Beyond the Rhetoric: Mainstreaming Gender in the ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture

With a long history of a troubled backyard, ECOWAS needs to modify its strategies to ensure effectiveness. This requires a bespoke and innovative approach to peace and security that, necessarily, has to be gendered and inclusive. This policy briefing analyses the women, peace and security component of ECOWAS’s peace and security regulatory framework, particularly its policy on mainstreaming gender and its implementation by ECOWAS member states. In so doing, it hopes to inform praxis and improve policy outcomes. The briefing argues that ECOWAS should pursue a vigorous strategic plan for the effective implementation of its comprehensive policy framework on mainstreaming gender in peace and security. The path to this requires innovative thinking and broader engagement with relevant stakeholders.