Rural Women Peace and Human Security Initiative

The Rural Women Peace and Human Security Initiative specifically targets rural/grassroots women and is intended to increase their level of awareness of, and strengthen their capacities to engage in, peace and human security processes at the community level. Over the last decade, grassroots women in African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Senegal's Casamance region, etc have been pivotal to community harmonization, reconciliation, grassroots peacebuilding and in mobilizing civil society. While their engagement in these processes have been crucial in drawing attention to and enhancing women and girls' security e.g. in advocating for women's increased involvement in peace talks and in formulating peace accords and policies that incorporate gender equality and women's human rights concerns, a lot of the commitments made by politicians and decision-makers alike have been mere rhetoric. Majority of grassroots women are still being excluded from decision-making and traditional conflict resolution structures and processes, as a result of disadvantageous political, economic, customary/cultural traditions and practices --the manifestations, patterns and degree of which vary depending on specific contexts.
In engaging grassroots women, the programmes thus seek to:

1. Highlight and draw attention to the different ways in which women and men's insecurity is exacerbated as a result of gender hierarchies and power inequities; in order to inform the formulation and implementation of gender-sensitive development programmes at the local level.
2. Give grassroots women a voice and space to examine their peace and human security needs and aspirations; as well as chart their own direction.
3. Build and/or strengthen grassroots women's capacities to engage in peace and human security processes at both practice and policy (local governance/administration) levels.
4. Globalize local issues and localize global issues on women, peace and human security; for instance through raising awareness locally on international and continental instruments.