Gender, peace and security

Gender analysis is becoming more common in conflict analysis but in most cases it fails to look at how the different roles and behaviours of women, men and sexual and gender minorities affect conflict and impact people’s lives.

Saferworld considers gender throughout all its work in Uganda. In 2016, we launched our gender analysis of conflict toolkit – piloted in Karamoja, Moroto, in north-eastern Uganda with the Uganda Land Alliance.  Our work has explored how gender norms – the ways in which societies pressurise their male and female members to behave – are influencing conflict dynamics. For example, in Moroto we found that powerlessness in the face of mining companies and their government backers further exacerbated men’s feelings of emasculation and injustice, potentially leading to more serious outbreaks of violence.