International Online Launch

Feminist Peacebuilding emerges as a collective and urgent reflection on the persistent marginalization of women and feminists from peace related debates. Hence, the systematic marginalization of women from peace negotiations and mediation processes across different contexts – from Gaza to Ukraine, Sudan and beyond, remains sites of patriarchal power, that structurally exclude women.  Women and feminist movements have long been at the core of rebuilding communities, fostering reconciliation, nurturing solidarity, and envisioning real peace. Peace debate and discussions which claim to include women, continue to be lukewarm and translated into tokenism, lacking meaningful participation and representation in formal peace processes.

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has open space for critical interrogation of how peace processes often replicate patriarchal power structures that sideline women’s agency. This reflection calls for an innovative approach, one where spaces of peace do not only preach inclusion but firmly redistribute power, centering women, and feminist to bring transformative and justice-driven perspectives to the table.

This reflection paper by Manka Eileen Epse Akwo highlights key points for consideration, including critiques of militarized and patriarchal approaches to peace, feminist redefinitions of war and peace, women’s agency and participation at multiple levels, funding gaps that affect women, and the importance of collective calls to action for transformative peacebuilding.

To this end, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Gender Justice Competence Center for Sub-Saharan Africa will convene an online international launch of the Feminist Reflection with the title From Vision to Action: Women, Feminism, and Peace. The meeting seeks to support the reignition of discourse on the systemic barriers to women’s inclusion in peace processes and to explore actionable pathways for feminist leadership in shaping and sustaining peace.

Find the publication for your reference.

Please RSVP to jessica.chitlhango(at)fes-mozambique.org

Please direct any questions you may have to assistente(at)fes-mozambique.org