PAIMAN Alumni Trust

In March 2020, ICAN and its global network of women-led peacebuilding organizations, WASL, launched the She Builds Peace (SBP) campaign.

ICAN convened 20 members of WASL in Lisbon for the “Our Strategies, Our Peace” Writers’ Workshop. This unique gathering provided a secure and creative space for women peacebuilders to share their strategies, experience, expertise, and stories from conflict and crisis contexts.

Trust between communities and the security sector is critical for effective governance and peace. So is a vibrant civil society. When women peacebuilders are recognized and engaged as independent, strategic partners and security actors—in their own right—the results are transformative. Twenty-five years on from the launch of the WPS agenda, women peacebuilders’ creativity and contributions to societal peace and security are not only timely, they are even more essential.

Representatives from ICAN and the WASL network attended the International Conference on Women, Peace, and Security (ICWPS) in Manila from October 28-30, 2024.

ICAN, in partnership with the Permanent Missions of Norway, Sweden, and Canada, the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (UKFCDO), the Ministry of Gender, Child and Welfare of South Sudan, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and the National Transformational Leadership Institute (NTLI), convened a 1.5-day workshop to discuss how to strengthen community security as a localized, transformative approach for sustainable peace.

The She Builds Peace campaign was launched in Pakistan by PAIMAN Alumni Trust.

With support from ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund (IPF), PAIMAN has been actively working in the Charsadda district of Pakistan to strengthen its TOLANA network, a peace network comprising over 150 women, mainly mothers. The aim is to equip these women with the necessary tools to improve their livelihoods and combat violent extremism effectively.

This report contributes a gendered analysis of approaches to the disengagement, rehabilitation and reintegration of women and girls associated with violent extremism. It highlights the gaps in current policies and practice, as well as the solutions that are emerging in part from the experiences and innovations of women-led civil society initiatives. The report concludes with practical recommendations for policymakers and programming guidance for practitioners.

Drawing on work with PAIMAN in Pakistan, this paper, written by WASL Partner and PAIMAN co-founder Mossarat Qadeem for the LSE Center for Women, Peace and Security, shows how women at various levels of Pakistani society can advance the cause for a more robust strategy on P/CVE.