IWD Webinar: Gender Inequality and Patriarchal Norms in Conflict Settings


To mark the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, International Alerts Gender and Peacebuilding team undertook a stock-taking exercise of our 20-year history working with women peacebuilders on the ground. The findings truly underscored the role of conservative patriarchal gender norms and masculinities as key obstacles to implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, this ranged from backlash towards women activists at community level, all the way to suppression of female voices within global governance institutions.  

Since the writing of this report, Alert teams in Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Nigeria and Philippines have been working to understand more about the nature and impacts of patriarchal norms and masculinities at local, sub-regional and national levels and how they can be practically addressed in peacebuilding programming. This cross-regional programme focused on the influences of norms within distinct aspects of gender inequality in diverse contexts and each work towards components of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. They included addressing sexual and gender-based violence within different faith communities across Kyrgyzstan, mapping the boundaries of patriarchal norms at clan-level in the Bangsamoro, increasing womens political participation at sub-national governance level in Bauchi State and reviewing gender-based violence prevention programming in Nepal.

As this programme enters its final stages, International Alert would like to share with you some of our preliminary findings and to consider their significance for peacebuilding programming that can contribute towards the advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda around the world. In the coming months, this evidence will be integrated into a programming framework to support peacebuilding practitioners to address discriminatory patriarchal gender norms in conflict settings, from initial contextual analysis to leveraging evidence to influence institutions at different levels. 

These projects are:

Kyrgyzstan: Taktykuu Zhashoo – Working with religious leaders to prevent violence against women and girls 

Nepal: Understanding and documenting the learnings for evidence-based advocacy to prevent and respond to gender-based violence 

Philippines: Why counting gender-based violence counts 

Nigeria: Addressing patriarchal gender norms and the construction of masculinities in conflict-affected settings

Panellists:

Ashim Pandey

Programme Development & Learning Manager, Nepal