Women must be included in the conversation and negotiation process to attain world peace that is sustainable.
Minister of Industry, Innovation, Science, and Technology, Marsha Caddle, stated this on Wednesday, as she delivered remarks to open a Women, Peace, and Security Senior Leaders Forum, as part of Exercise TRADEWINDS 2024, at the headquarters of the Barbados Defence Force, St. Ann’s Fort, The Garrison.
Speaking under the theme “Moving Beyond Women Integration to Gender Equity”, Ms. Caddle told her audience that more women needed to be included in the formal peace making processes, along with establishing peace agreements that sufficiently addressed women’s security and peace-building needs.
The Minister added that there was a lot of evidence to suggest that women’s participation in mediation and peace-making processes often yielded “more nuanced, thorough, and sustainable results”.
She said: “When women participate in peace making and peace building, [we] have found that the result tends to include some of the nuances of what reconstruction from conflict looks like, with specific attention to the social institutions that are needed, to the social capital that has been destroyed and needs to be rebuilt.
“We are moving away from simply integrating women, or what I would call add women and stir, to really understanding what gender equality looks like in an area such as this when we’re talking about peace and security.”
The Industry Minister underlined that today the disproportionate impact of war, conflict, instability and insecurity on women was evident, adding that peace and security included the maintenance of peace and the ability to invest in continuous peace building, even in the absence of conflict.
Ms. Caddle underscored that it was not just simply having an absence of conflict, but rather making sure that communities, societies, and groups have built in a positive experience every day that included expressing peace and having an environment in which everyone could improve their well-being.
The Women, Peace and Security Senior Leaders Forum also attracted representatives from The Barbados Police Service, the Barbados Fire Service, the Immigration Department, the Barbados Prison Service, and the Barbados Defence Force.
Exercise TRADEWINDS 2024 was held from May 4 to 16 and attracted over 1,000 military and related agencies from 26 countries.