War-Time Care Work and Peacebuilding in Africa

The Forgotten One

Fatma Osman Ibnouf

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030261948
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030261955
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book provides a nuanced understanding of an often neglected aspect of armed conflicts, namely the everyday structures that sustain lives during crises and, specifically, care-work performed by women. It showcases the work of women as key protagonists and stresses their role as knowledge producers in studies of conflict. The author brings an original voice to the literature on women in conflict and peace-building showing the unpaid and less visible care-work that women do in the context of conflict and post-conflict and peacebuilding in Africa.

© The Author(s) 2020

F. O. IbnoufWar-Time Care Work and Peacebuilding in AfricaGender, Development and Social Changehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26195-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction Researching Wartime Care Work in African Conflict Countries

Fatma Osman Ibnouf¹

(1)

University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan

Fatma Osman Ibnouf

Keywords

Wartime care workCare arrangementsWomenPost-Conflict settingsPeace processes

End Abstract

1.1 Wartime Care Work and Women’s Endurance

Care arrangements during wartime are complex and include a range of tasks that are essential for sustaining lives and the well-being of the family. Unpaid care provision, therefore, include all those functions performed by women as care providers during and after a conflict, in the absence of the basic support services and means of livelihood for sustenance. More significantly, unpaid care arrangement is the foundation that saves the lives of many in armed conflict and post-conflict circumstances of Darfur. Care responsibilities are still not equally shared between men and women in practice. The particular areas affected by the war in Darfur, especially the increase in the demand for care due to the obvious pressures that war puts on daily life. As the violent armed conflict in Darfur escalates, the need for care, both in quantitative (prevalence of disability and illness, injuries, and malnutrition, etc.) and in qualitative terms (care implies dealing with extreme emotional situations such as sexual violence, psychological trauma, and grief), becomes even more vital for the lives of people caught in the conflict. There have been no state-supported childcare systems (or even orphanages) during and after the war. Thus, women shoulder the burden of caring orphaned children. Besides the experience of the wartime suffering, women may be raped or may witness the rape of their beloved ones, daughters, sisters, mothers which may cause traumatizing social experiences for them. This, in itself, is one of the ways women become entangled in social activities in wartime. The burden intensifies when rape victims give birth resulting from their abuse. Such women provide care for themselves and also support the provision of care for others with no support systems. Making care more overt would be key to ensuring greater sustainability of social security systems. There is also an economic argument that considers the importance of unpaid care work in post-conflict reconstruction strategy; it is necessarily to be attentive to issues of gender inequality on one hand, and the relationship between care work and the status of women in the labour market in conflict setting. Despite the research’s limitation to Darfur, its scope can be extended to cover other war-affected regions of the African continent, for the reason that, problems in other regions affected by war in Africa share similar patterns.

The objective of this book is to ponder the implications of integrating wartime and post-war care work into peacebuilding theory and practice. It emphasizes the value of care provision in armed conflict and post-armed conflict situations for knowledge production on peacebuilding and to better inform policy and post-armed conflict reconstruction efforts. First, the book is an attempt to gain a more nuanced understanding of an often forgotten and marginalized aspect of armed conflicts, namely the everyday structures that sustain lives during crises and periods of instability. Second, the importance of this publication lies in enhancing the understanding of the critical place that unpaid care work can be made to occupy in peacebuilding processes. Third, the book endeavours to show the lack of recognition for care work in armed conflict and the impact this disregard has on prevalent debates and strategies in peacebuilding frameworks. Fourth, it seeks to emphasize the importance of recognizing women as valid protagonists in post-conflict peace processes, as it is women who often take on the responsibility to sustain life during and after the armed conflict. This is not only a question of justice for people entangled in armed conflicts or to examine the importance of care work for people experiencing armed conflict as part of everyday life. It is also a question of adding a specific category of knowledge producers into peace and conflict studies.

Peacebuilding still lacks important elements necessary for understanding its reality, which can be viewed from different perspectives. To inscribe unpaid care work arrangements in wartime and post-conflict scholarship on peacebuilding and security studies, a better approach should investigate the challenge of armed conflicts starting from the reality in the grounds that communities affected by war have a responsibility to build the peace. Further, there is a need to change scholarly and policy thinking on armed conflict configurations and this means among other things to take into account the complexity of non-combatant structures of solidarity, care, and community order. This requires the inclusion of women’s wartime experiences, especially as caregivers/providers, which is crucial in peacebuilding. All armed conflicts are highly contextual and merit a thorough analysis which can produce a strategy that makes the most of existing valued stakeholders, women as caregivers in this case because they have been at the forefront of violent conflict and provided daily needs for their families. Therefore, there is a need for possible ways to consider unpaid care provisions during and after war as a critical dimension of a broader process of peacebuilding and reconstruction. This dimension is sorely overlooked in many peacebuilding efforts. Wartime care work can be a fundamental issue in peacebuilding, since care is central to the survival of people during a war and in refugee crisis and internal displacements as well. Survival and well-being are grounded in the understanding of peace. Peace is not only the absence of war, but the enjoyment of economic and social justice, and the entire range of human rights within society.

Many African countries have been plagued by armed conflicts for decades. Darfur has raged in armed conflict since 2003, forcing more than two million people from their homes. Women make up the majority of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) according to the roughly estimation of the UN humanitarian community. At the same time, women are powerful agents of peace and their efforts need recognition, support, and exposure. They help sustain social well-being through care provisions and also contribute to the social security system and solidarity which are strong instruments in relation to gender and armed conflict transformation. Wartime care provision aims to respond to the challenges of the neediest in such a specific context. The unvalued contribution of women is such that any reasonable calculation of their unpaid work would lead to a fundamental change in the context in which peace and security decision-making are framed. An understanding of the context of women’s unpaid care provision in peacebuilding would help to put in place strategies that would sustain life and a lasting peace. A focus on c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction Researching Wartime Care Work in African Conflict Countries
• 2. Background and Overview
• 3. Women and Unpaid Care Work: A Review
• 4. The Ethics of Care and the Conceptualization of Unpaid Care Work
• 5. Wartime Care Work Arrangements and Provision in Darfur Case
• 6. Peacebuilding Through the Care Work Lens
• 7. Lessening the Distance Between Peacebuilding and Ground Reality
• Back Matter