Women Absent from Myanmar’s Peace Talks

Tasked with ending the world’s longest-running civil war, Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has made peace the top priority of her new government. But she is one of few women at the helm of this critical peace process. According to a new policy brief by the Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process (AGIPP), women comprise only three percent of national and regional peace and security bodies in the country. The national-level peace talks will determine the future of Myanmar’s peace, governance, and economic policies, yet out of 700 members, only 45—around six percent—are women.

This is a cause for concern. Research shows that when women participate in peace processes, the resulting agreements are 35 percent more likely to last at least 15 years.

In this report, AGIPP makes concrete recommendations for national and international policymakers on how to increase women’s representation and gender perspectives within the peace talks, including:

• Implement the 30 percent gender quota promised for the second phase of the Union Peace Conference;
• Appoint women as ceasefire monitors and commissioners; and
• Reduce practical barriers to women’s participation in the peace process at the national and local levels.

AGIPP is a unique civil society coalition of eight leading Myanmar organizations and networks working to increase women’s participation in peace and security in Myanmar. Inclusive Security has supported AGIPP since its founding in 2014.

Read the report.

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