Enhancing local capacity to manage conflicts: Malian women take centre stage

Have we neglected the gender dimensions of conflict over natural resources (NR)? Are women’s capacities to analyse and resolve NR disputes sufficiently recognised? Can women’s rights to participate in NR management be affirmed in a way that is not confrontational? How could women be integrated into peace-making and reconciliation initiatives?

A report from the International Institute for Environment and Development describes a participatory process to integrate gender into NR conflict management institutions. Nioro du Sahel is an isolated district near Mali’s border with Mauritania. Tensions between ethnic groups and between farmers and herders have been high. Customary systems of reciprocity are crumbling as cultivation encroaches upon pastures and blocks transhumance routes. Herders and farmers compete for scarce water resources. Banditry and cattle-rustling are common in a region where modern weapons are widely available.

Public shock at the death of over 100 people in violent clashes in 1997 resulted in intercommunity peace agreements brokered by local politicians, customary leaders and the administration. A peace committee was established in each sub-district. Though they have no legal authority, these committees work closely with state institutions at commune level as they raise awareness, disseminate information and help to put an end to disputes.

While peace committees have effectively restored peace in the district, long-term issues need to be addressed:

• What is their relationship with the communes, now empowered with natural resource management responsibilities under Mali’s decentralisation policy?
• Who is to sustain their work once current external funding ends?
• How can the roles of different dispute settlement institutions be clarified in order to avoid institutional shopping?
• How are women – none of whom were originally nominated as committee members – complementing their crucial behind-the-scenes interventions with formal peace-making responsibilities?

Jam Sahel, a Malian NGO, has been aiding the search for answers. Its process-orientated approach rejects the notion of homogenous cohesive communities but does not tackle gender prejudice and traditionalists head on. It has worked to facilitate an understanding of the complementary contribution of men and women so that communities themselves integrate gender in conflict management institutions.

Identification and incorporation of all stakeholders has been emphasised. Drawing key local leaders into the programme has sent a signal to others to challenge existing gender divisions of roles. The use of female facilitators and small group sizes has helped women to overcome their fear of acting outside patriarchal norms. A series of programmes on local radio stations – in French and three local languages – have made the committees’ mission and successes widely known. Most peace committees now include two women representatives and have nominated women to committees to address cross-border issues with neighbouring Mauritanian communities.

Jam Sahel’s experience suggests that those involved with NR conflict management need to recognise that:

• participatory processes facilitated by outsiders may unconsciously influence processes and outcomes
• ongoing monitoring and evaluation is needed to maximise the quality and value of women’s participation
• effective, equitable and sustainable NR conflict management, whether by men or women, can only occur within a process owned and led by the local population
• culture is not isolated and static – unjust attitudes and related power relations excluding women from natural resources management need to be questioned.

 

Source(s):
‘Gender and natural resource conflict management in Nioro du Sahel, Mali’, Issue paper No. 116, Drylands Programme, International Institute for Environment and Development, by Lucy Hamilton and Aly Dama, March 2003 Full document.

Funded by: NORAD

id21 Research Highlight: 13 November 2003

Further Information:
Lucy Hamilton
Devonport Regeneration Company
38/40 Marlborough Street
Devonport
Plymouth PL1 4AP
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1752 562 518
Fax: +44 (0)1752 306 414
Contact the contributor: LMHamilton1974@aol.com

Aly Dama
Jam Sahel
BP E4021
Bamako
Mali

Contact the contributor: Jam.sahel@datatech.toolnet.org

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