Financing for Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding: Setting Financial Targets as a Tool for Increasing Women’s Participation in Post-Conflict Recovery

Abstract

Lack of financial resources coupled with insufficient political commitment is often named as the key factors for the disappointing performance of the women, peace and security agenda. Although women’s participation in peacebuilding is widely acknowledged at the policy level to improve sustainability, funding patterns have yet to reflect the effectiveness of gender-responsive peacebuilding interventions. The chapter will explore the relationship between increasing funding and improving peacebuilding outcomes for women and girls and analyze the relevance of gender-responsive budgeting approaches to peacebuilding interventions in the immediate aftermath of conflict. During the tenth anniversary of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000 time policy-makers and practitioners developed and adopted an accountability regime on women, peace and security that heavily featured financial targets as proxy indicators for gender-responsive peacebuilding. The authors will unpack some of the practical and structural reasons that the achievement of funding targets has remained elusive, including lack of access to decision-making processes at the country level, low implementation capacity and a failure to invest in infrastructure for delivery.