The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has released the summary evaluation report of its Women Building Peace (WBP) project, which ran for 19 months until February 2009.

The project aimed to increase women's peace initiatives and involvement in conflict resolution and peacebuilding at regional, national and local level in Liberia, Guinée and Côte d'Ivoire. With this goal, the project sought to implement at grassroots and policy levels the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) which calls for the wider participation of women in peacebuilding and their protection in times of conflict.

The project was funded by the Danish International Development Agency, Danida, and was a springboard for DRC's work in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and social cohesion; a core sector for DRC in West Africa. DRC has been providing assistance and protection to displaced populations in Liberia since 1998 and expanded activities into Côte d'Ivoire from 2006, consolidating its regional presence by expansion into Guinée in December 2007.

The summary report contains findings and conclusions about the various project activities: establishing 30 community-led peace committees across the region which provide a forum for women to take part in resolving community conflicts with their male counterparts; putting border monitors into place to monitor conflict issues at border crossings and in communities close to borders; setting up income generating activities for community members, particularly women; raising awareness of UNSCR 1325, women's rights, and gender based violence; establishing referral mechanisms for conflicts and protection issues which are beyond the capacity and mandate of the peace committees to resolve; and providing additional support to the vulnerable groups of market women and women former combatants/ 'bush wives'. At a regional level, the project brought together peace committees for regional meetings and to establish a regional committee; celebrated traditional peace pacts and sought to boost women's role in these traditional methods of peacebuilding. The project also provided training in conflict resolution, small business management and literacy to the beneficiaries.

The summary report contains recommendations based on each of the activities carried out under Women Building Peace which DRC hopes will be useful to other organizations carrying out peacebuilding activities, or working on gender issues.

If you are interested in the full version of the evaluation report, please contact Benjamin Soro, Danish Refugee Council Regional Information Officer, on +225 07 40 09 45 or +225 04 89 71 69 or by email on info-wa@remove-this.drc.dk

Files:

women_building_peace.pdf

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