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NEW YORK – During the COVID-19 pandemic, public life in much of the world has largely stalled. For the two billion people living in conflict-affected countries, however, there was no respite in violence and unrest. Some of the world’s conflicts even escalated or reignited during the crisis, inflicting devastating new blows to infrastructure and health systems that were just beginning to be rebuilt. Globally, we continue to invest much more in the tools of war than in the foundations of peace.
Of course, some are working for peace. On 23 March, at the beginning of the pandemic, the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called for a global ceasefire, in order to allow countries to focus on the COVID-19 crisis and enable humanitarian organizations to reach vulnerable populations. More than 100 women’s organizations from Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Syria and Yemen quickly joined the appeal with a joint statement in favor of a broad COVID-19 truce, which could form the basis for lasting peace.
It should come as no surprise that women were among the first to support the call for a ceasefire. Last week, governments and civil society gathered to celebrate 20 years since the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 recognized for the first time the central roles of women at the forefront of peacebuilding efforts.
It is women – including young women – who do much of the painstaking and long-term work that underlies the high-profile formal deals, which are still often reached in talks that exclude them. For example, in Syria, women have done this negotiated ceasefire to allow the passage of humanitarian aid, worked in hospitals and field schools, distributed food and medicine and documented human rights violations. In South Sudan, women mediated and resolved tribal disputes to prevent conflicts from turning into violence.
Women too lead the critical work of the peace campaign, including through educational programs, which teach young people that conflict is never inevitable. Feminist organizations have long called for nuclear disarmament, arms control and the reallocation of funds from the military to social investments.
These appeals are essential. But they remained unanswered. So too is the UN appeal for a COVID-19 ceasefire: according to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in the two months following Guterres’s appeal, armed conflict in 19 countries displaced at least 661,000 people. Unless we listen to women and shift our investments from war to peace, the devastation will continue.
Global military spending was achieved last year $ 1.9 trillion, after the largest annual increase in a decade. In the last quarter of a century – from the landmark Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action called on governments to “recognize and address the dangers to society of armed conflict and the negative effect of excessive military spending” – defense spending has doubled.
More weapons and soldiers mean fewer resources for the 55% of the world population – including nearly two-thirds of the world’s children – who have no social protection, leaving them exposed to the brutal social and economic consequences of the pandemic. Military force will not help the 83-132 million people added by COVID-19 to the global undernourished count in 2020.
Liberian peacemaker and Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee is right: “Peace is not the absence of war”, he She said, but rather “the full expression of human dignity”. “It is an environment where human needs can be met. It means education for our children, functioning health systems, a fair and impartial judicial system, food on the table in every home, a community of women who are authorized, recognized, appreciated and fully compensated, and much more. “
We should spend our money not on instruments of destruction, but on a kind of “feminist peace” that defends basic economic and social rights for all. This means ensuring broad social protection and providing vital services, such as health care, childcare and education. The provision of these services has been demonstrated reduce the inequality that fuels conflicts.
The pandemic has highlighted the fundamental importance of other services as well. For example, shelters for survivors of gender-based violence faced increasing demand during the COVID-19 lockdowns and need more funds to meet it. In addition, governments should ensure adequate supplies of medical and personal protective equipment, which often ran out during the pandemic, even in the world’s richest countries.
A feminist peace also means that everyone’s voice is heard, with all groups fully and meaningfully included in the decisions that affect their lives. Here, women’s organizations have a vital role to play, helping women and other marginalized groups access decision-making arenas and giving them the resources and confidence to participate.
But, again, more funding is needed. On average bilateral aid to women’s organizations in fragile or conflict-affected countries $ 96 million a year in 2017-18: only 0.005% of global military spending.
Despite all the devastation it has caused, the COVID-19 crisis also represents a generational opportunity to build more inclusive economies and societies, free from the scourge of violent conflict. A concerted effort to demilitarize our world and build feminist peace – which begins with a global ceasefire and followed by a global reassessment of how to allocate our resources – must be central to this vision.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the executive director of UN Women.
Contributed by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
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