Last week, the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice hosted the Women Waging Peace Collective Learning Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. Women Waging Peace network members from all over the world gathered to discuss how to prevent and mitigate election violence. The Women Waging Peace network, established in 1999, offers support for women peacebuilders through connections, grants, and research. Given that the Women Waging Peace network includes women from over 100 countries, most network meetings are conducted virtually. This conference provided an opportunity for the Kroc IPJ to bring 20 women peacebuilders together to connect, contribute to research, and learn from each other.
Women Waging Peace Collective Learning Advisory Board Member Liezelle Kumalo
Kroc IPJ Program Officer for Women, Peace and Security Briana Mawby presented initial findings from the annual Women Waging Peace survey, which focused on how women peacebuilders around the world work to prevent and mitigate election violence. Based on network members’ feedback and perspectives, a policy brief will be produced alongside the annual survey report when it is released in the coming weeks.
Jini Agrawal leads a session on women's leadership in Nepal
Women Waging Peace network member and conference co-organizer Jini Agrawal led an interactive session on women’s leadership in Nepal. Network members discussed what strategies made women leaders in Nepal successful and how to apply those strategies to their own work. Network members emphasized the value of making women’s experiences visible in peace processes and women having a place in politics regardless of their backgrounds. Conference participant and network member Radha Paudel, who focuses on the concept of dignified menstruation, was one of the leaders featured in the presentation.
Women Waging Peace network member Mossarat Qadeem
The Women Waging Peace members looked ahead to brainstorm how they would like to stay connected after the conference. The topic that brought them all together was preventing election violence, but they can relate and connect on much more than that. The power of having an international network like Women Waging Peace is that members can learn from different contexts around the world and then apply those learnings to their own work.
Women Waging Peace network member Preeti Thapa
At a public reception, network members connected with local changemakers in Nepal who work on gender, democracy, and peacebuilding. In between all the in-depth conference discussions, Women Waging Peace network members connected through games, a tea tasting and painting session at Nepal Tea Collective, and a closing dinner with music and dance performances.
To learn more from Women Waging Peace network members, register for our next virtual event! This event, hosted as part of the NGO CSW Forum alongside the 2025 Commission on the Status of Women, highlights the critical peacebuilding work that women lead around the world, shaped and supported by the Beijing Platform For Action. This event features a panel of women peacebuilders from the Women Waging Peace network, who will discuss how the Beijing Platform for Action has shaped their peacebuilding work and what they hope to see for the implementation of the Platform for Action in the next decade. Register here.
