EVENT
Video: Women peacebuilders at the centre
How psychosocial awareness makes peacebuilding safer, more sustainable, and more effective
Watch the recording of our International Women’s Day event to hear how we can strengthen peacebuilding practice without negatively affecting women peacebuilders.
Women peacebuilders play a vital role in mediation and dialogue processes, community reconciliation, and conflict prevention. Yet their work often comes with intense pressures and risks. They might experience backlash from their families and communities or be exposed to psychological and physical violence. Peacebuilding programming that does not account for local realities can – unintentionally – exacerbate these tensions. This increases the psychosocial strain on women peacebuilders and can jeopardise their safety. How can peacebuilders avoid these negative effects?
For this year’s International Women’s Day, we brought together a panel of peacebuilding experts and practitioners to explore how applying a psychosocial “Do No Harm” lens can strengthen peacebuilding practices. Experts on women’s empowerment as well as mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) from Cameroon, Colombia, Northern Ireland, and Myanmar shared strategies that help to avoid adding additional burdens on the very people our programmes aim to support.
They discussed how we can identify early warning signs of psychosocial strains in peacebuilding work, the risks women peacebuilders face in patriarchal or repressive environments, and how “Do No Harm” approaches can be operationalised throughout the project cycle.
Watch the event recording to learn how to make women’s participation in peacebuilding safer, more sustainable, and more effective.
Women peacebuilders at the centre
How psychosocial awareness makes peacebuilding safer, more sustainable, and more effective
3 March 2026
13:30 - 14:30 CET
Online event via Zoom.
This event was held in English.
Welcome remarks by Chris Coulter, Executive Director, Berghof Foundation
Speakers:
- Agnes Mary, EMDR Therapist and MHPSS Specialist, Serenity Counselling and Mental Health Services, Myanmar
- Erika Ramirez, Coordinator, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Colombia
- Esther Omam, Executive Director, Reach Out Cameroon
- Sara Cook, Director, Cook Consultancy
Moderated by Stefanie Gaumert, Advisor for MHPSS and Peace, Berghof Foundation.
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