Quotes from Policy Day 2001

On November 16, 2001, some 100 policy shapers joined the Women Waging Peace delegates for our third annual Policy Day. Here are some of the things they said about the work of the Waging iniative.

David Gergen
Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents - for 30 years, David Gergen has been an active participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford.

Now in the new post-Cold War era, we are in a very different set of conflicts, conflicts which often arise at the grassroots and in which people at the grassroots have enormous authority�in which they have a chance to really to affect the way those conflicts unfold in a ways they did not often have during the Cold War. And indeed because so many of those conflicts are ethnic or racial or tribal, and they engage people and they sweep people up and what we have found, and of course, what you stand for is the proposition that in this kind of conflict women are not only at the front lines but are among the most important resource--in fact maybe the most important resources---to quell conflict and help us find new paths to peace.

Certainly the men running governments have not been as successful as one might have liked. But all of us understand that the more a woman has a chance for an education, the more a woman has a chance to have her voice heard, the more a woman has the chance to be in the councils that affect the decisions, the more likely we're going to have peaceful outcomes. Surely it is true the more that you are engaged as women in helping us forge these paths to peace the much better prospects that not only the adults-but that our children-- will have an opportunity to live in peace.

You are really at the cutting edge, at a time when your work is so necessary. [We] appreciate your work, we understand that what is needed here is to build bridges between people in the academy who can do much of the scholarly work and try to see the patterns and try to come up with the theories that can help to formulate and frame the conversation and how we think of progress. But at the same time, we need people from the arena, people who are from the grassroots, that are out there working to come and be with us. And let us share together because you bring insights that we can only begin to barely grasp. It's building these bridges that Women Waging Peace is all about.

Olara Otunnu
Olara Otunnu is the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, where he serves as an advocate for children in conflict situations, promoting measures for their protection in times of conflict and for their healing and integration in conflict's aftermath.



I wanted very much to come here [Women Waging Peace Colloquium Policy Day] to express the strongest possible support and solidarity for what the women "wagers" are doing at the ground level. [The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University] has always been very much at the cutting edge of relating ideas to policy to action. I can not think of anything more important than the Kennedy School embracing this as a program within this school.

First, why women? In virtue of what, do we assert a special place for women in the peace process? For me, there are four things that especially mark the premise for this enterprise. First is women as women issues of rights, equity, participation. As in Afghanistan, a case in point. Women as mothers�.where I have gone to look for the children, there I have found the women as mothers. And when the women have spoken to me form Kosovo, to Burundi, to Sudan, they have said two thing by and large: please tell the world we want peace, we are tired of this war. And second thing they say, we want a little help for schooling for our children. So women as mothers, very important

Then thirdly, women as care givers. Women may well be the only group-the only sector of the population-which itself is very vulnerable. But which in spite of its own vulnerability takes care of the other vulnerable members of the population. So whenever the society is falling apart, whether in exile in the refugee camp, or within a society tearing by conflict, those whoa re struggling against all odds to try to put this together, tend to be women.

Then, women as frontliners. Because I have been fortunate to see some incredible extraordinary things being done by ordinary people at the local level and these ordinary people by and large have been the women, organize their children to survive and somehow cope with the impossible conditions in which men waging war have put them. So women as the leaders at the frontlines is a very important aspect of this.

Cindy Courville
Dr. Courville is the Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. She is responsible for the formulation, coordination, and implementation of policies related to South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, and military and security issues related to southern Africa. Dr. Courville is on leave from the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she is the Policy Staff Director for Africa at the Directorate of Operations and is responsible for all aspects of policy and regulatory development for Sub-Saharan Africa.



Listening to the panel today I was extremely impressed. Not only did you tell your stories but also in telling your stories you made the leap to policy. Security is usually talked about in a very narrow context. One of the things that I think is critical for you as women, is not only to broaden the context of policy, but also to articulate it in a policy jargon-in a policy manner. This is one of the ways you get policymakers, you get congress, you get leaders to pay attention. I do this at the table but it also helps when you can come forward with your strategy and your plan in a language that I can very easily push forward. I'm not saying that you have to disguise-but take those issues-take those points if they're economic, if there political, all of these shape security, you can not have peace without economic viability, you can not have democracy without economic viability. These are the things that need to be moved forward.

As women most certainly you are on the frontlines. I heard your passion-don't loose that passion. But, what you have to do in addition to what your doing now is channel that passion into a strategy, into a policy that can be laid out so I can take it from the policy level, to the operational level, to the tactical level. I think you need to see yourselves as political leaders-because you are. I think as women we tend to be socialized not to push ourselves forward. I see the diversity in this room that brings us all together�there is a common goal that we must all achieve. But you have to have the passion that I most certainly have felt in this one day. I can only imagine the passion and intensity in the two weeks that was felt in this room. You need to take that back with you and know that you have a network�and build that network so when I'm sitting at that policy table and they say "well, what about women," I have a list and I can say in Guatemala, and I can say in Rwanda, and in Uganda�I know women.

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