Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Peacebuilding Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on September 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on global peace and security. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Recent research in East and Southern Africa indicates post-rape services are increasingly frequented by girls, some as young as 11. The Population Council’s Chi-Chi Undie explains how the region can adapt better to their needs.
Thin Lei Win South East Asia Correspondent, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Last year, journalists Thin Lei Win and Kelly Macnamara gathered oral histories from people all over Myanmar. In our series “Untold Stories,” they spotlight some of the women they spoke to, many whose experiences living under military rule have been largely ignored.
As the government of the DRC continues its crackdown on the media, political reporting in the country carries significant risks. For the country’s female political journalists, widespread misogyny compounds their struggle to do their jobs.
When Khoudia Diop was younger, she was made to feel ashamed of her dark skin. Now the Senegalese model is using her success to spread the word about the risks of skin bleaching and show women that beauty comes in all colors.
From family planning to HIV activism, and from the mother of an ISIS recruit to survivors of Burundi’s conflict, here are five of our most-read stories this year and five that you may have missed.
Many of the children fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s militia groups were abducted and forced to enlist. But researchers have found that girls are joining the groups voluntarily, motivated by a lack of access to education and a future with no prospects.
Through her U.S.-based charity Karam Foundation, Lina Sergie Attar is focusing on education for displaced girls in Syria, helping teenagers develop the skills they need to start rebuilding their crippled country.
In the second installment of our “Bags and Belongings” series, in which we ask refugees what they packed in their bags and what they left behind, we meet Mustafa Awad, a Syrian badminton coach from Idlib who recently arrived in Athens with his wife and three children.
Hundreds of thousands of families fleeing Boko Haram are now stranded in a remote and harsh border region, beyond the reach of humanitarian aid. Photojournalist Ashley Hamer documents the challenges facing the displaced who have found themselves in the Lake Chad Basin.
With the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program more than $20 billion in debt and the Golden State paying more in premiums than it receives in funding, researchers explain how it could fund its own flood program.
There were major setbacks – prolonged conflict, global health crises, patriarchal policies – but also victories, large and small. We look at some of the milestones, moments and issues that had an impact on women’s and girls’ rights over the past year.
In Kibera, one-third of girls aged 11 to 14 experience some form of abuse, and early pregnancy is the norm. But some young people are trying to change that, by encouraging their peers to talk and learn about sex before they start becoming sexually active.
Women being held in Syria’s government prisons report psychological abuse, sexual assault and torture. But for many, the emotional and physical suffering they experience after their release is even worse.
The Brazilian samba jazz diva Elza Soares discusses the theme behind her Latin Grammy-winning album “A Mulher Do Fim Do Mundo,” an anthem for women fighting against domestic violence.
With Zimbabwe in the grip of its worst drought in 35 years and hit by a cash crisis that has rendered the national currency worthless, farmers around the country are suffering on two fronts. But help is at hand thanks to a cutting-edge tech solution.
Founded in a Kenyan slum, Women Against Stigma offers moral and financial support to HIV-positive women and encourages them to be open about their status as a way to help fight discrimination within their communities.
From food security to Inuit activism, from tourism to natural resource development, here are the 10 stories you read, shared and engaged with most in the past year.
Hate-crime expert Irene Zempi wore Islamic clothing in public to research harassment against visibly Muslim women in the U.K. The disdain and abuse she experienced was so bad, she says, she didn’t want to leave the house.
British midwife Claire Reading was the first Medecins Sans Frontieres midwife sent to Port-a-Piment in Haiti, one month after Hurricane Matthew. A few hours after arriving, she was already dealing with a major medical emergency.
In India, when a girl starts her period she can become isolated, leading to her dropping out of school and marrying young. One book wants to break the cycle by using child-friendly comics to spread the facts and tackle the myths about menstruation.
In rural Zimbabwe, food aid is supposed to be distributed according to need. But rights advocates say some village heads are keeping rations from people – mainly women – who don’t support the ruling party.
Nikita Malik Senior Researcher, Quilliam
As civilians are finally allowed to evacuate Syria’s besieged city, Nikita Malik of counter-extremist organization Quilliam says the violence against women and children in the battle for Aleppo risks radicalizing a whole new generation.
The team at Umra Omar’s charity Safari Doctors travel for days by sailboat and motorbike to bring medication and maternal health services to parts of the Kenyan coast that have been cut off by conflict.
A historic court ruling recognizes the burden borne by women who care for men who became sick working in South Africa’s gold mines, saying widows should have access to compensation if their husbands die.
This year saw record-setting Arctic temperatures and the continued shrinking of sea ice – and, perhaps most concerning, the warming trend is now being felt in the winter, too, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration end-of-year report confirms.
One charity is challenging cultural attitudes in Afghanistan by training all-female teams of mountaineers to scale some of Afghanistan’s highest peaks and experience the freedom they’ve long been denied.
Around 40 percent of Turkish women go to university, but only 11 percent graduate. Activists say a range of obstacles, from gender bias in high school to cultural pressures, pushes women out of education and widens Turkey’s workforce gender gap.
By collecting the names of sex workers who have been killed, and painting a picture of their lives, advocates hope to humanize them in the media. The campaign is pushing for changes to fight the high rates of violence against women in South Africa.
In the midst of civil war, the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are united by a love of soccer. It’s still mainly considered a boys’ game there, but is gaining popularity among girls who want to break cultural norms and challenge gender roles.
Payal Shah Senior Legal Advisor of the Asia Program, Center for Reproductive Rights
Payal Shah from the Center for Reproductive Rights calls for an end to harmful and coercive targets, incentives and penalties linked to population control in India.
In the final video in our series “Choice and Change,” we follow a young Indian mother as she undergoes sterilization surgery in a state-sponsored clinic. The procedure is free so, for many women in the country, it’s the only contraception they can afford.
Researchers in Kenya and Zambia found two direct precursors to early marriage. In doing so, they created a map that shows policymakers and other stakeholders the many ways they can help empower girls to choose a different path.
Despite Uganda’s high fertility rate and HIV prevalence, sex is a taboo topic. A new TV show is hoping to educate the country’s young people about sexual and reproductive health by letting puppets say the things that people won’t.
Kenya’s clan elders profit from the practice of female genital mutilation, complicating activist efforts to eradicate the practice in the west of the country, where “cutting” season has just begun.
As desertification claims more of Sudan’s once fertile land, women in farming communities struggle to keep their families healthy while constantly fighting the encroaching sand dunes.
Yanar Mohammed’s organization has sheltered sex-trafficking survivors in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But with the arrival of ISIS two years ago – and the battle for Mosul underway – the country’s women and girls need her help now more than ever.
In El Salvador, where being female often means being stigmatized, a small community has grown into a haven for displaced women. Now the people of the Romero Community have been granted rights to their land, allowing them to finally settle into their new lives.
Residents of Clyde River, Nunavut, hope to quash a government permit for underwater oil and gas exploration with claims that they weren’t fairly consulted on a plan to conduct seismic tests in the Canadian Arctic.
After Sitawa Wafula was diagnosed with epilepsy and bipolar disorder, she discovered that having a mental illness in Kenya meant struggling alone. So when her blog won her a $25,000 prize, she used the money to launch the country’s first free mental health hotline.
In a region of India that suffers widespread malnutrition, women are turning to the “tricolor” method of cooking – making sure each meal contains food that is saffron, white and green.
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