Conflict transformation requires gender-transformative peacebuilding

Peacebuilding is more than representation. It’s about transforming power and creating space for every voice. Photo © Constanze Flamme

Gender-transformative peacebuilding is not about adding women to existing processes, but transforming the systems of power that perpetuate conflict.

By Claudia Cruz Almeida

Gender-transformative peacebuilding is often framed as a question of inclusion: how do we ensure that women are represented in peace processes? While representation matters, this framing misses a more fundamental point. Gender-transformative peacebuilding is not about simply “adding women” to existing processes. It is about transforming the unequal power structures that drive and sustain conflict.

This is central to conflict transformation, which seeks to transform the underlying structures, cultures and institutions that drive and sustain violent political and social conflict over the long term. Gendered power influences access to resources, participation in decision-making and patterns of exclusion. If peacebuilding ignores these dynamics, it risks perpetuating inequalities that can fuel and sustain conflict.

Why resistance persists

Despite this, we see that gender is still often treated as an optional issue rather than as a core lens for understanding conflict. Practitioners regularly hear that gender is “not the priority in this context” or that inclusion should come “later”.

But the challenge is not a lack of evidence. Research has repeatedly shown that inclusive peace processes are more sustainable. The deeper challenge is that gender-transformative peacebuilding seeks not only to question systems of privilege and exclusion but also to transform them. Those who benefit from existing power structures may resist change regardless of the evidence.

This is why gender-transformative work cannot be reduced to technical checklists, women’s projects or donor requirements. It requires engaging with power, relationships and social norms.

Gender-transformative peacebuilding seeks not only to question systems of privilege and exclusion but also to transform them.

Local ownership and inclusion are not opposites

In certain contexts, locally led programming is juxtaposed with efforts to advance more gender-responsive engagement. Practitioners often hear that gender inclusion is “not the priority” or “not the right timing”. These concerns should not be dismissed. Context matters, and externally imposed agendas can generate backlash.

At the same time, abandoning gender commitments whenever they are contested can reinforce discrimination and weaken long-term peace efforts.

The key question is not whether local ownership and gender-responsive peacebuilding are compatible. The question is: whose priorities are we listening to?

Local communities are not homogeneous. Women’s organisations, youth groups and marginalised communities may already be advocating for greater inclusion but remain less visible than political elites. Businesswomen and other local business actors may also have built inclusive spaces or challenged barriers to participation, making them valuable allies who often sit outside the networks peacebuilders typically engage with. A genuinely locally led approach therefore requires engaging with multiple local perspectives rather than only dominant actors.

Gender work goes beyond women and representation

Gender-transformative peacebuilding cannot focus only on women. Gender, as a system of power, shapes the experiences of people across the social spectrum. Traditional gender norms and expectations can also have detrimental consequences for men. For example, expectations that men should act as providers and protectors can place considerable psychological and economic pressure on them, particularly in contexts of conflict and insecurity. At the same time, norms that associate masculinity with protection, dominance or control can reinforce harmful behaviours and contribute to the escalation and perpetuation of conflict. If these norms remain unreflected and unchallenged, the structural drivers of violence will persist.

Yet representation alone is not enough. Too often, inclusion becomes tokenistic: women are invited into spaces without having meaningful influence over decisions, or a single women treated as representativefor all women. This creates the appearance of progress while existing power hierarchies remain untouched.

From commitments to practice

For international peacebuilding organisations like ours, operationalising gender-transformative peacebuilding requires more than commitments on paper. It requires stronger gender-sensitive conflict analysis, practical tools for teams and dedicated support for contextualised approaches, including a willingness to test new ideas and learn from their effects.

If conflict transformation is about transforming systems and relationships, then we cannot avoid confronting the unequal power structures that shape them. Otherwise, we are not transforming conflict, we are merely managing it while underlying inequalities remain intact.

Media contact

You can reach the press team at:
+49 (0) 177 7052758
email hidden; JavaScript is required