In May 2018, the Awam Development Foundation, in partnership with Oxfam and the Youth Leadership Development Foundation, produced a report titled The Impacts of War on the Participation of Women in Civil Society Organizations and Peacebuilding. The study explores the ways in which the war in Yemen is affecting women across various industries and regions. A study team conducted interviews in the San’a, Aden, Hudaydah and Ibb governorates, examining the life of average Yemeni women and their roles, or lack thereof, as peace builders in their communities. The evidence gathered from these interviews culminated in new recommendations intended for both national and international policymakers.
Social Trust as a Path to Peace
Brookings recently published a piece by Tamara Coffman Wittes, a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy and the author of “Freedom’s Unsteady March: America’s Role in Building Arab Democracy.” In the article, she argues for the importance of improving governance systems in the Middle East as a means for peacebuilding. Noting that discussions of the region often focus on problems such as terrorism, wars, and those displaced by them, she stresses that these issues are merely the symptoms of a larger problem in many Middle Eastern countries which still needs to be addressed.