About

My name is Agnieszka Fal-Dutra Santos and I am a feminist researcher and practitioner.

I spent a decade working with and leading peacebuilding organizations and supporting women and feminist peacebuilders around the world in their work. This included advancing the implementation of the UN Security Council Women, Peace and Security agenda - both through advocacy within the UN and through supporting national and local authorities and women activists in localizing the agenda. It also included supporting feminist organizing and advocacy around key peace and policy processes - including peace negotiations and the implementation of peace agreements.

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I have worked in more than 15 countries across Africa, Middle East, Europe and Central Asia and Latin America. Across all of these contexts, one challenge clearly stood out: commitments to gender equality and gender-equal peace, even when made, remained underfunded and were not implemented.

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This challenge was often particularly pronounced with regards to peace agreements.

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In many ways, peace agreements are policy documents: they often mandate a broad range of measures designed to change the way the society functions and require a wide range of actors to be implemented.

Feminist scholars have also argued that peace agreements can offer windows of opportunity to re-configure the gendered dynamics and challenge some of the patriarchal norms that underpin most modern societies.

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However, if peace agreements are not implemented, this opportunity will remain unfulfilled.

While there is more research and a growing awareness about the importance and value of the inclusion of women - and gender - in the processes of peace negotiations, there is much less discussion, knowledge and evidence about whether, and how, the so-called "gender provisions" in peace agreements become implemented.

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With this project, I have set out to change this. I believe that if we understand better how gender provisions become implemented, who drives their implementation, and what factors contribute to the implementation or hinder it, we will be able to better support the feminist quest of building gender-equal peace, including through peace agreements.

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The project began as a doctoral research project. In its course, I have:
 

• Created and analysed a novel and unique dataset, which documents the level of implementation of gender provisions in 23 comprehensive peace agreements signed around the world
   

• Conducted in-depth research in Colombia - including at the national level and in Cauca and Valle del Cauca departments - in collaboration with Colombian feminist activists
   

While the project is still ongoing, I created this website to share some of its results and invite collaborations and constructive dialogue as it moves forward.

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Welcome, and I hope you find it useful!