The Sustaining Peace agenda brings together gender inclusivity and good governance of natural resources in a new set of conflict prevention initiatives focused on women’s inclusion in natural resource management (NRM). The UN strategic agenda on ‘Gender, Natural Resources, Climate, and Peace’ is framed around two core assumptions: 1) that NRM provides a good opportunity to increase women’s participation in fragile and conflict-affected settings, particularly in light of climate shocks and 2) that women’s participation in NRM is necessary to prevent conflict in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. With this project, we propose a deeper critical interrogation of what meanings gender equality and women’s empowerment assume in natural resource management initiatives in conflict-affected countries (Sudan, Colombia, Mali and Niger) and with what consequences for the design of peacebuilding policies.
The project has three objectives:
Objective 1: Analyze what meanings gender and women’s empowerment take as they become core objective of natural resource management policies. In particular, this is a question of how gender is understood in relation to ideas about governance of natural resources, conflict prevention, and climate adaptation, and how it is deployed to solve particular problems.
Objective 2: Examine how the WPS agenda is diffused and institutionalized in UN programs and initiatives
not directly dealing with security.
Objective 3: Assess and communicate the implications of this study for policy and practice on natural
resource management policies in postconflict contexts and gender mainstreaming and WPS implementation initiatives.