Blogs & Opinions

How the Women, Peace and Security Agenda Must Change in Response to the Climate Crisis

Dec 3, 2020 | Carol Cohn and Claire Duncanson

The 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in October this year has been an occasion of reflection for feminist peace activists around the world. What has…

Women, Peace, and Security: This Is How We Win

Nov 29, 2020 | Kelley E. Curie

Brave women, stepping forward and refusing to be ignored, have been critical to shifting the trajectory of ... threats to international peace and security.

This idea — that women’s…

Women, Peace and Security in Cameroon: The Missing Voices of the Anglophone Crisis

Nov 27, 2020 | Corinne Aurelie Moussi

The 21st century has been marked by growing calls to promote the inclusion and participation of women in peace processes as well as recognise their unique…

Can Promotion Groups Help Strengthen Women’s Access and Control over Land?

Nov 24, 2020 | Ibrahima Dia

In Senegal, women’s ‘promotion groups’ have traditionally been vehicles for helping women share resources, ideas and experiences to increase income. But they are also –…

Integrate Gender When Designing Climate Policy

Nov 16, 2020 | Mara Dolon and Jessica Olson

The team of people tasked with coordinating the global climate change negotiations for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021, we recently learned, consists…

Masculinity Is the Unspoken Undercurrent in Trumpism and the Fracking Debate

Nov 16, 2020 | Zack Rearick

Deindustrialization emasculates. It hits at men’s pride and devalues a kind of blue-collar physicality that has traditionally been revered (glorified in culture) and rewarded (paid…

Will Bangladesh Ever See An End To Gender-Based Violence?

Nov 16, 2020 | Rosie Pasqualino

Acid and dowry-based attacks have been particularly prominent in the country, though sexual, physical, psychological and economic abuse has been recognized as forms of abuse…

In the Caribbean, Climate Change Is a Gender Issue

Nov 16, 2020

Caribbean countries are vulnerable to climate change and its impacts, including rising sea levels, extreme and unpredictable weather (including natural disasters), drought and flooding, biodiversity…

Protecting Women with More than Words

Nov 2, 2020 | Margot Wallström and Dan Smith

While the global conversation about protecting women and girls has improved in the 20 years since the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution…

South Sudanese Women on the Move: Their Roles in Conflict and Peacebuilding

Nov 2, 2020 | Marisa O. Esnor

Enduring violence, climate change and other environmental crises force people in South Sudan to flee their home towns. Women and girls face gender-specific challenges and…

How to Build a More Equal World

Oct 26, 2020 | Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Just as the World Health Organization identified COVID-19 as a pandemic, UN Women launched our analysis of the global status of women’s rights, showing limited…

Exploring Gender Inequality in Yemen

Oct 13, 2020 | Lily Jones

Due to structural inequalities, women and girls cannot easily access essential services in Yemen, such as education. The effect of this limited access is poor…

COVID-19 Recovery - A Missed Opportunity to Fight Climate Change and Gender Inequality?

Oct 13, 2020 | Sven Harmerling

There is a real risk that women will not be able to take advantage of new green jobs as countries overlook gender in pandemic stimulus.COVID-19…

World Leaders Should Champion Gender Equality

Oct 13, 2020 | Nisha Varia

Women’s rights, including the right to live free from violence or to make decisions about their own bodies, are in the crosshairs of reactionary forces…

Why Are North & South India so Different on Gender?

Oct 13, 2020 | Alice Evans

Everyone knows that Southern and Northern India are very different in culture, language and socio-economic development. But the most dramatic regional disparity may be in…

Gender, Climate and Security in Latin America and the Caribbean: From Diagnostics to Solutions

Oct 6, 2020 | Adriana Erthal Abdenur

Women in the region suffer disproportionately from climate impacts, but they also play an essential role in addressing climate change. With the right policy responses,…

How Localization Supports Practical Solutions for Women, Peace, and Security

Oct 1, 2020 | Nanako Tamaru and Mirsad “Miki” Jacevic
CDA

This week marks the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) which is the first of eleven resolutions that comprise the Women, Peace, and Security…

Gender Equality is Important to Building Resilience and Peace during Disasters and Conflict

Sep 28, 2020 | Cindy Zhou

Conflict and natural disasters are often correlated: approximately 58 percent of deaths related to natural hazards take place in the world’s 30 most fragile states. 

Women, Peace and Security as Evolving and Contested Terrain: A Review of New Directions

Sep 28, 2020 | Aiko Holvikivi and Sarah Smith

In the WPS agenda’s twentieth anniversary year, New Directions brings academics, practitioners and activists into conversation in a book that demonstrates the evolutionary breadth and depth of…

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Ukraine: An Opportunity for Gender-Sensitive Policymaking?

Sep 18, 2020 | Kateryna Busol

The stigma of CRSV, the patchy domestic legislation, and the unpreparedness of the criminal justice system to deal with such cases prevent the authorities from…

The Global Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Girls

Sep 16, 2020 | Hannah Chosid

“As we face a global pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 800,000 people as of right now around the world, we certainly…

Biometrics Could Give More Vivid Picture of Woman’s Workload

Sep 8, 2020 | Allison Floyd

Asking a busy woman to report her daily activities can give researchers insight into how she spends her limited time and whether child-care and other…

Loss and Damage in Rwanda: A Young Climate Activist Reports

Sep 3, 2020 | Ineza Umuhoza Grace

On 8 September 2020, IIED and ICCCAD are hosting a webinar on climate-related loss and damage in the least developed countries. Here one of the speakers,…

More Justice, Less Violence Related to Gender

Sep 1, 2020 | Simone Eggler

Although 25 years have passed since the World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, violence against women worldwide is still at alarming levels. Even…

1325: Rhetoric or Reality?

Sep 1, 2020 | Ndeye Sow and Gemma Kelly

Working on Women Peace & Security (WPS) issues since the 1990s, International Alert was directly involved in the global advocacy campaign “From the Village to…

Foundations for Gender Inclusive Peacebuilding

Sep 1, 2020 | Abiosseh Davis

Through years of programming experience in post-conflict contexts, Interpeace has learned first-hand that inclusion, particularly of marginalized and historically excluded groups, is fundamental for the…

Expert's Take: Four Lessons from COVID-19 that Should Shape Policy Decisions Everywhere

Aug 28, 2020 | Laura Turquet

All crises have gendered impacts – simply put, they affect women and men, girls and boys in different ways. COVID-19 is no different. Six months…

Ideas for How to Break Gender Barriers in Colombia's Water Sector

Aug 28, 2020 | Karen Navarro

The relationship between water and women does not come only from mythology. Since ancestral times, women have been responsible for managing water in communities, particularly…

Why Are Women Experts ‘Absent’ From Panels on War & Security?

Aug 27, 2020 | Ruhee Neog

In Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, an Athenian magistrate demands of an assembly of women: “And where do you get off taking an interest in war and peace?” The play, set…

COVID-19 Exacerbates the Effects of Water Shortages on Women in Yemen

Aug 20, 2020 | Margaret Habib

The UN estimates that gender-based violence (GBV) has affected 33 percent of women worldwide. In Yemen, GBV has increased by 63 percent since the start of the civil war.…