BACKGROUND

The Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) was established in 1997 by of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) as its women’s wing to promote women is increased and effective involvement in the peace movement WPP has since worked to increase the capacity of women through active nonviolence to promote a culture of peace throughout the world.

The commitment of the Women Peacemakers Program is to

• increase women’s involvement in peace building with specific emphasis on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325
• actively contribute to self-reliant and sustainable women’s organizations
• make women peace activists’ voices heard, by documenting their work
• engender the peace movement, mainly by mainstreaming gender within the peace movement

The overall objective of the WPP is to empower women peacemakers and activists through active nonviolence throughout the world. Thus, it has a history of strengthening women’s peacemaking initiatives, and encouraging women and girls to become involved in peace building and in building civil society for development. To this end, it has been organizing Gender and Non Violence trainings and other activities for women from different parts of the world. These women go back to replicate the skills gained in their home countries. Until 2007, the activities were usually coordinated from the international secretariat (IS) in the Netherlands. As demand for the trainings increased, WPP decided to decentralize in order to reach out to more people around the world. A decentralization process put in place in 2005 resulted in the establishment of the WPP Africa Desk in June 2007 and is currently being hosted in Ghana by the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP).

WPP AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM

The Africa Desk of the Women Peacemakers Program coordinates the Network of African women peacemakers who are engaged in gender sensitive active non violent initiatives to transform societies for peace. The Africa Desk of Women Pacemakers program envisions a continent where African women Peacemakers are actively engaged in gender sensitive active non violence to transform societies. Inspired by its motto “African women Redefining Peace”, the Desk seeks to showcase Africa as a beacon for peaceful coexistence. Its main goal is to empower African women to pursue sustainable peace. It is therefore mandated to build the capacities of African women to promote gender sensitive active nonviolence as a way of life. The strategic goals of the Desk include

• Capacity building through Gender and Active violence Education and Training
• Facilitating networking and coalition building among African women peacemakers for advocacy and lobbying
• Document and disseminate information on the work of African women peacemakers to enhance visibility
• Offer financial and mentorship support to women CSOs to promote Gender Sensitive Active Nonviolence.
• Strengthen collaboration between other continental programs and stakeholders for exchange of information, and experience sharing.

WHAT WE DO

The empowerment process is done through initiating activities around active nonviolence to provide women with skills and analysis to increase social mobilization, resolve conflicts peacefully, and develop “people power” i.e. the capacity of marginalized sections of society to demand an effective change emphasizing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 to empower women peacemakers.
The Desk also facilitates alliance building, networking and advocacy among women peacemakers as well as offering financial, moral support and guidance for grassroots women-led CSOs to promote active non-violence in their various communities. It also seeks to document and disseminate information to increase visibility of Africa Women Peacemakers. In addition, the Desk collaborates with other stakeholders and its counterpart in Asia for exchange and sharing of best practices.

WHERE WE ARE

During one year of its existence, the WPP Africa Desk has managed to build partnerships with 32 women from grassroots organizations in eight (8) countries in the Greater Horn of Africa and Central Africa where there is dire need for the empowerment of women due to the conflict situation in those countries. These countries include Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. The focus has been on mid-level women in grassroots civil society organizations, which are in a good position to spread the knowledge and skills learned in WPP trainings to the grassroots, and to policymakers.

The Desk has set up WPP networks in these countries and is working closely with them to promote Gender sensitive active nonviolence through nonviolence education trainings in their various countries.

As a way of investing in the future to ensure sustainability, the Desk promotes the capacity building of young African women peace activists through an international orientation and internship program. Two young women peace activists from Kenya and Madagascar were sponsored to India on an internship program with our Asian counterpart. This program offered opportunity for skills and experience sharing to familiarize them with critical international issues in conflict resolution, development, human rights and gender awareness from other continents.

By way of supporting CSOs to promote Gender sensitive active nonviolence in their countries, mentorship support was provided for trainings in Eritrea, Uganda and Kenya. Plans are in place to reach out to other countries in other regions of Africa in due course.

In seeking to fulfill the global strategy for the promotion of gender equality as enjoined in the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) the Africa Desk of WPP is collaborating with IFOR International Secretariat to hold a training for the leadership of IFOR Branches, Groups and affiliates across Africa to help them develop gender policies and action plans to help mainstream gender in their various organizations.
The first of these workshops which has been planned to coincide with the Launch of the Desk brings together 22 participants from 13 (both Anglophone and Francophone) countries.

LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE

Gender equality is essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By contributing to women’s empowerment, and by building the capacity of peace CSOs in gender-sensitive peacebuilding, the Africa Desk directly contributes to Goal 3 of the MDGs, which calls upon nations to “promote gender equality and empower women”. We believe that without the participation of women there is no sustainable peace, and without peace, there is no development.

We are convinced that supporting African women to arise and be involved in peacebuilding initiatives and at the negotiation tables as critical actors will in the long term reduce considerably the incidence of violent conflicts on the continent.

By 2011, the Africa Desk of WPP will contribute directly to building a strong civil society and more sustainable peace building by supporting African women peace activists and CSOs.
The main thrust of WPP Africa Desk is to increase the number of African women involved in non-violent conflict resolution; thereby contributing to the elimination of gender disparity in peacebuilding initiatives on the African continent ensuring equality is being considered at all levels - not only at national and regional level, but also at grassroots level. This project also attempts to broaden and re-define peace in the African context, as to include peace at family/individual level, thereby addressing violence against women, which is rampant in Africa. Therefore, it seeks to create five regional networks through Gender and Active Nonviolence Trainings of Trainers. The regional networks will be supported to replicate the trainings in their various countries, eventually creating networks in all 53 countries in Africa which will constitute an important avenue for African women to gain more political power.