Peace and Conflict-Covid-19 Nexus in Yemen – a Consultation with Experts: The Impact on Women’s Inclusion in the Peace Process in Yemen

Abstract

This report is the third in a series that has examined the connections between Covid-19 and the conflict in Yemen in considering prospects of broader inclusion, i.e. women, when rethinking the peace process. The first report, produced by Yemen Policy Center examined community relationships with security institutions in Taiz governorate and its impact on the Covid-19 response. The second report, led by PeaceRep: The Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (formerly the Political Settlements Research Programme (PSRP)), examined Covid-19 local and community level responses led by health professionals and CSOs in Taiz and Hadhramaut and how it intersects with the practices of other parties in conflict. Brief preliminary findings from the second report are set out below which complement the findings of this report on Covid-19, peace processes and their impact on women’s participation in Yemen.

Throughout the pandemic, the peace process continued to stall in a context of wider country levels of violence escalated across key frontlines and parties who appeared to advance their conflict agendas or push forward their political agendas. The UN Secretary General’s global ceasefire call in March 2020 produced some initial welcoming responses by conflict parties and claimed to be instituting forms of ceasefire, but shortly after reneged unchanging the situation. The peace process largely witnessed a failure of any of the major negotiations to progress, despite the existence of the December 2018 Stockholm agreement meaningful implementation in the Port of Hodeidah, to which it largely relates, also faltered. By June 2020, the UN envoy to Yemen had conducted the first mass online consultation with Yemenis on the opportunities and challenges to peace in Yemen. A little over a year later in August 2021, the United Nations had put in place the new envoy Hans Grundberg. In his October 2021 briefing to the UNSC, Grundberg reported having held numerous consultations with Yemeni, regional and international actors, including meetings with Yemeni women, and in his January 2022 briefing, he vowed that these consultations would continue to be ‘deepened’.

This report, partnering with Yemen Peace Track Initiative, focused on a group of women activists who have sought to influence the direction of negotiations, despite the impact of the pandemic on their lives, to explore their perspectives on the relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and the peace process, and how they perceive their own inclusion and that of other women affected. This report aims to amplify Yemeni women’s voices on how Covid-19 affected them personally and professionally. It highlights the restrictions on women’s broad participation resulting from the pandemic, and how that impacted their work on the ground. The report provides policy recommendations from the participants.