GENDER MAINSTREAMING AS A CRITICAL IMPERATIVE IN AFRICAN PEACEBUILDING

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming is widely recognized as a critical imperative for building sustainable peace. In Africa, a robust normative architecture—from United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 to the African Union’s Maputo Protocol—explicitly mandates the integration of gender perspectives and the full participation of women in all phases of peacebuilding. However, a profound and persistent chasm exists between these progressive policy commitments and their effective implementation on the ground. This study interrogates the nature and causes of this chronic “implementation gap” in African peacebuilding. Employing a qualitative research design based on critical interpretive synthesis of secondary literature, this analysis is grounded in an integrated theoretical framework. It draws upon Feminist International Relations to deconstruct the gendered power dynamics of peace and security; Feminist Institutionalism to examine how formal policies are subverted by informal norms; and Postcolonial Feminist Theory to center African women’s agency and contextual specificities. The research moves beyond cataloguing the symptoms of the gap—such as tokenistic participation in peace talks and gender-blind program design—to analyze its systemic anatomy. The findings reveal that the implementation gap is not a passive failure but an active, politically functional outcome. It is sustained by three interlocking dynamics: the discursive containment of women’s roles within a narrow “victim-protection” frame, which sidelines their agency as political actors; institutional mimicry, where states adopt the form of gender equality mechanisms (e.g., National Action Plans) without ceding substantive authority or resources, rendering them symbolic; and a political economy of performative mainstreaming, where donor funding incentives prioritize short-term, technical compliance over long-term, transformative change. Consequently, peacebuilding processes consistently reproduce the gendered power hierarchies that fuel conflict, resulting in settlements that lack inclusivity, legitimacy, and durability. The study concludes that effective gender mainstreaming is inseparable from a fundamental transformation of peacebuilding governance itself. It therefore advances targeted recommendations for key stakeholders: regional bodies must enforce compliance through political leverage; national governments and mediators must institutionalize bridges between formal and informal peace processes; international donors must shift to long-term, core funding for women’s organizations; and civil society must leverage strategic litigation and coalitions. Ultimately, bridging the implementation gap requires reconceptualizing peacebuilding from a state-centric, liberal project into a feminist, human-security-oriented praxis that redistributes power and builds a genuinely inclusive peace.