Title: Women's participation, agency and social provisions in peace agreements

Authors: Abdul Karim Issifu

Addresses: Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, University of Eastern Finland, Finland

Abstract: Debates on the provisions outlined in peace agreements set to terminate armed conflicts have gained traction in recent times. Feminist theories suggest that women participants at the negotiation table have the agency to widen the scope of peace agreements. They add that if women participate, the agreement is likely to widen because women have the agency to raise a significant number of critical social issues that are often not given the needed attention. Meanwhile, this supposition leaves a critical gap in the literature. Thus, a detailed understanding of the specific input that women through agency at the negotiation table, contribute to peace agreements is still unknown. The aim of this article is to fill this lacuna, while contributing to the feminist literature in Africa. A content analysis of the agreements reached on Liberia-2003, Sierra Leone-1999, Côte d'Ivoire-2003 and Niger-1995 presents evidence in support of the normative hypothesis in the literature.

Keywords: agency; peace agreement; security provisions; social provisions; women's participation; conflict.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSDS.2022.121106

International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies, 2022 Vol.4 No.3, pp.283 - 296

Received: 09 Jan 2021
Accepted: 10 Oct 2021
Published online: 24 Feb 2022 *