[women-rights] UNIFEM receives US$3 million to boost Burundian women's role in peacebuilding

UNIFEM Press release
21 June 2007

On 20 June 2007, UNIFEM received US$3 million from the United Nations
Peacebuilding Fund in Burundi to implement a project on Restoring the Role
of Women in Reconciliation and Community Reconstruction. UNIFEM, the
United Nations Development Fund for Women, has been closely involved in
the development of this joint initiative between the Government of Burundi
and the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi (BINUB), through the
provision of technical support to the Ministry for Gender.

The project aims to enhance women's economic autonomy, support
reconciliation initiatives by women's organizations and increase their
protection from sexual and gender-based violence, in order to promote
their free and active participation in the peace consolidation process.
Over the course of its one-year duration, the project will focus on the
provinces of Cibitoke, Bubanza, Bujumbura Rural and three communes of
Bujumbura Mairie. These areas are not only among the worst affected by
armed conflict; they are also locations where women have continued to work
for peaceful coexistence in their communities.

Key aspects of implementing the project will include: providing technical,
financial and organizational support to women; fostering innovative
reconciliation and peaceful coexistence initiatives by women's
organizations; and conducting advocacy for the implementation of
strategies to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence and
care for survivors. The funds for this project, managed by UNIFEM, will
complement resources mobilized by the Governments of Denmark and Norway to
advance women's roles, rights and security throughout Burundi.

Since 1994, UNIFEM has supported women's participation in peacebuilding at
the policy and grass-roots levels through its African Women in Crisis
umbrella programme and the Engendering Peacebuilding and Mediation
project. To introduce the work of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and
empower women to present their priorities, UNIFEM helped to organize
consultation workshops in 2006. This resulted in a communiqué
listing key concerns for the Government and PBC to address, including:
revising discriminatory laws; allocating resources to women's
socio-economic development initiatives; preventing sexual and gender-based
violence; and engendering disarmament, demobilization and reintegration
(DDR) programmes. Building on the momentum created through this
consultation process, the new project will reflect the priorities
identified by Burundian women.