The relational ‘becoming’ in women, peace and security ecosystems: Kenya and Ukraine

Description

On surface, comparing women, peace and security (WPS) policies in Kenya and Ukraine may not make sense. Their security threats are entirely different: Kenya faces bouts of ethnic violence and terrorism threats, as well as previous experience with post-electoral violence; Ukraine is in active international conflict, with parts of the country occupied by a foreign power. Yet, that both countries adopted their first WPS national action plan, and are currently implementing a second one, offers a point of entry. The WPS action plans can be conceived of as a strategy of liberal peacebuilding. They are promoted by the UN Security Council and, on the ground, largely driven by UN Women. While both Kenya and Ukraine have proactive women’s civil society which has to a degree became engaged in the national policy formulation on WPS, the processes for articulating, drafting and later assessing the impact of those policies are permeated by technocratic language and bureaucratic practices. They follow the UN Women model of global norm translation through Steering Committees, Working Groups; by echoing the language and ‘pillars’ set out in the UN Security Council resolutions; and by hiring consultants whose TOR’s are almost interchangeable from country to country. In this paper I attempt to explore what kinds of relationships and relationalities do the WPS policy processes create. I am interested in interrogating the processes through which actors become rendered experts, brokers, allies, donors and perhaps adversaries to WPS, and how do power asymmetries as well as competing security rationalities shape those ‘becomings’. Juxtaposing the experiences of Kenyan and Ukrainian WPS actors will offer an opportunity to tease out Global South-Global East connections in the context of hegemonic and global liberal peace governance.

Period	24 Jan 2026
Event title	Between Peripheries: Critical-Relational Security from CEE and the Global South
Event type	Conference
Location	Tallinn, EstoniaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International