Understanding Women Participation in Humanitarian Interventions and Peace-building: Perspective from the United States of America
Abstract
In US, government departments and agencies are accountable for the implementation of the policies and initiatives endorsed in this Plan. Above all, this National Action Plan expresses the United States’ unqualified commitment to integrating women’s views and perspectives fully into our diplomatic, security, and development efforts not simply as beneficiaries, but as agents of peace, reconciliation, development, growth, and stability. In many countries, high levels of violence continue to afflict communities long after wars have officially ceased. Peace accords are too often negotiated only among the small number of armed combatants who originally fought the war groups whose experiences on the battlefield are not easily transferred to the difficult task of building peace. There are plenty of roadblocks on the way to realizing gender awareness in agencies peacetime development activities, but in emergency situations there is, in addition, a strong tendency to say: When the situation is serious you can’t afford the time to stop and think about gender issues. Essays in Women and Emergencies (Oxfam Focus on Gender 4) make the case – clearly enough to convince the most skeptical and macho logistics or technical officer that such an attitude is extremely damaging. Recognition of women’s needs and a gender-based analysis of an emergency situation are essential starting points if an aid intervention is to be effective in the short term and have positive impacts in long-term development. The goal of the United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security remains as simple as it is profound: to empower half the world’s population as equal partners in preventing conflict and building peace in countries threatened and affected by war, violence, and insecurity. Achieving this goal is critical to our national and global security. There are obvious reasons why women are important to the peace building process. For example, they constitute half of every community and the difficult task of peace building must be done by men and women in partnership. Women are also the central caretakers of families and everyone is affected when they are excluded from peace building. Women are also advocates for peace, as peacekeepers, relief workers and mediators. Women have played prominent roles in peace processes in the Horn of Africa such as in Sudan and Burundi, where they have contributed as observers. The United States faces a complex global security environment characterized by instability, conflict, and record levels of displacement, well-armed non-state actors, and great power competition. The United States’ Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) of 2019 focuses on improving the effectiveness of our foreign policy and assistance efforts across the board by proactively integrating the needs and perspectives of women, and empowering women to contribute their talents and energies to international peace, security, and prosperity.
Keywords: Women, Participation, Peace-building, Humanitarian, Interventions, USA
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