EVENT
Women peacebuilders at the centre
How psychosocial awareness makes peacebuilding safer, more sustainable, and more effective
Join our International Women’s Day event to explore 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 bring 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, Ireland, and Myanmar will share strategies that help to avoid adding additional burdens on the very people our programmes aim to support.
They will discuss 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.
Join us 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 will be 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.
Please note that the event will be recorded using the cloud-based recording tool within the Zoom.us platform (using cloud servers based in the U.S.), to be published on the Berghof Foundation’s website and social media channels for external communications purposes. You can find the Berghof Foundation’s data protection notice here. If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Berghof Foundation's Data Protection Officer (data.protection@berghof-foundation.org).
Media contact
You can reach the press team at:
+49 (0) 177 7052758
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