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# AFRICA BUREAU FRAGILE STATES FRAMEWORK GENDER ISSUES AND BEST PRACTICE EXAMPLES 

**Summer Seminar Series -- Gender and Conflict in Africa, August 30,
2005**

Sponsored by USAID/Africa Bureau

Session Organizer: Afia Zakiya, AFR Gender Advisor

Research Presentation on Best Practices and Lessons Learned by Alice
Morton and Jackie Vavra, Management Systems International

Excerpt from: Africa Bureau Fragile States Framework: Gender Issues and
Best Practice Examples

+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
|          | GENDER ISSUES         | BEST PRACTICES                    |
+==========+=======================+===================================+
| SO 1:    |                       |                                   |
| AVERT    |                       |                                   |
| AND      |                       |                                   |
| RESOLVE  |                       |                                   |
| CONFLICT |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| 1.1      |                       |                                   |
| Peace    |                       |                                   |
| P        |                       |                                   |
| rocesses |                       |                                   |
| S        |                       |                                   |
| upported |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
|          | Men and women have    | Practices that build upon new and |
|          | unequal access to     | traditional roles of men and      |
|          | peace dialogues,      | women where both groups are       |
|          | decision-making       | engaged in peace processes and    |
|          | ability and power to  | resolving conflict across ethnic, |
|          | shape forums designed | class, age, and other variables   |
|          | to avert or resolve   |                                   |
|          | conflict, including   |                                   |
|          | mobilizing            |                                   |
|          | constituencies for    |                                   |
|          | peace, negotiating    |                                   |
|          | peace agreements or   |                                   |
|          | to design, monitor    |                                   |
|          | and evaluate peace    |                                   |
|          | treaties and accords  |                                   |
|          | where new resource    |                                   |
|          | distributions,        |                                   |
|          | leadership roles or   |                                   |
|          | other social change   |                                   |
|          | dynamics are agreed.  |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| a\)      | Identify traditional  | **Rural Women's Peace Initiative  |
| Consti   | and emerging women    | Liberia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau,  |
| tuencies | leaders to mobilize   | and Cote d'Ivoire**---Strengthens |
| for      | constituencies of all | women's capacity to act in        |
| peace    | types                 | conflict resolution and           |
| m        |                       | peace-building                    |
| obilized |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| b\)      | Include women         | **All-Party Burundi Women's Peace |
| Peace    | stakeholders and      | Conference**---At Burundi Peace   |
| ag       | other affected        | Negotiations 50 Burundian w omen  |
| reements | parties to conflict   | presented common vision for peace |
|          | in informal and       | and reconciliation; 19            |
| ne       | formal negotiations   | recommendations were included in  |
| gotiated |                       | final peace accord                |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| c\)      | Involve traditional   | **Great Lakes Women's Peace       |
| Peace    | and emerging          | Program Burundi**---Women from    |
| implem   | CSOs/NGOs, networks   | varying ethnic and social         |
| entation | to plan               | backgrounds share vision of peace |
| planning | implementation of     | and regional neighborliness.      |
| and      | peace accords         |                                   |
| mo       |                       |                                   |
| nitoring |                       |                                   |
| done     |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| d\)      | Differentiate between | **Northern Uganda**---Women's     |
| yYouth   | needs and roles of    | groups working with others to     |
| reached  | young women and men,  | revive cultural institutions and  |
| to       | girls and boys        | prepare the community for         |
| renounce | (inclusion,           | reconciliation and re-integration |
| violence | education, jobs,      | through local institutions. Hold  |
| and      | shelter, psychosocial | prayer meetings, do peace         |
| par      | support and           | education, build community        |
| ticipate | reintegration)        | support & respect through song,   |
| pe       |                       | proverbs poetry and story         |
| acefully |                       | telling.                          |
| in       |                       |                                   |
| politics |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| f\)      | Female and young      | **West Africa Network for Peace,  |
| I        | ex-combatants and     | Women in Peace-building Network   |
| nclusive | non-combatants,       | (WIPNET)---**Explores roles of    |
| consti   | especially those who  | women at different stages of      |
| tutional | did not win, rarely   | conflicts, to enable them to move |
| dev      | participate in        | from image of "helpless           |
| elopment | constitutional or     | victim-hood" to more assertive    |
| su       | other legislative     | image of stakeholders and active  |
| ppoerted | drafting              | participants pursuing just peace  |
|          |                       | in their communities.             |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| 1.2      |                       |                                   |
| African  |                       |                                   |
| con      |                       |                                   |
| flict-mi |                       |                                   |
| tigation |                       |                                   |
| capacity |                       |                                   |
| re       |                       |                                   |
| inforced |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| a\)      | Sex, age, class,      | **UN General Assembly Follow-up   |
| Roots of | caste, and            | to the Beijing Platform for       |
| Conflict | ethnic-based access   | Action (June 2000)---**"address   |
| A        | to assets delineated, | the root causes of armed conflict |
| ddressed | including poverty     | in a comprehensive and durable    |
|          | assessment            | manner...the difference in the    |
|          | criteria/indicators   | impact of armed conflict on women |
|          | and political         | and men, and take them into       |
|          | inclusion/exclusion   | account in the relevant policies  |
|          | measures pre          | and programmes... and empower     |
|          | conflict, during      | women ...as stabilizing factors   |
|          | conflict, and post    | in conflict and post-conflict     |
|          | conflict              | situations."                      |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| b\)      | Participatory,        | **People Oriented Planning        |
| R        | inclusive research    | (UNHCR)---**framework used for    |
| esearch, | methods employed,     | gender analysis in refugee        |
| analysis | using women and       | situations. POP's critical        |
| on       | youth, socially       | element is "activities analysis", |
| conflict | excluded categories   | asking questions about what       |
| triggers | as designers,         | people did before the conflict    |
| done and | researchers, and      | erupted, during the conflict, and |
| inf      | analysts if necessary | what they were able to do or must |
| ormation | for own social        | do post conflict. Includes        |
| diss     | groups; disseminate   | economic, social, political and   |
| eminated | results at local and  | religious activities, household   |
|          | national levels as    | production activities.            |
|          | well as to donors,    |                                   |
|          | NGOs, etc., through   |                                   |
|          | media that reach      |                                   |
|          | women, girls, and     |                                   |
|          | young men.            |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| c\) Land | Traditional land      | **Mozambique**---Post 1992 Peace  |
| issues   | redistribution        | Agreement, five-million           |
| addres   | methods can be used   | Mozambicans returned to their     |
| sed/land | successfully pre and  | villages within two years. Some   |
| reforms  | post conflict, if     | 500,000 land transactions took    |
| carried  | requirement to        | place, all carried out at local   |
| out      | include all           | level by local and/or traditional |
|          | ex-combatants,        | authorities using indigenous      |
|          | non-combatants (IDPs, | knowledge and local capacity.     |
|          | soldiers' female      |                                   |
|          | dependents, single    |                                   |
|          | women, and widows)    |                                   |
|          | are made clear and    |                                   |
|          | redistribution        |                                   |
|          | accounts for those    |                                   |
|          | currently occupying   |                                   |
|          | the land              |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| SO 2:    |                       |                                   |
| CRISES   |                       |                                   |
| MANAGED  |                       |                                   |
| AND      |                       |                                   |
| ST       |                       |                                   |
| ABILITY, |                       |                                   |
| R        |                       |                                   |
| ECOVERY, |                       |                                   |
| AND      |                       |                                   |
| REFORM   |                       |                                   |
| PROMOTED |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| 2.1      |                       |                                   |
| Persons  |                       |                                   |
| rein     |                       |                                   |
| tegrated |                       |                                   |
| into     |                       |                                   |
| c        |                       |                                   |
| onflict- |                       |                                   |
| affected |                       |                                   |
| com      |                       |                                   |
| munities |                       |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| a\)      | DDR programs often    | **Sierra Leone**---The Luawa      |
| Tran     | ignore women          | Skills Training Center, the       |
| sitional | ex-combatants,        | Women's Progressive Movement and  |
| int      | combatants' wives,    | Caritas-Makeni have been          |
| egration | war widows; women     | innovative in their efforts. LSTC |
| imp      | soldiers and other    | now has 120 members and serves as |
| lemented | military women will   | a reintegration program assisting |
|          | differ in their       | women abductees, ex-combatants    |
|          | ability to cope with  | and victims to live               |
|          | civilian life just as | independently. It offers training |
|          | will militarized men, | courses, and other benefits.      |
|          | based on their        | UNICEF/USAID provide training     |
|          | capacities and        | centers offering mothers          |
|          | experiences and views | childcare and food, combining     |
|          | on the legitimacy of  | vocational training and basic     |
|          | violence to achieve   | literacy and numeracy.            |
|          | political and         | Non-traditional trades are        |
|          | economic goals. If    | taught\--welding, carpentry and   |
|          | demobilization is     | house building\-- that together   |
|          | voluntary or phased,  | are critical in facilitating      |
|          | women are more often  | women's adjustment to civilian    |
|          | instantly dismissed   | life.                             |
|          | than are men, so they |                                   |
|          | are not classed as    |                                   |
|          | veterans n or receive |                                   |
|          | benefit packages.     |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| b\)      | Refugees are covered  | **Sudan**---Mercy Corps program   |
| Ex-com   | by international      | to introduce fuel-efficient       |
| batants, | conventions and       | stoves, to shorten time spent by  |
| refugees | organizations, and    | women outside the camp perimeter  |
| and IDPs | are more likely than  | gathering wood.                   |
| rein     | IDPs to receive care  |                                   |
| tegrated | and maintenance.      | **Burundi**---Search for Common   |
|          | Women and young girls | Ground helped start the Women's   |
|          | in camps of either    | Peace Center to include women as  |
|          | kind are more         | key players in the process of     |
|          | vulnerable to         | ethnic reconciliation.            |
|          | physical and sexual   | Initiatives to help reconcile     |
|          | abuse, involuntary    | women IDPs with their former      |
|          | labor, and attack by  | neighbors during reintegration    |
|          | internal and external | through visits, roundtables,      |
|          | military and guards.  | discussion sessions and workshops |
|          | They should be        |                                   |
|          | included in all       |                                   |
|          | governance            |                                   |
|          | structures, and       |                                   |
|          | receive special       |                                   |
|          | protection and rights |                                   |
|          | of redress against    |                                   |
|          | gender-based violence |                                   |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| c\)      | Women non-combatants  | **Uganda**---Campaigns to         |
| C        | (and ex-combatants)   | advocate for abducted people      |
| onflict- | and youth are rarely  | build recognition and programming |
| affected | involved in           | for them during peace             |
| pop      | first-track           | negotiations                      |
| ulations | negotiations though   |                                   |
| included | may have been as or   | **Rwanda**---Women's              |
| in       | more adversely        | organizations collaborated with   |
| p        | affected by the       | Ministry of Gender and WID to     |
| olitical | conflict, flight,     | create unique opportunities for   |
| p        | displacement and      | lobbying on gender issues,        |
| rocesses | victimization as      | getting gender issues on the      |
|          | adult men. Child      | national agenda, including        |
|          | ex-soldiers are often | changes to property laws,         |
|          | least included and    | incorporation of gender in        |
|          | left to rely on       | decentralization process and      |
|          | criminality and       | increase in number of women in    |
|          | commercial sex work   | public policy positions.          |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+
| d\)      | Women, unmarried      | **Ethiopia and Eritrea**---UNFPA  |
| Capacity | girls, ex-child       | and UNAIDS developed training     |
| to       | soldiers, dependents  | program for ex-military to        |
| respond  | of military, and      | increase own awareness of         |
| to       | women ex-combatants,  | HIV/AIDS and to become health     |
| specific | IDPs are all likely   | workers.                          |
| health   | to have incurred      |                                   |
| concerns | higher risk of        | **DRC**---Government and          |
| of       | transmission of       | insurgent health personnel, NGOs  |
| persons  | HIV/AIDS, to have     | and UN and other donors mapped    |
| affected | high risk             | out a unique minimum package of   |
| by       | pregnancies, high     | services designed for war         |
| conflict | morbidity and         | conditions and aimed at quickly   |
| i        | mortality rates, and  | reducing avoidable deaths.        |
| ncreased | chronic but           | Includes 30 actions to be taken   |
|          | preventable illnesses | in health zones in crisis         |
|          |                       | directed at malaria, measles,     |
|          |                       | diarrhea-related diseases, acute  |
|          |                       | respiratory infections,           |
|          |                       | malnutrition, pregnancy-related   |
|          |                       | problems, and HIV/TB              |
+----------+-----------------------+-----------------------------------+