Conflict in the twenty-first century looks different from the fragile-state wars of the 1990s. It is more fragmented, more localised and often more gendered: women and girls are disproportionately affected, while their voices remain under-represented in the architecture of peace. The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, anchored in UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent commitments set out to change that. Two and a half decades on, Africa sits at the centre of a test: can peacekeeping and peace processes become genuinely gender-responsive and, in doing so, more effective?
Women’s involvement in peace processes is more than a matter of principle; it is a pragmatic predictor of success. Quantitative studies show that when women take part in peace negotiations, agreements are significantly more likely to endure: inclusion increases the probability that a peace agreement will last at least two years by around 20 per cent, and raises the chance that it will endure for 15 years by roughly 35 per cent. This is the single most consequential finding that underpins the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) case to policymakers and commanders alike.
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Yet representation in peace operations tells a different story. As of the most recent UN reporting, women accounted for roughly one in ten of all uniformed personnel in UN peacekeeping operations; the share is higher in police functions but remains stubbornly low in troop contingents and military roles. In practice, women made up about 6–8 per cent of military contingents and roughly one fifth of police personnel serving with UN missions; across civilian leadership posts there are incremental gains but not yet parity. The United Nations and partner organisations have set concrete targets, and launched strategies to reach them, but the pace of change remains
Those global numbers matter for Africa because the continent hosts a majority of UN peace operations and is also the source of the largest numbers of troop and police contributors. If African militaries, police services and regional organisations can expand and normalise women’s participation, the operational returns, better community access, improved reporting of sexual and gender-based crimes, and broader legitimacy should follow.
Africa’s Security Landscape: The Moment and the Mandate
Africa’s security challenges are diverse: intrastate insurgencies in the Sahel, protracted instability in parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the political fragility of the Horn, and tensions in parts of southern Africa. Recent months have underscored the human cost. UN officials and humanitarian agencies have warned of surging extremist violence in the Sahel, with thousands killed, millions displaced, and women and girls facing intensified risks of sexual violence, forced marriage and interrupted education. These developments sharpen the imperative to make peacekeeping operations more sensitive to gendered harms and to ensure that WPS commitments translate into protection and participation on the ground.
African institutions have not been passive. The African Union (AU) maintains a standing programme on Women, Gender, Peace and Security and has made WPS an annual item for the Peace and Security Council, embedding gender considerations in continental policy. This regional buy-in is critical: African ownership of WPS norms increases the chances of domestication and sustainable funding. Recent AU efforts to reinvigorate monitoring and implementation, including a high-level AU workshop in June 2025 demonstrate political recognition that more decisive action is required.
National Action Plans: Progress, Gaps and the Need for Renewal
National Action Plans (NAPs) are the primary instrument for translating UNSCR 1325 into domestic policy. As of the latest international tracking, over one hundred UN member states have adopted at least one 1325 NAP; Africa has been an active region in this process, with numerous countries publishing WPS roadmaps. Yet the database also records a persistent issue: many NAPs are outdated or lack properly resourced implementation plans. Roughly half of states that once produced NAPs have let them expire or failed to update them promptly; this administrative attrition undermines momentum and leaves civil society and frontline actors without the predictable funding and authority they require.
For African governments, the challenge is threefold: renew and fund NAPs so they are actionable; integrate WPS measures into security sector reform, justice and humanitarian planning; and build reliable data systems that capture both women’s participation and their protection needs. Without these steps, commitments risk remaining aspirational.
Operational Evidence from the Field
There is growing field-level evidence that women peacekeepers can be operational force multipliers. Women in police units often improve community outreach and reporting of gender-based crimes; women medical and human rights officers enhance access to survivors of sexual violence; and women military observers and staff officers broaden intelligence gathering in community settings where men may be excluded from conversations. The presence of women can facilitate trust between missions and local populations, opening channels of information that men alone may not access. Where female formations have been deployed and supported with training and equipment, local women’s participation in national security structures has increased. These operational benefits are especially relevant in African theatres where social norms can limit male peacekeepers’ direct access to women and girls.
However, the operational argument has limits when women are deployed as window dressing. Meaningful gains require two things: that deployed women hold substantive roles (command, investigation, community policing and mediation), and that their deployments are accompanied by doctrinal change, training on gender-sensitive protection, and proper leadership opportunities.
Training, Incentives and National Pipelines
One of the stubborn constraints on women’s presence in peacekeeping is the supply chain inside national security institutions. Many African police services and armed forces still have low overall female representation. Even where women serve in national forces, domestic promotion practices, family responsibilities, and discriminatory cultures can prevent them from being selected for international deployment.
Several targeted initiatives seek to remedy this: UN Police recruitment drives, regional training academies, and funds such as the Elsie Initiative that finance capacity-building for recruiting and preparing women for deployment. These measures have improved the numbers of women police and individual police officers, but progress in troop contingents has been slower. Meeting the UN’s uniformed gender parity ambitions therefore requires sustained investment in recruitment pipelines, family-friendly policies, and career progression that positions women for peacekeeping roles.
Financing and Accountability
Policy change without financing is performative. Many NAPs and donor pledges lack dedicated budgets; women’s organisations in conflict zones often receive a minuscule share of peacebuilding funding. The financing gap undermines both protection programmes and the creation of constituencies for durable peace. Accountability mechanisms, from annual public reporting against measurable targets to parliamentary oversight of defence and security budgets for gender-responsive expenditure must be strengthened. The AU and regional economic communities can help by conditioning certain forms of financial and technical assistance on demonstrable WPS progress, and by channelling funds directly to women-led organisations that operate where state capacity is absent.
Technology presents new prospects and new risks. Digital platforms can expand the reach of women peacebuilders, enable remote training for police and military personnel, and improve reporting of gender-based crimes even in hard-to-reach areas. Yet digital tools can also be abused; women activists and female journalists face online harassment that chills participation. A modern WPS strategy therefore requires investments in safe, accessible technology, digital literacy for women leaders, and protocols that protect online civic space.
A More African Peacekeeping Architecture
Africa already hosts innovative forms of regional peace support, ECOMOG in West Africa, the African Union’s standby arrangements, and ad-hoc joint forces created to confront specific threats. These instruments could become laboratories for WPS leadership if they mainstream gender across doctrine, mandate composition and force generation. African troop-contributing countries that have successfully increased female representation at home can be champions; their practices should be systematised and shared across the continent. The AU’s renewed focus on monitoring WPS implementation, combined with bilateral and multilateral financing that prioritises women’s participation and protection, can tilt the incentives toward systemic change.
Risks, Backlash and the Politics of Inclusion
The politics of gender inclusion is never linear. In some contexts, efforts to increase women’s visibility can trigger backlash from conservative elites or armed actors, and tokenistic deployments can breed resentment rather than trust. There is also a risk that WPS becomes securitized, used as a cover for military-first approaches that neglect socio-economic drivers of conflict and underfund grassroots women’s organisations. The most effective strategies therefore balance representation in security institutions with investments in women’s political empowerment, economic opportunity and legal protection.
What Success Would Look Like By 2030
If the WPS agenda bears tangible fruit in Africa by 2030, several markers should be observable. First, a significant increase in the share of women in uniformed peacekeeping roles, not just police but a measurable rise in troop contingent representation backed by transparent national targets and funded training pipelines. Second, NAPs updated, costed and monitored with active civil society participation and parliamentary oversight. Third, demonstrable improvements in the protection of women and girls in conflict zones, fewer incidents of sexual and gender-based violence and greater access to justice for survivors. Fourth, routine inclusion of women in political negotiations and local mediation processes, producing more durable agreements. Finally, an expansion of financing channels that redirect a larger portion of peacebuilding funds to women-led organisations and gender-sensitive programming.
First, countries should make female recruitment and deployment for peacekeeping a national security priority, funded and tracked as part of defence and police budgets. Second, missions must embed gender expertise at senior leadership levels: gender advisers should sit at decision tables and be resourced to shape mandates, operations and training. Third, donors and regional bodies should create multi-year financing instruments that uplift women’s protection and participation, with accountability metrics tied to substantive outcomes rather than inputs.
From Obligation to Operational Excellence
The Women, Peace and Security agenda has moved from moral aspiration to operational necessity. For Africa, where conflict dynamics are often local, complex and highly gendered, making peacekeeping and peace processes gender-responsive is not an optional add-on: it is central to effectiveness. The evidence is clear that women’s participation strengthens the durability of peace. What remains is political will, funding and the patient work of institutional reform. If African states, the AU and international partners align around those elements, the future of peacekeeping can be both more inclusive and more successful. Failure to do so will mean missed opportunity: for women, for communities, and for peace itself.
