African women meet to discuss the need to document women's peace initiatives in Africa

Isis-Women's International Cross-Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) will be holding a consultative workshop on "Documenting women's peace initiatives in Africa" from 23rd to 25th April 2003. The meeting which will involve selected participants from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Sierra Leonne, S.Africa, Sudan and Uganda, is in preparation of the documentation of unique women's peace initiatives in Africa that Isis-WICCE is coordinating for the year 2003-2004.

The objectives of the Consultative Meeting are:

To share and discuss the outcomes of the Maputo workshop, and the subsequent proposed project
To share information about the existing women peace building initiatives within the represented organizations/countries
To seek consensus, on the process of the documentation of women's peace initiatives in specified regions of Africa; and
To agree on the modalities of carrying out the proposed documentation in the identified organizations/countries

The expected outcomes of this meeting are: a recognition of the importance of women's peace initiatives in Africa; and a strategic plan of how to research, document and disseminate information on some selected women's peace initiatives in West, Eastern and Southern Africa in order to advocate for their recognition and mainstreaming in the peace processes on the African Continent.

Background To Isis-WICCE's Peace Building Initiatives

Isis-WICCE's peace building activities originated from the documentation of the violations of women's human rights in areas of armed conflict, in Uganda, and relevant areas of Africa, as well as globally. The documentation is an activity that Isis-WICCE has been involved in since 1996. It has brought together participants from Albania, Azerbaijan, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Columbia, The Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. Each group of participants has gone through a phase of training in human rights and International Humanitarian Law, as well as gender sensitive research, investigation, and documentation of the experiences of women survivors of armed conflict. After the training, each participant drew up a plan of action on how to document an issue of women?s human rights in their different situations of armed conflict.

The participants then went back to their groups and carried out the documentation. Then they would come back and present the report, around which the group would develop an appropriate advocacy strategy. Invariably, all groups, both within and outside Africa, saw the building of sustainable peace as the most viable way to protect women from the violations of armed conflict. Such peace would have women at the centre of the activities, and their initiatives would be documented. The women participants were anxious that women should no longer just be regarded as victims of war, since they shoulder the economic and emotional responsibilities of their families, and sustain communities and nations in times of armed conflict. Moreover, they contribute a lot informally to peace building, and are strategically placed to nurture from the grassroots any peace pact that is signed by the leaders at the top.

Project Focus

The goal of the project is to understand, learn from, and build on African women's peace initiatives that have worked, in order to contribute to home-grown peace building initiatives in Africa. Isis-WICCE will collaborate with other organizations and groups to research, document, disseminate and conduct advocacy on these initiatives, as well as any constraints women's organizations encounter doing peace work and conflict resolution in Africa. The project will document women's peace initiatives in the Western, Eastern and Southern parts of Africa. It will also assess the impact of these initiatives, review their strengths, opportunities, and challenges, in order to participate in the advocacy for their inclusion in the different peace processes on the continent.