In January, I had the privilege of spending two weeks in the Persian Gulf (although they call it the Arabian Gulf), touring Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). The trip was thanks to a Kuwaiti woman I met initially in 2008 when she was a Fulbright Scholar at Whittier College, where I was teaching at the time. I worked with another faculty colleague to apply for the Fulbright scholar as part of a new program created after 9/11 called “Outreach to the Islamic World.” The goal of the program was to foster better understanding between the United States and scholars in the Islamic world, broadly defined. We specifically requested a woman who could teach about Islam with a special focus on women and Islam. It turned out Alanoud Alsharekh was the perfect fit. Alanoud spent a semester on campus and then returned as a Visiting Scholar in 2017 under the auspices of the Center for Engagement with Communities at the College when I was the Director. Alanoud had often invited me to visit Kuwait, but the time was never right. This year, in January 2025, the stars aligned.
After a (much too) long 15-hour flight and an eight-hour layover, I was finally on the last leg of my journey to Erbil from Washington, D.C. Among the handful of Americans onboard, I sat next to a young Kurdish man raised in the UK. His curiosity about my visit revealed how rare it is for people to travel to Kurdistan purely for tourism. Given Iraq’s turbulent history with war and, more recently, the brutality of ISIS, this was understandable. Iraqi Kurdistan remains largely unknown to most Americans and absent from many mainstream discussions. But I was excited to begin my trip, knowing that Iraqi Kurdistan would offer much more than just a narrative of violence or conflict.
Upon landing, entering the country was surprisingly seamless, with a quick passport stamp, a warm smile, and a “Welcome” from the customs officer. My journey would take me through Erbil, Duhok, Rawanduz, Choman, and Akre, where I experienced the food, people, history, politics, and peacebuilding community that shape Kurdistan today.
The drive to invest large sums of money in mining and infrastructure projects in lower- income countries can lead to negative consequences for local communities, for governments and for investors unless accompanied by meaningful projects to promote human-centered development and security. There are ample examples where large investments have led to negative social outcomes for local communities including violent responses.
US-led initiatives are mobilizing unprecedented amounts of capital from the public and private sectors to diversify the sourcing and processing of minerals critical to the creation of climate-friendly economies and meeting demand triggered by technological innovations.
To ensure communities impacted by these investments prosper, community members must be full participants in designing human-centered projects with the aim of improving their lives and livelihoods. The provisioning of quality healthcare and education are typically high in the priorities of local communities. If local educational needs are not addressed, capital investments in the extractive sectors run the risk of alienating youth. This article reviews the literature largely with a focus on African countries to highlight sound practices that enables schools to become instruments of peace, conflict resolution, social cohesion and healthy behaviors, highlighting the best practices for obtaining positive outcomes and avoiding negative consequences.
Critique of UNSCR 1325: Intersectionality Matters[1]
UNSCR 1325 (and the numerous resolutions that followed) has been hailed as critically important for the ways in which it drew attention to the plight of women and girls in times of conflict, but also for its recognition of the important role that women can and do play in preventing conflict and then working toward peace in the event of conflict or war. Few would disagree with the importance of 1325 and the points it raises. Nonetheless, there are a number of issues or critiques that can be raised about UNSCR 1325 almost twenty-five years after it was passed. These are especially salient when reviewing UNSCR 1325 from an intersectional perspective.
On October 31, the anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 marked twenty-four years since its entrance into the international order. UNSCR 1325 was commemorated as the long-sought resolution to ensure women’s full participation in global peace and security (broadly defined). Its existence would not have been possible without the efforts of both civil society and the United Nations member states. This resolution[1] focused on addressing the significant gap in women’s participation in all levels of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction, including combating gender-based violence. After twenty-four years, UNSCR 1325 has brought forth subsequent resolutions, nine in total, continuing to address sexual-based violence both in the conflict and post-conflict environment and barriers to women’s participation in peace processes from the most localized level to the extent of high-level decision-making processes. Others, such as Security Council Resolution (SCR) 2242[2], sought to highlight women’s role in preventing and countering terrorism, and the most recent, SCR 2467[3] in 2019, challenged member states in their commitment to the previous resolutions. One of the primary ways in which UNSCR 1325 and the subsequent resolutions were to be implemented was through countries adopting National Action Plans focused on the 1325 agenda in the context of their state.
Today, approximately fifty-six percent of the United Nations member states have adopted[4] one or more National Action Plans (NAPs) to further the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. Despite fifty-six percent of member states adopting NAPs, many countries have not consistently or successfully implemented them. National Action Plans require significant funding, governmental capacity, and cooperation, vital for their success and sustainability. Because of the challenges of adopting NAPs, some critical questions have been raised. For example, how can NAPs be implemented during a civil war, a country that recently emerged from violent conflict, or why do many global North countries primarily focus their NAPs on the Global South rather than gaps in their own country? The WPS agenda and National Actions Plans have continuously been scrutinized for not addressing the root causes and drivers of conflict through a gendered lens and instead focusing on the security aspects of WPS rather than peace.
Extractive Industries and Human Development Center
A Virtual Symposium on Developing Best Practices for the Extractive Industries and Human Development: Southern Africa
October 24, 2024
10:00 – 12:00 EST/US
Please join us for a virtual symposium on Thursday, October 24th at 10:00am EST. To attend, please register here.
The symposium will focus on best practices for ensuring communities, governments, and the private sector benefit from the massive capital investment in infrastructure, mining and manufacturing that is currently taking place in southern Africa.
A 21st century mineral rush is underway as businesses, often enjoying financial backing from governments in industrialized countries, increasingly extract resources, such as copper, cobalt, graphite, coltan, tantalum and lithium, necessary to transition to economies that are more climate friendly. Exploration for precious metals and gems as well as for petroleum and natural gas also continues unabated.
For example, the United States government is seeking to ensure a greater diversification in the sourcing, supply chain and processing of minerals critical to the transition to a climate friendly economy. To achieve this, US joined other G7 countries to form Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. Through the partnership, the G7 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States aim to mobilize $600 billion in public and private funding for infrastructure by 2027. According to the White House, the Partnership will deliver game-changing projects to close the infrastructure gap in developing countries, strengthen the global economy and supply chains, and advance U.S. national security.
While discussion will draw on the specific experience of Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, the wider implications of growing global investment in the extractive industry and infrastructure sectors will also be examined.
Featured Presenters
Rafael Marques de Morais, a leading Angolan human rights and anti-corruption activist, will focus on changes in the diamond mining sector and the reforms needed to improve transparency in this economically important sector. Rafael is also active in promoting improvements in primary education and in prison reform in Angola. He has authored: Blood Diamonds, Torture and Corruption in Angola (2011), Misery and Magic Fuel Mayhem in Cafunfo (2021), and The Ethnic Conflict in Cazombo (2022).
Ian Mwiinga, who serves as the National Coordinator for the Zambia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Secretariat within the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, will discuss best practices for engaging local communities and for creating accountability among private and public project stakeholders.
Dr. Yussuf Adam, who has extensive research and field experience in rural development in Mozambique, will focus on the impact of investment projects on local communities. In Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northern most province, a violent extremist insurgency arose in the context of investments in mining and in the construction of what was to have been one of the world’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) plants. Dr. Adam has conducted interviews with people whose communities have been resettled to make room for the LNG plants and with many people internally displaced by the armed conflict.
Dr. Gregory Pirio, Director of Extractive Industries and Human Development Center, will moderate the symposium. Dr. Pirio has been a global leader in the use of communications and the media for constructive social change. His professional activities have concentrated on an array of global health, conflict resolution, behavior change communications, media development and youth empowerment, among others. He has undertaken these activities in partnership with international organizations, bilateral organizations, international NGOs and ministries of health.
I have a confession to make. I am the child of immigrants, one of whom crossed our southern border a century ago, and so I am extremely sympathetic to the many people arriving at our southern border in search of a better life.
The demonizing of migrants for political ends by Donald Trump and other political figures angers me. The demonization needs to stop. This dehumanizing strategy is all about creating fear of others in an effort to manipulate people to support him as he promises to protect them from the demonized. It is a classic political manipulation technique. As a journalist, I witnessed how such demonization unfolded in the Rwandan genocide, and I wrote a book on Al Qaeda in eastern Africa, in which I recounted how Osama bin Laden and his subordinates used demonizing techniques to make people fearful, positioning them to commit violence against the “others.” We, Americans, can do better than this.
IWA is pleased to announce the launch of the new Extractive Industries and Human Development Center. The Center seeks to promote best practices in the extractive industry sector to ensure countries, communities and businesses prosper by helping new and ongoing mineral, petroleum and gas projects implement in a manner that benefits the interests of stakeholders. The Center will focus on facilitating cooperative relationships between public and private sector actors and by anticipating and proactively addressing contending interests, mindful of power disparities between local, national, and international actors.
The Center will be led by Dr. Gregory Pirio, a global leader in the use of communications and the media for constructive social change, and supported by Senior Advisors from around the globe with extensive experience in social and economic change, natural resource management, community organizing, and local governance.
The Institute of World Affairs is pleased to announce the release of a new research tool designed to provide easy access to information available on the Women, Peace, and Security agenda. This comprehensive tool includes data from NGO, government, the UN, and other sources. In our “Spotlight Series” we include sample case studies that illustrate ways in which the data can be used. IWA plans to review and update this information on a continuous basis.
IWA Internship on Women, Peace and Security (WPS)
This internship will support the work of IWA’s program on Women, Peace and Security (WPS). Over the past several years IWA interns have developed a database of resources pertaining to the work of women in the peace and security space. New interns will be responsible for updating the database and for conducting case studies on the record of select countries in implementing or opposing women’s engagement in peace and security affairs. Interns will also be expected to represent IWA at meetings mostly in Washington, DC that pertain to women, peace and security. This internship will immerse the individual selected in various aspects of women’s engagement in the peace and security sector from academic research to applied fieldwork. It will provide an opportunity to work directly with recognized experts and under the direction of a scholar-practitioner, IWA’s Dr. Joyce P. Kaufman, with many years of experience in the field. Outstanding research skills as well as demonstrated familiarity with the topic are required.
Qualifications: Applicants must be enrolled in or recent graduates of programs in peace studies, conflict resolution, development, human rights and allied fields. Field experience is preferred. Applicants must have excellent research, writing, and organizational skills, and be able to work independently. IWA interns generally work remotely.
Application Process: Applicants must submit a resume and a cover letter describing their experience and qualifications, and the particular program at IWA that is of interest to them and why. All internship correspondence should be directed to Dr. Joyce P. Kaufman, Director of Internships, Institute of World Affairs at [email protected].