De Maio
Women and Conflict Management in West Africa
1
“For generations, women have served as peace educators, both in their families and in their
societies. They have proved instrumental in building bridges rather than walls.”
– UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Introduction
Women have played an important role in the transformation of conflicts in West Africa
by becoming active across political, religious, and ethnic affiliations. Theirs is often conflict
management at the local level, where Africa’s internal wars are increasingly fought, and their
efforts can be the first steps towards reconciliation in communities devastated by violence.
At the end of 2000, the U.N. Security Council in Resolution 1325 reaffirmed the
important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and called for “their equal
participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and
security.” Scholars have also addressed the subject of gender and peacekeeping (Fleshman 2003;
Beilstein 1998; Olsson 1999; Whitworth 1998), but there is a lack of systematic research on the
role of women in peace processes as most of the literature continues to cast women as victims
rather than as necessary and proactive participants at the peace table.
Given the fact that women as peacekeepers have traditionally been excluded from the
conflict resolution literature, there is clearly a need for systematic studies regarding gender and
conflict management. The purpose of this paper is to assess the relevance of gender analysis to
the understanding of peace and conflict.
To focus the research question, the present study examines the roles women have played
in peace processes in West Africa. The issue of women's participation in conflict management,
the reconstruction of post-war communities, and the prevention of future conflict is particularly
salient in West Africa where women constitute the majority of those adversely affected by armed
conflict. Women throughout the region have contributed to the reintegration of combatants and
Convention