Acknowledging Differences: Five Reasons Why Using a Gender Lens in the PBAR Can Make Prevention and Peacebuilding More Impactful

People engage with and are affected by violence differently depending on what group they belong to. One’s gender can influence why people engage in violence, what type of violence they may suffer from, and what opportunities they will have to contribute to peace efforts. As the Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR) enters its formal phase, member states are considering opportunities to improve the UN’s impact on peacebuilding and sustaining peace—particularly at the field level. To do so, understanding the need for tailored approaches to different groups is key. This blog post explores the importance of integrating a gender lens in prevention and peacebuilding.

When gender does and doesn’t matter in prevention and peacebuilding

While there is no universally agreed-upon definition of prevention and peacebuilding, policymakers generally recognize the importance of addressing the underlying causes of violence—or risk and protective factors.[i] Importantly, distinct groups of people (e.g., men, women, non-binary people, ethnic groups, age groups, etc.) commit violence and are affected by it for different reasons. Understanding such differences is key to ensure tailored and impactful prevention and peacebuilding programs. CIC is developing a tool to identify risk and protective factors for intra-state conflict and violent extremism to support more evidence-based decision-making in prevention. Particularly, the tool reflects how those factors may vary by gender.

Gender has an important, yet nuanced role in prevention and peacebuilding. While the women’s rights agenda is vital in its own regard, it cannot be directly relabeled as prevention or peacebuilding.^[ii] Understanding when and how it contributes to prevention is essential.^[iii]

It is also important to understand what roles women and girls have in peace and violence and debunk assumptions such as the essentialist idea that women are inherently peaceful. Additionally, not all risk and protective factors are gender-specific. Some academic research have shown for instance that experiencing a childhood mired by conflict, loss, and displacement  is a risk factor, and receiving positive parenting behavior is a protective factor across genders. While acknowledging the points above, using a gender lens can substantially increase impact of peacebuilding and prevention programming, particularly because:

1. People are affected by violence differently depending on their gender. Data shows 81 percent of victims of homicides occurring outside the house worldwide are men, and 66 percent of all intimate partner killings are women. Additionally, gender-based violence trends such as violence against women (VAW) sometimes do not follow other violence trends such as armed conflict. After the war in Kosovo ended in 1999, a study found that certain forms of VAW were “widespread, pervasive and persistent,” even though other forms of violence had decreased.
2. Gender may influence violent offenders’ profile. For example, one study found that in the United States, female members of far-right groups were 10 years younger than men, less likely to have a criminal history, equally as likely to be employed but less likely to hold a tertiary education. Women accounted for 10 percent of the involvement in violent incidents, and usually completed only one attack, whereas men were more likely to commit repeated offenses.
3. Relationships between genders may influence engagement in violence. For example, some women have supported violence by encouraging their husbands to “take a gun and loot” so that they can feed their family. Other women have been abducted or forced into an armed group through their husbands or other family members, or have felt obligated to join their husbands in the movement.
4. Gender norms and oppression might lead to violence. Adolescent girls who suffer from various forms of gender oppression—including gender-based violence—might seek refuge in armed groups.[iv] Some evidence suggests that societal pressures stemming from social gender norms may lead men who fail to achieve certain social status or exhibit masculine traits more vulnerable to recruitment as a way to fulfill their expected roles as men.
5. Someone’s gender may influence what risk and protective factors they can identify and address. For example, being praised by parents (both mothers and fathers) can act as protective factors of violent extremist behavior in children. Specifically, in settings with prominent traditional gender roles (in a simplified way: where men are considered breadwinners and women, caregivers), mothers’ roles in the household and the community which can be strategic places to recognize radicalization and early signs of violent behavior within their families.

Understanding the nuances highlighted above will be key to design tailored prevention and peacebuilding strategies. For example, the Gender Equality Network for Small Arms Control (GENSAC) members in Latin America brought together civil society leaders and elected parliamentarians from across the continent to find solutions to address high rates of femicide. By examining gender-disaggregated homicide data, they established that many of these crimes were committed with firearms legally purchased by intimate partners and family members of the victims, with a previous history of violence. Understanding the enablers of violence, GENSAC members are working with elected leaders on policies to prevent femicide.

Recommendations to increase the impact of prevention and peacebuilding efforts through a gender lens

The PBAR offers an opportunity to increase impact of prevention and peacebuilding efforts by emphasizing the importance of using a gender lens when identifying and addressing risk and protective factors for violence. Two particular aspects could be considered:

1. Supporting data collection and analysis to identify risk and protective factors through a gender-lens

Data for peacebuilding and prevention disaggregated by gender are notoriously rarely available. Upon request, national and local actors should be able to receive support from the United Nations system to enhance their evidence-based understanding of how gender influences risk and protective factors for violence. Additionally, they should be supported in building capacity to collect and analyze gender-disaggregated data, along with other contextually relevant categories such as age or ethnicity.

2. Building on what exists

Prevention and peacebuilding efforts can build on other strategies that address risk and protective factors for violence. For instance, Women, Peace and Security (WPS) national action plans (NAPs) may already support a gendered approach to violence and conflict prevention, and allow “all actors [to] address the root causes of conflict and violence.” National prevention strategies for instance, could build on existing WPS NAPs, when relevant, as highlighted during the discussion organized by the FBA in October 2024. The PBAR is an important opportunity to further explore such synergies.

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The tool presented in this blog post is funded by the UK Government. Learn more about the project and its policy implications, specifically in response to the Pact for the Future.

[i] Risk factors are variables that precede violence and increase the likelihood of its occurrence, while protective factors decrease such likelihood.

[ii] See for instance: David Cingarelli et al., “Human Rights Violations and Violent Internal Conflict,” Social Sciences 8, no. 2 (2019): https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8020041.

[iii] See for instance: Erik Melander, “Gender Equality and Intrastate Conflict,” International Studies Quarterly 49, no. 4 (2005); 695–714, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3693506.

[iv] While these women may not end up taking up combat roles, they are supporting the functioning of a violent organization and thus enabling violence. On the many roles that women may take in armed groups, see for example: Alexis Leanna Henshaw, “Why Women Rebel: Greed, Grievance, and Women in Armed Rebel Groups,” Journal of Global Security Studies, 1 no. 3 (2016): 204–219, https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogw008.