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The risk that women peacebuilders face in order to create a better future for their communities

December 30, 2020
World Peace text printed on wall
Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash
UN Women

Originally written by Sarah Douglas and originally published by the UN Women on July 12, 2016.

Every conflict is unique. But, from Afghanistan to Liberia to Syria to Guatemala, women's organizations and their leaders are always at the forefront of peacebuilding and recovery. Usually unsupported and under-resourced, women peacebuilders risk their lives and make tremendous sacrifices in order to rebuild their communities and to forge a better future for their societies.

I just had the privilege of spending a week with these women (and male colleagues and supporters) in Senegal. UN Women and the Peacebuilding Support Office brought together civil society, government and UN colleagues from 10 countries in the West and Central African Region to share their experiences and strategize on how to make UN peacebuilding respond better to the different needs and priorities of women, men, girls and boys.

In 2010, the UN system adopted the Secretary-General's Seven-Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding, which contains a set of measures on issues ranging from post-conflict financing and planning, to governance and rule of law, conflict resolution and economic recovery. The plan also committed the UN system to allocate a minimum of 15 per cent of all peacebuilding funds to gender equality and women's empowerment.

While seemingly a modest target, UN actors have struggled to even establish baselines and systems for financial tracking, let alone reach or exceed the 15 per cent goal. Research commissioned for the Global Study on UN Security Council resolution 1325 (which addresses the need to promote women's participation in peacebuilding) demonstrated that less than two per cent of all overseas development aid to fragile states was allocated to women, peace and security. A 2013 baseline study conducted by UN Women, UNDP and PBSO showed that only six per cent of UNDP's funding in six post-conflict countries was allocated to projects whose principal objective was gender equality.

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All crises have gendered impacts – simply put, they affect women and men, girls and boys in different ways. COVID-19 is no different.

In Dakar, the group of women peacebuilders analysed the many reasons for these discrepancies. Women's organizations on the front line often simply don't have the time or staff to complete burdensome funding applications or adhere to strict reporting requirements. The work that women do to build social cohesion, reintegrate conflict-affected youth and revitalize local markets, if noticed at all, is not recognized by decision-makers as "serious" peacebuilding. Insufficient and inconsistent funding streams make women's groups have to stop and start their work, to the detriment of their overall sustainability.

Despite the challenges, UN Women and our partners have made some important inroads. In Liberia, we've been supporting Peace Huts since 2009. Inside the Peace Huts—which are women-led modifications of the traditionally male-dominated conflict-resolution mechanism,— Liberian women in rural and conflict-affected areas mediate disputes, refer survivors of violence to local services and watchdog local police and judges. Having grown in strength and scope over the years, the Peace Huts were then instrumental in the Ebola response, spreading information and supporting economic recovery for women whose businesses were destroyed during the outbreak. Building on the successful model and other innovative projects, UN Women managed to receive its largest-ever allocation ($3 million) from the Peacebuilding Fund at the end of 2013, making Liberia the first and only UN Country Team to meet and exceed the 15 per cent target.

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasizes the principle of 'leaving no one behind'. But by not counting lone mothers in official data, they are being left behind.

At our workshop in Dakar, women peacebuilders from Mali shared their experiences visiting the Peace Huts in Liberia and replicating this innovative practice in their country. On a shoe-string budget, women peacemakers in West Africa have set up roadblocks to protest illegal logging; developed savings and loan schemes to enable women to be economically independent and leave abusive family situations; and organized situation rooms to monitor violence in potentially incendiary electoral processes. Women cross-border traders in Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia have joined forces to organize against abusive and dangerous elements at border crossings. However, few have managed to make the leap from small pilot initiatives to multi-million dollar projects.

On 1 June, I started a one-year secondment to the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), to serve as their Gender Adviser. The Secretary-General's Peacebuilding Fund, managed by PBSO, was the first such fund to reach the 15 per cent target last year. It has launched a special window of application this year, seeking proposals that would make more funding available to women's essential peacebuilding work. Importantly, it includes a requirement that UN funds be channeled to civil society and that women's organizations be allowed to apply directly for the first time in the Peacebuilding Fund's history. Interested organizations were provided with a short, user-friendly template and offered webinars to make the application process easier.

This year's special window also includes a focus on youth. Young women and young men have often been viewed simply as the victims or perpetrators of violence, rather than a critical constituency for social transformation.

With an increasing number of crises and conflict-affected people around the world, the urgency of promoting women's participation in sustaining peace and preventing conflict has never been greater. Dedicated funding to women's organizations and strong partnerships are essential elements in maximizing the transformative potential of women's and girls' participation in peacebuilding.

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and women's empowerment.

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Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.