Strengthening Women's Citizenship in the Context of State-building

"In many fragile state contexts women's relationship to the state is fundamentally different to that of men and they face specific barriers in claiming rights, participating in governance and holding the state to account - in effect, in acting as full citizens. However, the intensive state-building processes that follow conflict can transform political relationships and state structures, and therefore have the potential to profoundly alter the nature of women's citizenship."

This 20-page seminar report explores the opportunities offered by state-building processes to enhance women's political participation, rights, and ability to hold the state to account. It emerged from a November 11 2008 seminar held in Madrid, Spain, by the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), which is an independent think-tank working to conduct research and influence policy in areas related to democracy and human rights, peace and security, and humanitarian action and development. The FRIDE seminar brought together experts working on gender and governance issues to explore how women's experience of citizenship in fragile states is affected by state-building processes and to identify how such processes can be opportunities to strengthen women's citizenship. The seminar was part of a 2-year FRIDE research project (November 2008-November 2010) that examines policy options for strengthening women's citizenship in the context of state-building.

Some of the key points that emerged during the seminar proceedings are that state-building strategies must: include strengthening women's citizenship as an explicit aim; engage with the informal institutions that have most influence over women's lives; address economic and social barriers to women's substantive citizenship; and support the participation of women's organisations.

Furthermore, women's rights need to be strengthened during "normal" times, not just during conflict, crisis, or elections. This should involve not just legal and justice reforms but should also address informal systems and economic and social rights. Additional findings are that:

• Customary justice systems hold potential for strengthening women's rights. While these systems are more accessible to women, they are also more rooted in unfair gender power relations.
• Barriers to women's political participation remain in terms of poverty, lack of time, lack of self-confidence and education, mistrust of the political system, and patriarchal culture.
• Strengthening women's political participation means addressing women's participation in informal institutions at household and community level.
• Standard ways of strengthening the voice of citizens do not work for women, as their access to public spaces is mediated by men. Specific initiatives to strengthen the voice of women can help build state accountability to women.
• Changing relationships between donors and partner governments in the context of the Paris Declaration - particularly the increasing use of general budget support - affect the ability of donors to promote gender equality policies.
  

Donors can integrate gender equality issues into their support for governance reform, institution strengthening and other state building activities. They can also seek to ensure that women's rights and participation remain a priority for the international community and partner governments within fragile state environments. Specific issues to be considered by donors include:

• The effect of high levels of donor support on the accountability relationship between states and citizens, including women citizens: donors need to adopt a long term and comprehensive vision for women's rights, not just support projects and short term measures.
• The need to address northern actors that generate gender inequality in the south.
• The potential effect of the economic crisis on donor support for gender equality within the development sector.
• Means of addressing gender equality within informal institutions, for example through a mix of aid instruments and support to civil society.
• The need to build incentive structures and accountability systems within international organisations to ensure staff deliver on gender policy commitments.
• The role of bilateral donors in holding multilateral (especially United Nations) organisations to account for their actions on gender equality in post-conflict settings.

Some areas where further research on women's citizenship could add value include:

• Exploring the processes through which women become "active citizens", with a sense of entitlement and an identity that is based on having rights. In particular, asking how state-building processes affect - and are affected by - the development of women's "active citizenship".
• Examining how women's entitlements, and the routes they use to claim these, change during and after conflict. In particular, documenting the citizen action of women during and after conflict and asking how this action has altered women's access to decision-making spaces and processes, and ability to influence decisions that affect their lives.
• Examining how the interface between formal and customary legal systems shapes women's access to justice and outcomes from justice. In particular, asking how the changes in the relationship between the formal and informal systems that take place in the context of state-building affect women's ability to claim their rights.
• Understanding how state-civil society relations are constructed in different contexts and how these relations are altered by conflict and post-conflict statebuilding processes. In particular, asking what such changes in state-civil society relations mean for women's civil society organising and citizen action and the ability of women to have their voices heard.