Project profile — Gender and Conflict-Sensitive Approaches to Peacebuilding in Ethiopia

This project aims to increase peace, security, and stability in Ethiopia. Project activities include: (1) working with local leaders, including women, from formal and informal institutions to strengthen violence prevention, conflict management, and Conflict Early Warning (CEW) mechanisms; (2) delivering trauma-healing counselling for conflict-affected women, men, girls, and boys. Also, providing essential referrals for GBV survivors; and (3) collaborating with leaders (women and men) to actively promote gender equality in peacebuilding.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) improved capacities of government, women's associations, Peace Committees and other formal and informal institutions to inclusively prevent and manage conflict in Afar, Oromia, and Somali regions; (2) increased capacity for inclusive offline and online peacebuilding among young women and men in conflict-prone areas of Afar, Oromia, and Somali regions; (3) improved capacity of government and conflict management groups to facilitate survivor-centred support and referrals for GBV (including sexual violence) survivors and trauma affected women, men, girls, and boys in the Afar region; (4) increased skills and confidence of women to lead peacebuilding initiatives; and (5) enhanced allyship among members of peacebuilding committees, community leaders, and other gatekeepers, and in particular men and boys, in support of women's leadership in peacebuilding.

Results achieved at the end of the project (January 2025) include: (1) improved understanding and attitude towards gender-equality, non-violent conflict resolution methods such as negotiation and mediation, women’s leadership and women and girls’ participation; (2) strengthened peacebuilding structures that are responsive to community needs, uphold women's rights and equality, and actively work towards conflict prevention and improved social cohesion; (3) 100% of the local formal and informal institutions continued using gender-sensitive approaches 6 months after receiving training; (4) carried out a comprehensive Gender-Based Analysis Plus and conflict analysis across 14 woredas in the Afar, Oromia, and Somali regions; (5) trained 80 individuals on integrating gender-sensitive indicators into Conflict early warning systems in Somali or Oromia regions; (6) trained 26 personnel from the Bureau of women and social affairs and other community-based organizations on trauma healing in conflict-affected areas of the Afar region; (7) increased level of active participation by women and women-led organization to 87.7% at the end of the project; (8) designed and implemented 3 women-led feminist peace leadership projects through women's associations and networks; and (9) designed and implemented 3 gender-responsive and inclusive youth-led digital peace projects through youth peace groups.