Columbia University: Earth Institute’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Program

Learn How Leymah Gbowee Ongoing Work With the Earth Institute’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Program Lifts Up the Everyday Activism of Women to Influence Sustainable Peace and Human Security. The mission of the Earth Institute’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program is to contribute to greater global and regional understanding of the diverse roles women play to successfully influence sustainable peace and promote human security through everyday activism. Leymah Gbowee serves as the Executive Director of the program and Article 3 Human Rights Day tribute speaker Lineo Matlakala was a Peace and Social Change Fellow in the program.

Action: Read "Virtual Workshop Convenes Women Peacebuilders Paving the Way to a Post-Pandemic Future" which details a Earth Institute’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program's series of virtual convenings of women peacebuilders from across 13 countries, all of whom are members of the Peace and Social Change Fellowship network from the program’s last two years. Their knowledge exchange, centered on themes ranging from challenging mainstream policy to building solidarity and coalitions, will be featured on a forthcoming episode of the Conversations from the Leading Edge podcast and will inform the creation of a co-authored toolkit for the feminist future. Read Shaping policy, sustaining peace: Intergenerational activism in the policy ecosystem a recent paper from the program. Description: Current discussions of peace and security-related policy in Africa focus disproportionately on the work of governmental actors, regional organisations, and the African Union. Implicit in such a framing is the assumption that policy change is driven primarily by state and international institutions. This paper pushes back on that assumption by showing how girls’ and young women’s grassroots activism can function as a source of innovative policymaking.