Gender, peace and security in Africa

The document details a May 2012 meeting in Nairobi involving 19 researchers and practitioners to address the dominance of Northern perspectives in gender, peace and security (GPS) scholarship. Participants identified critical gaps in current research, such as the lack of evidence-based homegrown data and the failure to address structural causes of insecurity. The session concluded with the proposal to establish a pan-African think-tank to generate scientific knowledge and alternative narratives that reflect African experiences and agency, moving beyond 'women as victims' discourses.

• Research on gender, peace and security (GPS) in Africa is predominantly produced outside the continent, leaving African researchers as "primarily suppliers of raw data and consumers of knowledge" rather than producers of policy advice.
• Current security frameworks, such as UNSCR 1325, are viewed as "minimum consensus framework" and state-centric, which often prevents them from addressing the structural causes of insecurity or bringing about fundamental change.
• A DCAF study of 14 West African countries found that while gender policies and action plans against gender-based violence exist, they are often treated as "stand-alone documents" and are not integrated into day-to-day security operations or standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• Gender training in the African security sector is heavily skewed toward peacekeeping requirements for deployment, with a significant "dearth of data" regarding its actual impact on the behavior of personnel or its internalization in national security strategies.
• Participants identified several critical research gaps, including a lack of conceptual frameworks for linking gender and security, insufficient focus on intersectionality, and a need to investigate the "gendered inner working of institutions" to understand resistance to change.
• The session resulted in the proposal to form a pan-African think-tank/network on gender, peace and security to pool resources and generate theories derived from the African context, with an initial working group tasked with identifying three priority research areas.

APA

Hendricks, C., & Ndungu, I. (2012). Gender, peace and security in Africa. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2012MayGenderPeaceSecurityAfrica_2.pdf

Chicago

Hendricks, Cheryl, and Irene Ndungu. Gender, peace and security in Africa. Institute for Security Studies, 2012. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2012MayGenderPeaceSecurityAfrica_2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hendricks |first1=Cheryl |last2=Ndungu |first2=Irene |title=Gender, peace and security in Africa |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=4 May 2012 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2012MayGenderPeaceSecurityAfrica_2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hendricks2012gender, author = {Hendricks, Cheryl and Ndungu, Irene}, title = {{Gender, peace and security in Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2012}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2012MayGenderPeaceSecurityAfrica_2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }