In much of Western Equatoria, the committees that plan local services and priorities were long made up almost entirely of men. Women, who carry so much of the weight of conflict and recovery, were rarely in the room where peace and development were decided.
Starting where women already meet
CEDED's work began with sub-national women's peace forums: spaces where women could name the issues their communities faced and agree on what needed to change. Through Women for Sustainable Peace, CEDED equipped female peace mediators to resolve disputes in their own communities, building both skills and standing.
The forums produced something more than conversation. They produced an agenda: the Women Agenda for Peace, a clear statement of what women needed from peace, from planning and from their leaders.
Coalitions, not a single voice
An agenda on paper changes little on its own. CEDED's role was to help build the coalition behind it: women leaders, youth representatives, traditional chiefs, civil society and sympathetic officials, speaking together and patiently, at every level of state government.
That collaborative advocacy reached the highest levels of state government. The Women Agenda for Peace was embedded into official Western Equatoria State policy.
Seats that stay
The most important change is structural. The policy secures permanent seats for women, youth representatives and traditional chiefs within local planning committees. Their participation no longer depends on the goodwill of whoever happens to be in office. It is written in.
This is what CEDED means by translating grassroots participation into measurable institutional change: a conversation in a dialogue circle that ends as a rule about who decides.
