Women Inclusion in the Peace Process at Municipalities Level
December 2019
In 2018, The Together We Build It (TWBI) organization conducted a national women consultations which included women from different regions of Libya. Building on the recommendations emerged from the consultations, TWBI designed and implemented the campaign “You Are Missing The Full Picture” which supported the participation of women politicians in the formal peace process.
In 2019, TWBI continued working to support Libyan women in the peace process and, peace building at local level. The initiative “Bringing Peace From Bottom Up” was complimented by the campaign “Complete The Picture” as a continuity of the TWBI’s efforts over the past few years. which followed 3 approaches:
1. Monthly updates newsletters highlighting a specific issue or a topic related to the current Libyan context and discuss it through a dialogue among our members from a gender perspective. Our monthly updates also included direct recommendations from a policy brief which was based onnational consultationsheld in 2018. As well as parts of the expert opinion articles.
3- A video “Where are the women?” highlighting the important role of women in all fields in Libya.
Libyan women’s inclusion in the peace process and peace building is on the top of the agenda of TWBI. Consequently preparatory meetings were held with some women of Municipal councils to address their response to this initiative. TWBI gathered women members of the municipal councils from different regions to address how women at local level can be agents for peace, through “Bringing Peace From Bottom Up”.
The meeting took place on the 26th-27th of October in Tripoli. TWBI facilitated the meeting of women representing nine municipal councils from different parts of Libya. The meeting was designed to build up the capacity of the women of the municipal councils, on different subjects including: the women peace and security agenda; women’s rights; and advocacy.
During the meeting women from the municipal councils formed a group and they named it “Elected Women of the Municipal Councils”. Women expressed their interest to join the initiative “Bringing Peace from Bottom Up”. TWBI aimed to give women the chance to express what they really want on a personal level and as member of the municipal councils? And how to fill gaps between efforts of women on peace building in the communities and high level of decision making? Thousand miles starts with a single step. As such the establishment of the group is the first step of the initiative “Bringing Peace from Bottom Up”.
