Migrant women at a workshop organized by IOM Cameroon. March 30, 2023. (Emily Pinna/IOM)
Gender-sensitive approaches to disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes tend to focus on the exclusion of women as participants in DDR programs. There has been less attention to including women’s civil society organizations (CSOs) in the design and implementation of DDR programs. One recent effort to involve women’s CSOs in reintegration was a project led by the National Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Committee (NDDRC) of Cameroon, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and UN Women. Funded by the Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative (GYPI), this project focused on enhancing women’s roles in the reintegration aspect of DDR. This project highlights both the benefits and the challenges of including women’s CSOs in reintegration processes.
This policy paper analyzes the gendered considerations and lessons learned for engaging women’s CSOs in the implementation of reintegration programming in the Far North of Cameroon. Over the course of the project, the engagement of women’s CSOs has evolved as they received capacity building on reintegration and education on the DDR process in Cameroon. Although the long-term impact of the project remains to be seen, this changing engagement has created a potential entry point to facilitate a shift in societal gender dynamics.
The paper concludes with recommendations aimed at ensuring that reintegration processes are not only more gender-responsive but also lead to more sustainable outcomes:
- Develop a gender strategy as part of the overall DDR strategy
- Establish an infrastructure for systematic and sustained collaboration with civil society
- Invest in women’s CSOs’ long-term capacity to support reintegration
- Communicate details on the operationalization of the DDR process so that CSOs are set up for success
- Consider the role of masculinities when developing DDR gender strategies
- Anticipate and proactively address safety risks facing women’s CSOs supporting reintegration