Tafakari (reflect)

At Fahamu we actively create diverse platforms for progressive movements to reflect on their practice, politics and geo political shifts. We also consciously cultivate and/or co-convene spaces for debate and brainstorming around thematic areas that are of interest our work. Within the Tuliwaza programme Tafakari forums are virtual, physical and literary spaces for reflection, debate and analysis.

Policy dialogue on the African Union’s Security Sector Reform (SSR) Framework and the Gender Transformation Agenda.

Co – convened with the African Security Sector Network (ASSN) in Addis Ababa, 6 – 7 October 2011 and supported by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC)

This dialogue sought to respond to two critical and interconnected questions for current and particularly future peace and security operations and structures on the continent. The first relates to the potential and ability of the dominant methods (as currently applied and deployed to transform unequal gender relations within mainstream African security operations and structures. By assessing their nature, scope and impact on gender relations (including in terms of culture, attitudes and behaviors). The second concerns how these methods can be systematically and structurally embedded into Africa’s peace and security agenda as to avert continued gender discrimination in security provisioning on the ground. The dialogue, in examining these questions, offered insights and recommendations for improved implementation and operationalisation of Africa’s Peace and Security Policy Framework and Mechanisms (especially in relation to the emerging AU SSR Policy Framework) in ways that result in  transformative change.

See full report here

A research agenda on women, peace and security:

Emerging from the recommendations of the policy dialogue in October 2011, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the African Leadership Centre (ALC) and Fahamu will co-convene a one-day brainstorming session designed to identify research gaps and develop a research agenda on women, peace and security.

To be held in Nairobi on the 4th of May, 2012, the brainstorming session brings together approximately 15 researchers to map the research that has been conducted on gender peace and security to date, in order to identify gaps and draft an agenda for African scholarship on this issue. Currently there are few African women researchers working on this area of study and we have been working in isolation. In order to pool our resources, expand the number of scholars in this area, voice African experiences and generate theories derived from our context we will be aspiring to form a pan-African think tank on gender peace and security and to establish an appropriate research agenda for this network.    

Forthcoming: A series of occasional papers on 'Gender and Peace Building in Africa'.

Fahamu as a member of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) has commissioned a series of occasional papers from researchers working on the intersection of gender, peace and conflict transformation in Africa. This thematic series aims to contribute to the debates on peace processes, militarism and conflict transformation by interrogating the diverse methodologies deployed in the post conflict conflict environment to re-write gender norms.

This diverse group of papers offer both conceptual and context specific analysis by bravely taking on a critical assessment of training methods, legal and policy frameworks, masculinities and institutions as an avenue to thinking through the disappearance of critical gender analysis and praxis during the elusive period of transformation that creates a window for the re-assertion of conservative gender norms.