Women’s Economic Empowerment as a Cornerstone of Peace and Humanitarian Response

June 10, 2025

On 7 May 2025, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women co-hosted a high-level session under the Compact on Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPS-HA Compact), reaffirming that women’s economic empowerment is inextricably linked to peacebuilding and humanitarian efforts.

As part of the Compact’s Inside Look series, the session convened UN entities, Member States, civil society, and financial institutions to spotlight the structural barriers to women’s economic security in crisis-affected settings, share good practices, and catalyze stronger collaboration across the Compact’s over 235 signatories.

Opening the session, H.E. Helena Kuzee, Deputy Permanent Representative of Namibia to the UN and Compact Board Co-Chair, underscored the urgency of action:

“158 million women and girls are projected to be pushed into poverty over the next 25 years. In addition, only 16 out of 99 peace agreements between 2000 and 2016 had substantive gender provisions focused on women's socioeconomic recovery and economic participation.”
She emphasized Namibia’s strong commitment to women’s leadership, highlighting that the only way for women’s rights is forward.

Devanand Ramiah, Chief of UNDP’s Crisis Readiness, Response, and Recovery Team, echoed the call for structural change:

“Women’s economic exclusion is not incidental – it’s structural, and a driver of conflict. When women are economically empowered, communities are safer, recovery is faster, and peace is stronger. Women’s economic empowerment is not a development add-on. It's foundational for peace and security and recovery.”

Drawing from UNDP’s experience, Ramiah shared evidence of how women’s economic empowerment is driving conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and crisis recovery.

In Sudan, women-led community kitchens served around 113,000 people, fostering not only food security, but also dialogue and reconciliation across tribal line, creating a new space for social cohesion among the displaced and host communities.

In Liberia, women business owners who gained economic independence became respected leaders in peace mediation and dialogue, strengthening local stability.

Women-led community kitchen in Omdurman, Sudan

UNDP Sudan

Tatyana Jiteneva, UN Women’s Policy Specialist for Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, explained how economic marginalization excludes women from both political and peace processes:

“Women’s participation in labor markets is often lower than men’s in conflict-affected and fragile countries.”

She added that even in contexts where women are supported to join community peace dialogues, funders usually expect women to participate on a voluntary capacity, failing to provide an enabling environment for sustainable and meaningful women’s participation in peace processes.

From a financing perspective, Doreen Kibuka-Musoke, Senior Operations Officer and Gender Lead in the Fragility, Conflict, Violence and Forced Displacement at the World Bank, laid out systemic drivers of gendered economic vulnerability in fragile contexts.

She stressed the strategic potential of WPS National Action Plans to integrate economic security and peacebuilding efforts through institutional and legal reform.

Stephanie Siddall, Director of Global Policy & Advocacy at Women for Women International, shared successes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a setting where women own just 25% of land despite being key to food security, trained local advocates helped secure 145 land titles for women and influenced chiefs to reduce registration fees and promote equitable land rights.

Speakers called for concrete reforms, including:

Gender-responsive budgeting and public expenditure reviews
Targeted fiscal policies to support women’s economic recovery
Reconstruction of social and care infrastructure in post-conflict settings
Institutional mechanisms guided by conflict analysis for women’s participation in post-conflict economic recovery and reconstruction and governance

Closing the meeting, Päivi Kannisto, Chief of Peace, Security and Resilience at UN Women, stated:

“Investing in women’s economic security and opportunities at the time of transition from conflict to peace has been a consistent recommendation – both as a conflict prevention strategy and as an effective relief and recovery intervention. Now, when we are seeing the largest number of conflicts in the world since the Second World War, I’m really also hoping we’ll see the largest number of peace processes – and women need to be there.”

As the international community prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the WPS-HA Compact continues to mobilize multisectoral and intergenerational action to ensure that women’s contributions are central to peace, security and humanitarian efforts.

About the WPS-HA Compact
Launched in 2021 at the Generation Equality Forum, the Compact is a global multi-stakeholder platform convened by UN Women uniting governments, UN agencies, civil society, the private sector, and youth. It aims to drive accountability and accelerate progress on women’s leadership and participation across peace and security and humanitarian action.

For more information, contact: wpsha.compact@unwomen.org