Gender-responsive peacebuilding in a changing climate : A qualitative content analysis of strengths and weaknesses in National Action Plans.

Climate change can exacerbate violent conflict, create risks to human security, and prevent conflict recovery and peacebuilding in different contexts. Climate change nor conflict is rarely fair and have been argued to have different impacts on gender.In 2000, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ which promoted the advancement of women’s position in national agendas of peace and security. It has become increasingly clear that the climate-gender-conflict nexus is critical to both peacebuilding efforts and developing strong communities resilient to climate change impacts. While previous research on the nexus has been dominated by statistical quantitative studies, this seeks to contribute to qualitative research by adopting a qualitative content analysis. Of concern for this study is the implication of vulnerabilities and capacities in National Action Plans that support the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda. Leaning on the CAV Analytical Framework by March et al. 1999, vulnerabilities and capacities have been identified along different categories that focus on different dimensions of power dynamics. The study finds that climate change has primarily been recognized as contributing to the intensification and exacerbation of conflicts over access to natural resources, which in turn has caused vulnerabilities to become greater within all categories of the analysis. Other findings point to a major focus on women's vulnerabilities above those of men, and lastly how implementing bodies have developed promising methods for successful implementation.