Quantifying the Impact of Women’s Participation in Post-Conflict Economic Recovery

Abstract

There is still a considerable lack of systematic and rigorous understanding about the impact of violent conflict on women‘s roles, activities and aspirations, or about the nature and magnitude of the benefits of including women more fully in economic recovery and peace-building processes. Policy programming around gender issues in post-conflict contexts is currently being designed based on limited rigorous evidence, and incorporates inadequate procedures to evaluate its impact in terms of gender roles and gender equality. This situation has at times resulted in misplaced interventions and the continued emphasis on the reintegration of (male) combatants, and male employment generation programmes.

The main aim of this report is to analyse how changes in the roles and activities of women during episodes of violent conflict may shape their contribution to post-conflict economic recovery and sustainable peace. The report poses two important questions for which limited evidence is to date available in the academic literature on violent conflict or in policy programming in post-conflict contexts: 1) How does violent conflict change the roles that women take on within their households and communities? 2) How do changes in female roles during conflict affect women‘s own status after the conflict, and the capacity of households and communities to recover from the conflict?