, China and Russia the three largest debtors. Despite a significant decrease over the past decade in the peacekeeping budget from US$8.4 billion in 2014-15 to US$5.2 billion in 2024-25, the share of unpaid contributions has more than tripled from 13% to 41% over the same period. If these two trends persist, the prospects for sustainable conflict resolution will dramatically diminish. Women as peacebuilders Aiming to explore how to prevent civil wars from recurring, we analyzed 14 protracted peace processes in recurrent civil wars. This analysis revealed that the UN, working with local women's organizations, was able to create and sustain multi-level coalitions committed to concluding, maintaining and implementing peace accords. We then tested these findings statistically against 286 agreements concluded in violent conflicts worldwide. This confirmed that—together—UN leadership and the inclusion of women in post-conflict society significantly increase the odds of a peace agreement surviving for more than five years. Finally, we conducted in-depth case studies of peace processes in the Bangsamoro region in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, as well as in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone. This enabled us to establish how the UN and women-led organizations are able to help prevent civil wars from recurring. Source:Phys.org @EverythingScience