Gender, Public Finance and Peacebuilding

In the aftermath of a peace settlement, the management of public finance constitutes a critical (if often overlooked) factor in advancing more equitable, just and sustainable peace. The manner in which states raise revenue and manage expenditures determines what is prioritized and funded in peacebuilding. Given this, there is now a small but growing literature on the centrality of public finance to a durable post-conflict reconstruction of the economy, polity and society (Boyce 1996, 2002, 2007 and Addison 2003, 2005, 2015). However, the literature is largely silent on a critical issue - the ways in which public finance management post-conflict shape and are shaped by structural gender inequality. As a result, public finance policies during peacebuilding are implemented in ways that ignore issues of exclusion, equity and sustainability. The purpose of my paper would be to bring feminist gender analysis into the discussion of post-conflict recovery, public finance and peacebuilding, and to demonstrate the ways in which a gendered analysis of public finance can open up fruitful ways of thinking about peacebuilding that will strengthen the broader women, peace and security agenda.