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By Christoph Zürcher (principal investigator), Majela Guzmán (research librarian), Muhsanah Arefin, Luan Borges, Taha Doueidar, Diane Hoffmann, Mir Javid, Kathryn Kavanagh, Léonne Valantin
CIPS Working Paper, September 2021

• Since the adoption of UNSC Resolution 1325 in October 2000, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has been a top priority for the United Nations and for many of its member states. UNSC Resolution 1325 is credited with two achievements. First, it established a gendered perspective on violence and war, by stating that women and girls suffer disproportionately from the impacts of war and violence, and called for more prevention and better protection. Second, resolution 1325 also recognized that women can be resourceful and effective actors in the field of peacebuilding.
• This latter perspective is instrumentalist. In this view, women’s inclusion and participation in peacebuilding activities will lead to better outcomes; hence women’s inclusion and participation are instrumental for more effective peacebuilding activities. Three claims dominate the instrumentalist discourse:
  • (1) the participation and inclusion of women in UN-led peacekeeping can make peacekeeping more effective (“operational effectiveness claim”).
  • (2) the participation and inclusion of women in formal peace negotiations can make peace more durable (“better peace agreements claim”).
  • (3) the agency of women in local peacebuilding activities can make peacebuilding more effective (“better local peacebuilding claim”).

• This systematic review aims to collect and summarize the existing evidence on these politically influential instrumentalist claims. This is the first systematic review on this topic. Given the importance of the WPS agenda and the prominence of the three causal claims, we believe it is important to collect and present the available evidence on these instrumentalist claims and to highlight existing gaps. The review systematically collects and synthesises qualitative and quantitative evidence from studies meeting specific inclusion criteria. The study protocol was registered with OSF (Open Science Framework) on February 19, 2021 as OSF-Standard Pre-Data Collection Registration.

Christoph Zürcher is a Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. His research and teaching interests include conflict research, methods of conflict research, state-building and intervention, and international development. His regional focus is on the Former Soviet Union especially on Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia including Afghanistan.

A panel discussion on findings and implications from the first systematic review of instrumentalist claims of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda was also held. Watch the entire event here: