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The GDHP research team at the National University of Ireland in June 2024 (L-R: Caitriona Dowd; Naledi Joyi; Liezelle Kumalo)
The Gender Dimensions of Hunger in Peacebuilding (GDHP) research team (left) convened in Dublin, Ireland in June 2024 to share the results from the ongoing project.
The team met with policy and civil society stakeholders to disseminate findings from the recent working paper and policy brief on the integration of food security in the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Drawing on a mixed-methods review of existing WPS policy documents, the study found that food security is relatively neglected in the agenda, even when compared to other domains of human security, and in contexts that have experienced severe food crises.
To discuss implications of these findings for WPS policy, the research team met with the Oversight Group on Ireland’s National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security, and presented an overview of the study and related policy recommendations. Given Ireland’s prominent role in the promoting the WPS agenda globally, key actions it could take to better address the gendered dimensions of conflict-driven food crises include expressly recognising conflict-driven hunger as both a security and WPS issue in Ireland’s forthcoming National Action Plan, and supporting partners to better analyse and document the gendered dimensions of conflict-driven hunger in specific contexts. These efforts will be most effective where they adopt an intersectional lens to identifying and supporting gendered food insecurity among particularly marginalised groups.
To further disseminate the findings and explore future directions for the research, the GDHP team also convened a policy roundtable where diverse policy, civil society and research partners met to discuss the recent outputs and connections to their work (right).
The discussions highlighted particular peacebuilding contexts where deepening understanding of both the gendered and food-related aspects of conflict would be valuable. Participants also highlighted the importance of considering the relevance of the study’s findings across a range of timelines, from the implications for immediate humanitarian response, to longer-term transitions and the pursuit of justice and accountability.
Lastly, the research team also met with representatives of the South African Embassy in Ireland (below) to support research uptake across all stakeholders in the international partnership. As the COALESCE-funded project expressly seeks to build collaborations between Global North and South partners, the talks focused on opportunities to generate engagement with the project’s findings across African diplomatic representation in Ireland. In addition, the team shared plans for the project’s forthcoming qualitative study on the gendered dimensions of violence in the South African food system.
Liezelle Kumalo of the GDHP research team presents findings from the recent working paper at a policy roundatble with policy, civil society and research stakeholders.
The GDHP team meet with representatives of the South African Embassy in Ireland, (L-R: Naledi Joyi; Wilma Kriek, Chargé d'Affaires, Embassy of South Africa; Liezelle Kumalo; Caitriona Dowd; Charlene Hiscock, Information Officer, Embassy of South Africa).
Support
The Gendered Dimensions of Hunger and Peacebuilding project is jointly funded by the Irish Research Council and the Department of Foreign Affairs through a COALESCE grant. The team extends its thanks the National University of Ireland and Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) for providing facilities for events, and all participants in the week’s events for their engagement and inputs.
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