During the post-conflict period, prevention of new violence depends on the willingness of armed groups to lay down their arms, disband military structures and return to civilian life. When armed groups or warlords do not put down their weapons or disband their structures, peace is not possible. Therefore, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) marks the beginning of long-term transformation processes, demilitarizing economies, communities and lives. DDR provides perhaps the first opportunity for armed groups, political parties and men and women to renegotiate their identities and their relationships. Due to the security imperative of disarming belligerents, DDR efforts have often commenced hastily, or without adequate planning and resources. In the process, they have often sacrificed gender perspectives and community ownership, thus undermining both security and sustainability.
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on “women and peace and security” specifically addressed these issues and reaffirmed the relevance of gender issues to DDR processes. In paragraph 13, the Security Council “encourages all those involved in the planning for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration to consider the different needs of female and male ex-combatants and to take into account the needs of their dependents.” Security Council resolution 1325 recognizes that whether they are combatants, citizens, educators or agents of change, women are an asset to the peace and DDR process and must be afforded their right to participate fully.
UNIFEM offers the findings, recommendations and model Standard Operating Procedures contained in this publication towards the goal of implementing the resolution and towards better integrating women’s needs and perspectives in the planning and execution of DDR programmes. These materials are informed by broad consultation, field visits, case studies on DDR in Liberia and Bougainville, and a desk review of the UN’s involvement in DDR. The practical objective is to learn lessons from past processes so that the knowledge gleaned can inform future efforts, as well as those currently under way. A broader objective is to ask how commitment to the inclusion of women and women’s perspectives in DDR processes can help the UN develop and re-centre its founding goals of conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction—all stages of conflict pertinent to DDR, which take on quite a new meaning if viewed from a gender perspective.
Each conflict is unique and, accordingly, DDR processes are designed slightly differently each time. Unfortunately almost universally, human and financial resources have been inadequately committed to DDR. That such a crucial transition between war and peace is often funded through voluntary trust funds and not the assessed budgets of peacekeeping and peace-building missions simply prolongs and worsens the problems that occur when weapons are not collected and when armed groups are not disbanded. Various actors already struggling with post-conflict reconstruction are left to solve these problems. This task has proven difficult and, in some places, impossible to carry out when weapons have not been collected and post-conflict reintegration, rehabilitation and reconciliation phases have been poorly planned and do not enjoy the support and ownership of locals, or build upon their capacities.
In the face of a paucity of resources, pragmatic decision-makers have focused DDR efforts on the perceived “real” problem the DDR programmes aim to address; namely, disarming men with guns. This approach fails to address the fact that women can also be armed combatants. Nor does it grapple with the fact that women play essential roles in maintaining and enabling armed groups, in both forced and voluntary capacities. While the narrow definition of who qualifies as a “combatant” has generally been made due to budgetary constraints, leaving women out of the process underestimates the extent to which peace requires women to participate equally in the transformation from a violent society to a peaceful one.
Four years after the passage of resolution 1325, very few would dispute that there is a gender deficit in DDR planning and delivery. The Secretary-General has stated the problem clearly in thematic and country reports to the Security Council. The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) is revising manuals on gender and DDR in partnership with UNIFEM. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is more systematically including women in weapons collection and development packages. UNICEF is more deliberately reaching out to girl soldiers and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) is increasingly invited into demobilization camps to provide health services, including psychosocial trauma counselling for women ex-combatants. Recognition of the gender-deficit and willingness to address it is the window of opportunity to replace ad hoc measures and one-off projects with routine consideration of the different needs and capacities of women and men. If followed, the guidance and insights offered in this publication will make disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes more inclusive and more successful. Successful and inclusive DDR will make peace more likely.
©United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)