Women continue to live with the complex effects of the ten-year armed conflict that ended with a peace agreement in 2006. Yet, they were effectively excluded from the peace negotiations and their participation in transitional justice processes remains severely restricted. With our programme, we strengthen the agency of women and young people affected by the conflict and enable their access to political decision-makers so that they can hold the government accountable to deal finally with the violent past and its consequences.

The armed conflict over self-determination between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Muslim majority region of Mindanao lasted more than 50 years. Women were already driving forces in the peace process. Since the 2014 peace agreement, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao has been in the process of building political structures. This is a key moment for women to anchor their demands for a gender-equal society within the new political and social structures.

In the fall of 2019, we brought together peace activists from Colombia, Nepal and the Philippines to share their experiences of armed conflict and of the subsequent peace efforts in their countries and to benefit from each other's expertise. As different as the political contexts are, the women found many similarities. The solidarity they felt at the meeting gives them the strength to continue their often arduous peace work.

A short film from 2023 about a participant of a Women's Peace Table in Nepal, whose husband was disappeared during that country's decade-long armed conflict. We support our partner Nagarik Aawaz in using Women's Peace Tables as a means to address the long-term reparative needs of conflict-affected women and to localise transitional justice in communities.

It was a unique exchange that we were able to organise with our partners in the Philippines in December: at various events, two representatives of the Gender Working Group of the Colombian Truth Commission exchanged their experiences with peace activists from the Philippines. Many moments of recognition and understanding emerged at during these exchanges. Our programme managers Andrea Filippi and Karin Widmer were there.