-
When I visited Camp Corail, Haiti, in 2011 as Norway’s Development Minister, a young woman welcomed me into her house. I listened to her story: her surroundings had descended into chaos following the earthquake and sexual assault had become a constant threat. One day the young woman was raped. After surviving the ordeal, she found out that she was pregnant.
-
Integrating a gender perspective into international support to statebuilding is key to improving the quality of international engagement in fragile states. This means basing all interventions on an understanding of the distinct experiences of men and women and acting on opportunities to promote gender equality in these contexts. It is essential because gender equality is important in its own right and statebuilding processes offer opportunities to advance it. At the same time, promoting gender equality and adopting gender-sensitive statebuilding approaches can strengthen peace and development.
-
Statebuilding and the specific challenges facing fragile and conflictaffected states (FCAS) are moving up the international agenda with the signing of the New Deal on International Engagement in Fragile States in Busan in December 2011 and publication of the World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report, Conflict, Security and Development. The OECDDAC International Network on Conflict and Fragility (OECD-INCAF) has produced extensive policy guidance, the 2011 Supporting Statebuilding in Situations of Conflict and Fragility, that has been adopted by most donors and reflects the current international thinking on statebuilding. This guidance recognises the political nature of statebuilding, and in particular the importance of paying greater attention to the complex power dynamics in these settings. However, the guidance did not address how to integrate a gender perspective across these issues and the role that gender inequalities and identities play in shaping the statebuilding process.
-
This chapter sets the scene by defining key concepts that are used in this publication and by reviewing the rationale for integrating a gender perspective into statebuilding programmes. It explains how a more gender-sensitive approach can enhance statebuilding outcomes. It also shows how a more politically informed approach to gender equality can improve the effectiveness of interventions.
-
Chapter 2 outlines challenges donors face in integrating a gender perspective into statebuilding programmes. It finds that many of these are linked to the wider context of peacebuilding and statebuilding in fragile situations and therefore reflect tensions and trade-offs donors encounter in most programmes of support to these processes. The chapter also highlights a series of constraints within donor agencies that restrain donors’ ability to manage these contextual challenges.
-
This chapter highlights successful approaches to supporting gendersensitive statebuilding. It points to the need for donors to adopt a multi-pronged approach and outlines what donors can do to integrate a gender perspective in each of the areas prioritised in the Peacebuilding and Statebuilding Goals.
-
-
-