The Nordic Africa Institute

PROJECT

Global Talk Local Walk – the Translation of the 'Women, Peace and Security' Agenda Into Practice in Postconflict Liberia and Rwanda

Started • 01 March 2018

The African continent has been homestead for a number of ‘new wars’ e.g. in Liberia and Rwanda with gendered norms and practices at the forefront of understanding conflict and human (in)securities central to the new wars. Thus, the project takes is point of departure in that ‘the human’ is gendered and has often meant ‘the masculine’ in research on conflict and (in)securities.

This research project investigates the processes of translating the global gender norms laid out on conflict and security in Liberia and Rwanda in order to analyse their processes of travelling and adaption to local contexts by local ‘security’ and ‘peace’ actors.

The purpose of the project is to compare the empirical findings from two African country contexts to identify patterns and peculiarities of the norm translation processes and of conflict and (in)securities from a gender perspective. This forms the basis for speaking back to theories on norm translation processes and conflict.

The present project aims at unpacking the processes of translating global gender norms on ‘women, peace and security’ and the dynamics of gender and power influencing these travelling processes in Liberia and Rwanda and in the work of Nordic donors with the following main research questions: How are global gender norms on ‘women, peace and security’ transformed in the processes of adoption, translation and negotiation in local African contexts in Liberia and Rwanda? And how do the co-optation by donors of the agenda on ‘women, peace and security’ influence local African gender work and agendas?

The project is inspired by the body of theories on local norm translation, postcolonial feminism and gender and conflict.