First Annual Conference of Women in Peacebuilding Network

War is no longer an abstract phenomenon in Africa. Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Liberia have made wars very real occurrences. They have given us insights into the lives and sufferings of the people in these countries and brought a realization that intrastate violent conflicts and wars might be the destruction of Africa. These wars also showed that women and children suffer the worst atrocities during wartime.

But most importantly as it relates to women, the wars revealed a new type of African woman. In the past the belief was that in violent conflicts and wars men fought to protect women and children who stayed at home. Though it is true that overwhelmingly it is men who wage wars, the wars in our region show that women kept their traditional roles of nurturers and supporters and still took up arms as soldiers and combatants destroying the ascribed gender roles of men as the protectors and women the protected.

Even in the rare cases where men were available to the household, gender ideologies put a disproportionate burden of reproductive work on women. Women were left behind with the burden of providing for their immediate and extended families. Lack of basic services such as health, education and infrastructure further undermine the ability of women to provide for their dependents in these situations. Apart from their domestic responsibility, in conflict times as in peacetime, women must personally cope with menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and childcare, often times while running from danger or in hiding.

Moreover, with the targeting of women and girls as a tactic of war, many become victims of rape, non-sexual assault, and atrocities such as the evisceration of pregnant females. The use of rape as a weapon of war also indicates that there is a unique type of battle that women face within a war. They are the "violated during the violation, the victims of the victimization, the captured of the captors." This was clearly evident in Sierra Leone where there were reports that unaccompanied girls are often captured by combatants and civilian men alike and used either as forced labourers by families in need of domestic workers or as 'wives'. Women and girls must also cope with little or no support system with unwanted pregnancies and raise children from acts of rape.

Severely ostracised, these women and girls are forced to leave their homes for the relative safety of refugee camps. But the violation continues in these camps where women willingly or unwillingly use the only commodity they know to feed themselves and their families.

So, women have these terrible experiences during wartime, what about peacetime? During a recent workshop WANEP organised for women in Monrovia, Liberia. Liberian women analysing the history of their conflict, stated that women had not been living in peace long before the violence started, as they were exposed to different forms of violence at home, work, church and mosque. These women defined violence as "the harm/injury to the person and personhood of an individual".

To them, violence against the personhood of women is worse than physical violence, which they have learned to endure. These opinions are not unique to Liberian women; Thandi Modise an MP in South Africa states it clearly, "What is peace? When we demand peace, we should be clear about what exactly we mean". Christian and Muslim women in Kaduna, where Shariah is practiced, say it is the use of religion as an oppressive tool against women and not religion itself that is a problem.

These examples clearly illustrate that women perceptions of peace, violence and conflict if thoroughly examined would be different from men. What is clear is that because of the prevalence of Patriarchy women have to negotiate a peace in the midst of structural violence where women are often marginalized in all levels of decision-making and often women are viewed as not making valuable contribution to society, as a result the education of girls and women is still not a priority in many rural communities.

Prior to the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, opportunities for women and girls were limited at best, at worst non-existent, particularly in rural areas. The Human Development Report, 1997 showed that Sierra Leone's female literacy rate, for example, was a disturbing 16.7% in 1994 compared to 43.7% for males.

The importance of this type of data is that it highlights that women are second-class citizens and not living in what is now known as "just peace". This second-class citizen status worsens the treatment of women during violent conflicts and wars. "A person who is a nobody when the going is good becomes less that a nonentity when the going gets bad." Thus, studying the role of women in peacebuilding has to begin with an analysis of women's roles at pre violence stages through to the post conflict stages. Like the pre conflict stage, the post conflict stage holds key questions for women; Will the emerging political system recognize and protect women's rights and interests? And will women be enabled to influence and participate in the political processes?

The peacebuilding field is growing and there are ongoing attempts to answer these and other questions through practical analysis. Alongside this growth, is a new consciousness in West Africa and Africa, which aims to ensure that the mistakes of the recent past are not repeated? Part of this new consciousness necessitates that the relationships, interactions and hierarchies between men and women need to be examined, with a view to identifying the effect of these on conflict.

The enduring question seems to be why focus on the women? The answer remains that women have unique experiences and needs in peace and conflict so arguably there needs to be a unique response addressing those needs and experiences. Also, there are many examples of how women have made constructive contributions to peacebuilding when given the chance, e.g. in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan where women took up intermediary roles between warring factions.

Furthermore, there is a climate in the international community for the inclusion of women in peacebuilding, the United Nations has developed resolutions aimed at women, the landmark UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace & security is an example of such resolutions. The belief is that the adoption and implementation of this resolution would put women's issues in conflict prevention on the international agenda.

It is this realization that ushered WANEP launch its women in peacebuilding program. WANEP conceptualized the program asking key questions;

1. What exists in society in peacetime that makes women the target for inhuman violence during wartime?
2. If women suffer disproportionately during violent conflicts and wars, why are their voices not heard in peace processes?
3. What values do women possess that can improve peacebuilding in the region?

The program in its maiden 12 months has provided practical proof reaffirming the importance of asking these questions and creating a space for women to answer them themselves. It is against this backdrop that WANEP, in collaboration with its partners, Oxfam America and the Catholic Relief Services are organising this Annual Conference. Conference Goals: 1. Lessons learned and reflections on Women in Peacebuilding 2. Raise awareness of international bodies about WIPNET and examine avenues for partnership on women's initiatives in Africa 3. Forum on topical issues affecting women, peace and security.

Participants:
Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Mali, Tchad, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Kenya and London.