Norway works to ensure that peace negotiations are inclusive, and that peace agreements safeguard the rights, needs and priorities of both women and men. Norway is seeking to increase the number of women participating at all levels and at all stages of peace and reconciliation efforts, from initial peace negotiations to the implementation of agreements.

Peace agreements often lay the political and institutional foundation for a country’s future, stability and development. It is therefore crucial that peace agreements are non-discriminatory and safeguard the rights and needs of all citizens. In many cases, women are still left on the sidelines when peace agreements are negotiated – there are still few women at the negotiating table and few women peace mediators and facilitators. This has been confirmed by studies carried out by the Council on Foreign Relations, among others. Civil society generally has little access to or influence over the negotiation processes, and very few peace agreements integrate the gender perspective and address women’s rights in a satisfactory way.

Inclusive processes can strengthen the credibility and legitimacy of a peace agreement, as well as the population’s sense of ownership to it. Inclusive processes often lead to more complex agreements because more people are involved, but such agreements are also more likely to be implemented. Ensuring that peace processes are inclusive is therefore important in preparing the ground for the successful implementation of a peace agreement and for lasting peace.

Norway’s efforts

Norway works actively to promote inclusive peace processes and agreements. To achieve this goal, Norway attaches importance to ensuring that all those involved in a peace process have the knowledge they need to be able to integrate the gender perspective into their work.

Norway is involved in a number of peace initiatives in various parts of the world. These include formal peace processes, for example in Colombia and the Philippines, as well as initiatives to promote dialogue in conflict zones, where the aim is to bring the parties to the negotiating table and prevent escalation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ensures that its delegations to peace negotiations include both women and men. Norway’s first female special representative to a peace process was appointed in 2014 (the Philippines). While maintaining a gender balance in our own teams is important in itself, it also sets a good example for others to follow.

Parties to conflict appoint their own negotiating delegations. The fact that few women tend to be included is partly because women are under-represented in political parties and in armed groups. Norway works to increase the parties' understanding of the importance of having a better gender balance in their delegations. Norway also gives priority to supporting women who are participating in the process.

However, the presence of women in a peace process is in itself no guarantee that a peace agreement will be gender-sensitive. Norway therefore works with both the men and the women in peace delegations to achieve non-discriminatory agreements that meet their respective needs.

Norway seeks to ensure that the voices of different women’s groups and civil society organisations are heard and that these groups and organisations have the opportunity to provide input to negotiations. During the Colombia process, the parties established several innovative mechanisms that were intended to ensure that women’s experiences and needs were taken seriously and women’s rights were respected. These included a sub-commission on gender issues. More information can be found in a report published by NOREF. A number of other peace processes have incorporated mechanisms to promote inclusion, such as those in Cyprus, Syria, Yemen and Libya.

In preliminary dialogues and unofficial negotiations, there is less room for manoeuvre. It is difficult to include other actors in confidential processes that the parties have not yet publicly committed to. Experience shows, however, that it is possible in this early phase to raise awareness of the need for an inclusive process and enhance the capacity of the parties and, simultaneously, of civil society to participate. Unless the ground is prepared at the preliminary stages, local women’s organisations and other civil society groups will often be overlooked when a formal process starts.

There is still a long way to go before women are able to participate in peace processes and peace negotiations on an equal footing with men. Few peace agreements adequately incorporate a gender perspective. Norway will continue to work to increase the number of women taking part in delegations to peace negotiations, to increase the number of women peace negotiators, to ensure that women are represented and consulted in peace processes, and to integrate the gender perspective into peace agreements.

Networks of women mediators

The Nordic Women Mediators network was launched in Oslo in November 2015, inspired by a similar South African initiative. It is made up of Nordic women who have experience of peace processes and peacebuilding. Its objective is to consolidate and provide access to expertise in order to increase women’s participation and influence in peace processes. The network is an instrument for strengthening Nordic women’s efforts to promote inclusive peace processes. A Norwegian network has also been established in connection with the Nordic initiative.

Since the launch of the Nordic network, a number of other regional networks of women peace mediators have been established: FemWise-Africa (African Union 2017), the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network (2017), Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (2018), Arab Women Mediators Network, Southeast Asian Network of Women Peace Negotiators and Mediators (2021), Pacific Women Mediators Network (2023) and the Ibero-American Network of Women Mediators (2023). Norway convened a meeting of the existing regional women mediator networks in Oslo in 2018, which led to the establishment of the Global Alliance of Regional Women Mediators Networks during the High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2019. Norway plays an active role in the Global Alliance, working in close cooperation with other members of the Nordic network.