Gender sensitivity: nicety or necessity in peace process management?
This paper offers examples of how issues in peace processes can be treated in a gender- sensitive manner, an exercise that is surprisingly simple yet can yield rich analytical results. The arguments in this paper are based principally on the practical experience of professionals currently or recently involved in the management of peace processes in Aceh, Kenya, Kosovo, Liberia, the Middle East, Nepal, Northern Ireland, the Sudan/Darfur and Uganda, together with some secondary academic research and analysis. This paper explores what peace-process actors, including mediators, have done to make peace processes more sensitive to gender, what else might be done, and the benefits (and costs, if any) of such strategies.