Women’s participation in peacebuilding is a crucial step in furthering gender equality, achieving women’s rights and reflecting the needs and perspectives of women directly impacted by the conflict- which are often ignored. But how can we ensure the participation, protection and empowerment of women in peacebuilding and political processes? 

To advance this goal, the LEAP4Peace Consortium have authored a series of papers on innovative and transformative approaches to systems and structures of peacebuilding in:

1. Myanmar
2. Burundi
3. Colombia
4. Globally

Based on the findings from this research and from the wider work of the LEAP4Peace Consortium, funding partners, states and multilateral organisations must: 

• Advocate for the inclusion of women representatives on all sides and at every stage of
  a peace process, enable them to leverage diplomatic relationships to insist on gender
  representation. 

• Recruit and embed gender experts within their staff working on peace processes and conflict resolution, as these champions are key for pushing change. 

• Support and fund alliances and networks of women peacebuilders and women’s rights organisations to amplify and accelerate improvement in women’s meaningful participation. 

The global paper explores how women peacebuilders are pushing boundaries to transform the peacebuilding landscape through actions including, building networks; influencing peace negotiations; adapting and working holistically. This paper identifies how the international community is enabling- or indeed blocking- this crucial work. The other papers in the series focus on three specific countries – Burundi, Colombia and Myanmar- with primary research and consultations with proximate peacebuilders. Through a context-specific analysis, these papers highlight best practices and innovative solutions by grassroots peacebuilders as a call to action to the international community to better support their transformative work.

These papers are a product of the LEAP4Peace programme, a Consortium of organisations from Burundi, Colombia, Myanmar, the Netherlands and the UK. The Consortium was formed with a specific goal of advancing the role of women in peacebuilding and political processes in three target countries – Burundi, Colombia and Myanmar- and promoting that role at a global level.