NIMD is a proud member of the LEAP4Peace Consortium. Together we support women in Myanmar, Colombia and Burundi, so they can play a meaningful role in political leadership, conflict resolution, and peace building in their countries. Other members in the Consortium are the Burundi Leadership Training Program (BLTP), the Gender Equality Network Myanmar (GEN), and Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS).

We are proud to announce the launch of our Leap4Peace publication on What the international community can do to increase women’s participation in peacebuilding, click to read the Global Paper as well as the Country Specific papers on Myanmar, Colombia and Burundi here. 

Our objectives

Our ultimate aim for the coming five years is to contribute to a conducive environment for women’s full and meaningful inclusion in political and decision-making processes, as a means of sustaining peace in Burundi, Colombia and Myanmar.

We believe that including women at the negotiation table during peacebuilding is not enough by itself.

Once the conflict is over and the journey towards peace begins, countries need capable and representative women political leaders. These leaders can have a real influence on the process of building lasting peace in their country.

Our approach

We work directly with women politicians in the three countries. By providing mentoring, training and opportunities for networking, we empower them and ensure that they can participate in peacebuilding as influential decision-makers.

All four Consortium Partners also have an excellent track record of working with civil society and political actors. Therefore, the second focus in our programming is to contribute to breaking down barriers to the political participation of women.

We do that by setting up multiparty dialogue platforms where political actors can work together, across party lines, to develop joint gender-equality agendas. With civil society organizations, our approach is to provide them with training and capacity building, so that they can effectively lobby for policies that champion gender equality and monitor their implementation.

The Consortium Partners

All Consortium Partners have a unique set of thematic and geographical expertise that they bring to the Consortium.

BLTP has extensive experience on inclusive politics, conflict resolution and mitigation in Burundi. They will build on their rich experience to design specific programmes for strengthening capacities and involving women to resolve conflicts in their country.

GEN offers a wide range of knowledge at both the national and local level thanks to its international network of technical experts, civil society organizations and NGOs. They will pioneer new learning courses on women’s political participation, peace, and security.

GAPS will develop and lead the international lobby trajectory, having established a track record on advocating for UN resolution 1325.

And, finally, NIMD will share its knowledge on women’s inclusion, and capacity building for international lobby and advocacy, as well as facilitating mutual learning and knowledge sharing between the Consortium Partners.

NIMD’s country offices in Colombia and Myanmar will implement programmes in these countries. NIMD Colombia brings experience on the role of women in the transitioning of armed groups into political actors. NIMD Myanmar has unique experience of building trust, knowledge and skills through its highly successful Myanmar School of Politics programme. This makes them a key partner for our programming in these complicated settings.

The active participation of women in politics and peacebuilding will be key to sustaining peace in Burundi, Myanmar and Colombia. We are very excited to work on this with the Consortium and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the next five years.

With our joint expertise, we will be able to make a difference and really contribute to more inclusive societies where women can stand as equals to their male counterparts.

In other sections of the website you will find more information on our work in Burundi, Colombia and Myanmar.

For more information on the LEAP4Peace programme, please contact Antoine Brasset on [email protected].