Present, yet unaccounted for: women’s participation in civil society led peacebuilding activities in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the role of women in local civil society peacebuilding organisations in Bukavu, South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s. Situating the study in post-liberal peacebuilding theory it examines the questions of whom has an agency to articulate local knowledge and needs in local peacebuilding processes and how. The paper concludes that while local civil society peacebuilding organisations present women with opportunities to participate in peacebuilding processes at the grassroots level, that these organisations do not have the capacity to challenge entrenched power and gender norms.