FEATURE | 4 Mar 2024
How to empower women in conflict?
Women of The Berlin Moot share their recommendations for International Women’s Day
Leading up to The Berlin Moot, female experts and practitioners shed light on why it is crucial to include women in the conversation to achieve sustainable peace.
Despite evidence showing that women’s involvement in peacebuilding and mediation leads to lasting peace agreements, too often they remain excluded from participating in peace processes. Moreover, women and girls disproportionately bear the brunt of crises and violence and are enduring higher levels of gender discrimination. Ensuring gender equality, particularly for those already disenfranchised by conflict, is essential for prosperous societies and for building sustainable peace.
For this year’s International Women’s Day, the United Nations identifies an alarming lack of financing as the key challenge in achieving gender equality, number five of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We are joining the UN’s call to #InvestInWomen by highlighting what we can do to empower women in conflicts and during peace processes, despite limited resources.
On 4 March, we hosted a YouTube live session together with Conciliation Resources where two of our gender experts answered your questions: Claudia Cruz Almeida, who works with women ex-combatants at the Berghof Foundation, and Esther Hodges, who focuses on the Women, Peace and Security agenda at Conciliation Resources, discussed what peacebuilding organisations can do to foster gender equality within peace processes.
Watch the livestream:
On 17 and 18 April, we will bring together global experts with peace and mediation practitioners at The Berlin Moot peace conference to develop peacemaking tools that provide answers to the complexity of today’s conflicts. Five women experts and practitioners who will be part of The Moot have shared insights on and raise awareness for the discrepancies women in conflict face.
Watch the videos to find out about their recommendations on how to facilitate women's empowerment in peace and mediation processes:
Atim Evenye Niger Thomas, Executive Director of the Authentique Memorial Empowerment Foundation (AMEF), shares a lesson on clear communication that she has learned as a woman peacebuilder:
Neha Sanghrajka, Senior Advisor on Mediation at the UN and Co-Founder of Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth, emphasises how important it is for female peacebuilders to listen to viewpoints that are different from their own:
Chris Coulter, Deputy Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation, speaks about the inclusion of women in not only in formal, but also in informal processes:
Stella Voutta, Programme Director, Peace, Global Issues, Robert Bosch Stiftung discusses why women are essential for making peace last:
Miriam Coronel Ferrer, Co-Founder of Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators, explains how women are building bridges and finding shared solutions within conflicts:
Make sure to check out The Berlin Moot’s website to learn more about our upcoming conference.
You can read more about our work on gender and conflict here and browse through our publications that highlight the work of women peacebuilders.
Media contact
Florian Lüdtke
Media and Communications Manager
+49 (0) 177 7052758
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