Project profile — Promoting Women's Participation and Leadership in Venezuela's Peacebuilding Efforts

This project aims to strengthen the leadership capacities of Venezuelan women leaders from the political opposition and civil society to collaborate better and actively advance a more inclusive and diverse approach to rebuilding the country’s democratic institutions. Project activities include: (1) training and roundtables on effective negotiations, transitional justice, communications and effective gender inclusion strategies; (2) producing policy briefs containing concrete actions for the inclusion of women in Venezuela’s peacebuilding efforts; (3) delivering a media campaign to promote women in peacebuilding processes; and (4) hosting a summit that will analyze the Venezuelan crisis from a gender perspective and discuss how to mitigate the challenges specific to women.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) increased collaboration among Venezuelan women leaders and broader civil society networks, political democratic actors, and the international community to align the opposition’s efforts better and allow for the representation of more diverse perspectives to be included in peacebuilding efforts; (2) improved knowledge among political and civil society women leaders in Venezuela of negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution theory and skills; and (3) improved visibility of Venezuelan political and civil society women leaders and of the importance of including women in peacemaking processes. The ultimate outcome of this project is for women to increase their leadership in Venezuela’s peacebuilding efforts.

Results achieved at the end of the project (June 2022) include: (1) established the women’s network “Red de Apoyo,” consisting of 64 women from the 2015 Venezuelan National Assembly, women ambassadors from the Interim Venezuelan Government, and civil society leaders; (2) supported Red de Apoyo to effectively develop a set of actionable objectives for implementation by the opposition, with or without regime participation; (3) 57 of the 64 Red de Apoyo members indicated increased capacities in negotiation, contributing to improved collaboration; and (4) 34 out of the 64 Red de Apoyo members reported increased visibility thanks to their active participation in the network.