Supporting women-led organizations and peacebuilders through information generation, sharing and exchange
The SDG 16 and PVE Agendas: Different Currencies or Two Sides of the Same Coin?
This policy brief highlights key challenges impeding progress on the global PVE and SDG 16 agendas, underscoring how they are two sides of the same coin.
Invisible Women: Gendered Dimensions of Return, Rehabilitation and Reintegration from Violent Extremism
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.
From the Ground Up – The Nexus of Economic Policy, Gender and Violent Extremism
A preliminary dialogue on the gap between economic policy intentions and realities on the ground.
Preventing Violent Extremism, Protecting Rights and Community Policing
Why Civil Society and Security Sector Partnerships Matter. Analyzing the impact of security interventions in contributing to and mitigating extremist violence.
Education, Identity and Rising Extremism
From Preventing Violent Extremism to Promoting Peace, Resilience, Equal Rights and Pluralism (PREP).
Uncomfortable Truths, Unconventional Wisdoms – WASL Security Brief
Women’s perspectives on violent extremism and security interventions
She Builds Peace Frameworks for Action
Funding Women Peacebuilders: Dismantling Barriers to Peace
Recognizing the value and need to channel equitable resources to local women’s peacebuilding organizations (WPBOs) have been constant stipulations of the value of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda since its inception at the turn of the 21st century. From the United Nations to its 193 member states, the desire and intent to support such organizations has increased over the years. But the chasm between donors’ good intentions and their political, financial, and administrative constraints has hampered the flow of funds to the grassroots women who need them the most.
Protecting Women Peacebuilders: The Front Lines of Sustainable Peace
Despite 20 years of policy, practice, and evidence of impact, there is still a persistent gap in recognition of, support to, and protection for women peacebuilders. This brief distills and builds on decades of women peacebuilders’ experiences navigating the dangers women peacebuilders face to provide an overview of the contextual factors and realities that create and exacerbate their insecurity. It then presents the range and sources of threats, analyzes the strengths of and gaps in existing protection mechanisms, and concludes with operational guidance for states and multilateral institutions to protect women peacebuilders.
Recognizing Women Peacebuilders: Critical Actors in Effective Peacemaking
Drawing on two decades of desk and primary research and interviews, policy development, and experiences in advocacy and Track One mediation practices, “Recognizing Women Peacebuilders: Critical Actors in Effective Peacemaking”, delves into the motivations and factors that propel women to become peacebuilders in the face of violence and conflict and the activities they engage in that bridge the local and the global arenas.
The brief explores how the lexicon and labels in the policy arena hinder or help women’s greater inclusion in peace processes, and factors that capture the complexity and commonality of WPBs’ experiences in relation to and distinct from other forms of socio-political activism.
The Better Peace Tool explores the history and evolution of peacemaking in modern times. It considers six common barriers to inclusion and how to overcome them. And it presents a four-part framework for the inclusion of women peacebuilders, offering proactive steps to broaden participation.
Practical guidance documents intended to inform governments, international organizations, and civil society
10 Steps to Ensure a Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Constitution-Drafting Process
The International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)’s 10 Steps to Ensure a Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Constitution-Drafting Process is a practical guidance document intended to inform governments, international organizations, and civil society involved in...
10 Steps to Ensure Gender Responsive Transitional Justice Processes
A gender-responsive transitional justice process will ensure that the perspectives women and men have on past events and abuses are accounted for, without doing further harm. Here are 10 steps to do so
10 Steps to Increase Women’s Participation in Peacekeeping and Reduce Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
We are pleased to launch 10 Steps to Increase Women’s Participation in Peacekeeping and Reduce Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, drafted by the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and the Association of War Affected Women (AWAW), and endorsed by members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL)
10 Steps to Ensure Gender Responsive Processes and Ceasefire Agreements
Governments, international organizations, and civil society facilitating local, national and regional ceasefire negotiations must consider the roles women play and their expertise in negotiating, drafting and implementing ceasefire agreements. Here are 10 steps to do so.
Other Analysis

Race, Power and Peacebuilding
Race, Power and Peacebuilding aims to explore and to understand how racism manifests itself in the peacebuilding sector. This report has been produced by Peace Direct in collaboration with the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) and United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY).

Fund Us Like You Want Us To Win: Feminist Solutions for more Impactful Financing for Peacebuilding
This background paper for the High-Level Meeting on Financing for Peacebuilding was prepared by the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Kvinna till Kvinna, MADRE, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
The paper focuses on six structural barriers faced by diverse women peacebuilders in accessing funds to support their work. While acknowledging that existing solutions to mitigate challenges need to be further amplified and strengthened, this paper explores innovative avenues to transform the current system of peacebuilding financing to sustainably address the challenges faced by diverse women peacebuilders in the pursuit of inclusive and lasting peace.

Anderlini challenges conventional wisdom on countering/preventing violent extremism
“Challenging Conventional Wisdom, Transforming Current Practices: A Gendered Lens” Sanam Anderlini’s contribution to the
newly published “Transformative Approaches to Violent Extremism”, Berghof Handbook Dialogue Series 13 on Preventing Violent Extremism
“We Will Survive: Women’s Rights and Civic Activism in Yemen’s Endless War.” Yemen (Winter 2016)
Images of women’s mass participation surprised Western observers and revealed the vibrant force of Yemeni women as influential, yet previously unrecognized, change agents.
Morocco’s Dilemma: Rights and Reform or Closure and Conservatism? (March 2015)
Morocco embodies numerous contradictions and challenges for the national and international human rights community. Since the Moroccan Spring in 2011, women’s rights and civil society activists have been key indicators of the well-being of the State and of society....
Resisting the New Conservatism: Women’s campaigns for rights, peace and participation in Turkey. (Winter 2015)
For nearly a century, Turkey has been a model of a modern secular Islamic nation. As a member of the G-20 and NATO, a candidate for the European Union, and boasting the world’s 16th largest economy, Turkey’s influence in regional and international security and...