View article

Our findings demonstrate that international gender expertise frequently shaped peacebuilding processes in ways that reinforced existing inequalities: between international and domestic actors; along persistent axes of inequality such as ethnicity, class, and urban-rural location; and between the Myanmar state and actors that it perceived as critical or oppositional. These findings resonate with existing studies of other peacebuilding contexts and are not unique to Myanmar. An important question, for future international engagement in Myanmar as well as in other conflict-affected settings, is therefore how the tendency for international gender expertise to reinforce power imbalances can be countered. How can international gender expertise be applied differently, and better achieve its ambition to support the building of a gender-just peace?

In this policy brief, we put forward four recommendations for how international actors working to support gender-and peacebuilding work may rethink and improve their practices. We argue that international actors need to identify local partners beyond the “usual suspects”; simplify funding processes and provide flexible funding; better analyze and understand context and conflict dynamics; and challenge the state-centrism of international peacebuilding support. Importantly, we do not suggest that people working as gen-