Gender Provisions Lag in Colombia's Peace Accord—But They Matter for Success

Why Gender in Peace Implementation Matters

Madhav Joshi investigates whether provisions that explicitly advance women’s participation and benefits in the 2016 Colombia–FARC peace agreement help or hinder overall implementation of the accord. The agreement was celebrated for aligning with UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, but it remained unclear whether adopting a gender perspective affected the fate of the agreement’s wider implementation.

How Implementation Was Tracked

The study uses monthly tracking of the agreement’s commitments to measure progress. Joshi follows the implementation status of 578 individual stipulations and aggregates these into 70 subthemes (distinct reforms or programs) to evaluate patterns over time and across different types of provisions.

What the Analysis Compares

• Stipulation-level comparisons between gender-designated provisions and gender-neutral (or non-gender) provisions.
• Subtheme-level aggregation to assess whether and how gender provisions influence broader program or reform outcomes.

Key Findings

• There is a measurable implementation gap: gender provisions lag behind gender-neutral or non-gender stipulations when looking at the stipulation-level progress.
• Subtheme-level analysis confirms that gender provisions by themselves do not automatically drive higher overall implementation for a subtheme.
• However, successful implementation of gender provisions appears foundational—progress on gender-designated items supports advancing the wider implementation agenda for the agreement’s reforms and programs.

What This Means for Peace Processes

The results imply that signing gender-inclusive clauses is not enough; dedicated attention to carrying those clauses through implementation is crucial. For policymakers and practitioners, prioritizing resources, monitoring, and institutional support for gender provisions may be necessary not just for gender equity goals but for the broader success of post-conflict implementation.

Who Should Care

This study is relevant for scholars of peacebuilding, gender and security, and Latin American politics, as well as practitioners designing and monitoring peace agreements who want evidence on how gender commitments interact with implementation outcomes.