Women and mediation in Africa

Abstract

Mediation processes are sites of struggle for women because, over the last 20 years, women have sought inclusion in mediation with limited success. In the last three decades, Africa has witnessed a great number of armed conflicts and, concomitantly, the production of a plethora of peace agreements. Women in Africa have been at the forefront of movements and organisations working to achieve peace, but remain marginalised from formal peace processes. Very few women in Africa have participated in negotiations, and only a handful have mediated violent conflicts. Yet, the call for womens inclusion a seat at the table - continues to reverberate in the policy-making corridors of multilateral institutions tasked with peace and security, both globally and continentally. Women have protested, organised themselves into networks, and thousands of them in Africa have received training. But this has not made a significant difference regarding their participation levels. Between 1990 and 2017, only 8% of peace negotiators, 2.7% of mediators and 5% of the witnesses of peace agreements, globally, have been women (United Nations Security Council, 2018).