Representation of Refugees in African Women, Peace and Security National Action Plans

Abstract: The global Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has been established to address the widerange of issues and challenges faced by women in conflict and post-conflict situations, and acknowledge the vital role that women play in peace processes. Previous research has shown that although the women refugees are more vulnerable than their male counterparts, this group is still widely underrepresented in WPS policy. There is a gap between the WPS agenda and research on refugees. Women are only recognised as actors within the WPS agenda when they are geographically in the zone of conflict, and this does not extend to women who have been forced to flee. This thesis aims to investigate the policy representation of refugee and displaced women within African WPS national action plans (NAPs). In doing so, the research explores the theoretical concept of human security, and how it is related to feminist security studies and refugees, in order to understand the importance and relevance of including refugee and displaced women into national WPS policy. Within the theoretical discussion, the theories that have guided this thesis are also discussed, namely feminist research methodology and ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) as an analytical tool. The material for analysis is all available African WPS-NAPs, there are 22 of them used in this research. These NAPs are analysed using a multi-method approach, three methods used to answer the research questions. First, a qualitative case study to ascertain if refugees and displaced people are represented in these WPS-NAPs, secondly, a thematic analysis to critically analyse these representions as they relate to four pillars central to the WPS framework, and finally, an illustrative case study of the Cameroon to offer descriptive insight into how policy problem representations are implemented in the practical world. The main conclusions reveal that African states do mentioned refugees and displaced people in WPS-NAPs, acknowledging the validity of the ‘women in conflict on the move’ actor within WPS; secondly, it concludes that each African WPS-NAP analysed creates a multitude of problem representations, and discusses the policy implications of this according to WPR theory. Finally, it concludes that the actual implementation of WPS-NAPs in the realm of refugee and displaced persons is still not fullyrecognised, despite the inclusion in policy. Therefore, more specific policy actions should be integrated into WPP-NAP policy planning and drafting in order to prevent fueling the real life insecurity of these groups, making them more marginalized and vulnerable.