Acknowledgments

This publication centers the lived experiences of women peacebuilders, in particular the members of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) who live and work throughout conflict and fragile contexts, facing militarized states, violent extremists and armed militias in their communities. They have generously shared their insights and contributed to this analysis. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the many practitioners, researchers, and policymakers who shared their time and energy through interviews and consultations. Special thanks go to Jennifer Freeman (University of San Diego) for her ongoing dissertation research on the topic; Corporación deInvestigación y Acción Social y Económica (CIASE) in Colombia for theirongoing action research on feminist security strategies; and Mobaderoon: Active Citizens in Syria, Neem Foundation in Nigeria, and Justice, Human Rights, and Gender Civil Association in Mexico for their protection expertise,all which were foundational to this analysis.

We would like to recognize our colleagues for lending their expertise to the development, review and publication of this brief. Melinda Holmes, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, and Stacey Schamber authored the brief, with Helena Grönberg and Subhiya Mastonshoeva contributing to research. The editorial team was led by Rana Allam and included Sohaila Abdulali, Juliana Jackson, and Kendahl Tyburski. Additional support was provided by Olga Andrew, France Bognon, Rana El-Behairy, Malalai Habibi, Maya Kavaler, Lauren Mellows, Yvonne Shanahan, Yodit Willis and Sameen Zehra.

We are very grateful to our peers who reviewed the recommendations including Fernando Aguiar (Genderforce), Nina Bernarding (Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy), Chiara Capraro (Amnesty International UK), Visaka Dharmadasa (Association of War Affected Women), Charlotte Isaksson (European External Action Service), Quhramaana Kakar (Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth), Phil Lynch (International Service for Human Rights), Carol Mottet (Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs), Amjad Saleem, Ph.D. (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), Sara Negrão (UN Office of Counter-Terrorism), Graziella Pavone (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights), Tambria Schroeder (US Department of State), Marita Sørheim-Rensvik (Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and colleagues from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

Finally, this publication would not have been possible without the support of the UK FCDO which has championed our initiative to create a protection framework for women peacebuilders; as well as generous financial or other support to ICAN from the Channel Foundation; Compton Foundation; German Federal Foreign Office; Global Affairs Canada; the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; One Earth Future Foundation; Ploughshares Fund; the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs; the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs; and United Nations Development Programme and UN Women.