Resource Library

This report by the European Institute of Peace calls for a critical rethinking of the core principles behind the Women, Peace, and Security agenda to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness in today’s rapidly shifting global context.

The brief lays out the five persistent barriers preventing women’s meaningful participation in conflict prevention and peace processes, it highlights core principles that could transform the WPS agenda and assesses 12 effective and promising practices that can be used to navigate these barriers. Based on these, the brief suggests concrete actions for policymakers and practitioners to enhance women’s meaningful participation in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.

The findings from this policy brief are grounded in a global research report under the same title. It is part of the Breaking Barriers, Making Peace project led by the European Institute of Peace with support from the German Federal Foreign Office. This 2-year project provides recommendations to policymakers and practitioners on how to address the persistent barriers to women’s meaningful participation in peace and political settlement processes.

This policy brief and the global report are accompanied by three background research papers entitled entitled “Confronting the Exclusion of Women in Ethiopia’s Peace Processes”, “Navigating Barriers to Women’s Participation in Policy Spaces Intersecting with Environmental Peacebuilding in Myanmar” and  “Reclaiming the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Sudan” . The findings from the brief and global report are also backed by references included in a practitioner-friendly compendium of resources.