Former Malawi President Joyce Banda has called on African leaders and the international community to move beyond commitments and take concrete action to increase women’s participation in peace processes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes Region.
Banda made the call on September 21 in New York at a high-level sideline event of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, convened by the African Union Commission and the United Nations.
Speaking as a member of the African Women Leaders Network Panel of Elders and SADC Lead Mediator for Madagascar, Banda said the region had enough policies and commitments on women, peace and security, but lacked effective implementation.
“Eastern DRC and the Great Lakes has no shortage of political commitments to peace. The gap is implementation,” she said.
She noted that despite frameworks such as UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the Dar-es-Salaam Declaration, the Great Lakes Pact and the Kampala Declaration, women remain underrepresented in formal peace processes, including the Luanda and Nairobi processes.
Banda called for at least 30 percent representation of women in mediation teams, ceasefire monitoring and peace implementation mechanisms.
She also urged stakeholders to involve rural women, survivors of sexual violence, displaced women and young women in peace efforts, while linking peacebuilding to women’s economic security through access to land, natural resources and post-conflict recovery funds.
“Eastern DRC does not need more resolutions. It needs results for women on the ground,” Banda said.
