Abstract
Africa has experienced conflicts causing loss of lives and property. During conflict, although women are stereotypically portrayed as victims, they also play active roles as service providers, combatants, and change agents in restoring peace. However, women’s transformative roles are often not recognized. This chapter examined the roles of women in peace processes in Africa. It asserts that the involvement of women in peace processes cannot be underestimated due to multiple roles in ensuring peace as activists, advocates, mediators, negotiators, and peacekeepers. Involvement of women in peace processes has yielded positive impacts such as making inroads in national politics and implementation of conventions that ensure peace and security of women. Despite the successes recorded, women are still confronted with challenges relating to effective participation in peace processes which include lack of experience to navigate terrains of official negotiation, patriarchal beliefs, poor representation in decision-making positions, and ineffective implementation of UNSCR 1325. There is need for African states to effectively domesticate and implement provisions of UNSCR 1325 for gender parity in conflict resolution processes. Patriarchal beliefs should be dismantled through gender-sensitive informal and formal education in order to change the orientation of African people toward gender equity in peace processes.
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Adebajo, A.A. (2021). Women and Peace Processes in Africa. In: Yacob-Haliso, O., Falola, T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77030-7_87-1
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