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Women, Culture and Peace (WCP): A New Framework for Cultural Peacebuilding
WCP
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The world needs more than political agreements to build lasting peace. It needs cultural transformation — from the inside out.
The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda showed us the way forward.
Born from UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000, it placed women at the center of global peace processes. It called for women’s participation in conflict prevention, peacekeeping, and post-conflict recovery. Over 25 years, it reshaped how the world thinks about peace.
Now a new, complementary framework builds on that foundation.
Women, Culture and Peace (WCP) takes peacebuilding into new territory. It works through culture, arts, and community — not only through security councils and negotiating tables.
Why Culture? Why Now?
Culture is how people make sense of the world.
It shapes values, relationships, and the stories communities tell themselves.
When culture shifts, behavior follows.
UNESCO understood this decades ago.
Its Culture of Peace program promotes peace through education, dialogue, human rights, and sustainable development. It invites societies to transform, not just negotiate.
WCP brings this vision into today’s context.
It connects the Culture of Peace tradition with the energy of civil society, artists, educators, and community builders.
The timing is right.
In September 2025, Barcelona hosted MONDIACULT 2025 — UNESCO’s global conference on cultural policy and sustainable development.
Ministers of Culture from over 150 countries attended.
Among their declared priorities: Culture for Peace.
The outcome document anchored culture as a pillar of just, peaceful, and inclusive development.
This isn’t a new idea. On September 21, 2024, the UN’s International Day of Peace carried the theme “Cultivating a Culture of Peace,” marking the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. See this milestone on our Culture and Peace Timeline →
WCP is the civil society response to that global call.
EXPLORE FURTHER
Two pathways into women, culture and peace
WCP draws on a rich foundation of research and action. Explore the academic tradition that informs the framework — and the global initiatives that put it into practice.
What Makes Women, Culture and Peace (WCP) Different?
The WPS agenda focuses on women’s participation in formal peace and security structures.
It rightly calls for women at the peace table — in negotiations, peacekeeping missions, and governance.
WCP works alongside WPS, but through a different lens.
Its core strategy is women-centered organizing — a model developed and studied by scholars Susan Stall and Randy Stoecker. Their foundational 1998 research distinguishes two organizing philosophies:
- The Alinsky model organizes communities for power — mobilizing around issues to win.
- The women-centered model organizes relationships to build community — cultivating trust, care, and collective capacity from the ground up.
WCP is rooted in the women-centered approach.
Its goal is not to replace the Alinsky model, but to complement it.
Where one builds power, the other builds belonging.
Crucially, WCP does not prescribe leadership hierarchies.
It does not ask women to take the head of the table.
Instead, it invites shared leadership — men and women, artists and educators, elders and youth — building together.
The difference lies in the starting point: relationships first, institutions second.
This distinction matters for who the framework is for, not just how it organizes. Gender inequality doesn’t only limit women; it also narrows what men and boys are permitted to feel, do, and become. Closing that gap requires men and boys as active participants, not bystanders. WCP’s women-centered methodology describes how relationships and trust get built. It was never meant to describe who gets to show up.
The Power of Arts and Culture in Peacebuilding
Art crosses borders that politics cannot.
A mural speaks where a treaty falls silent.
A song carries grief that a report cannot hold.
WCP mobilizes the creative sector as a peace infrastructure.
Artists, storytellers, musicians, educators, and cultural workers become active agents of transformation.
Women have always anchored cultural life in communities around the world — preserving heritage, transmitting values, and weaving social bonds.
WCP makes this work visible, supported, and globally connected.
Importantly, WCP is an open invitation.
It welcomes everyone into a culture of peace.
The women-centered approach is a methodology, not a boundary.
Men, non-binary individuals, youth, and elders are all part of the community being built.
WCP and the WPS Agenda: Stronger Together
WPS and WCP work on different but complementary tracks.
| WPS | WCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary arena | Security & governance | Culture & community |
| Core strategy | Participation in formal structures | Women-centered community building |
| Main actors | Governments, UN bodies, institutions | Civil society, artists, educators, women's networks |
| Peace approach | Prevention, protection, reconstruction | Transformation through culture and relationships |
| Relationship | Formal policy | Grassroots mobilization |
Together, they address the full spectrum of peacebuilding.
WPS builds the architecture. WCP builds the culture that makes that architecture last.
Women, Culture and Peace at the PeaceTable
One of WCP’s key initiatives is the PeaceTable — a concept for inclusive, community-led dialogue.
The PeaceTable is not a formal negotiating forum.
It is a cultural gathering space.
Anyone can bring their story, their art, their concern.
Leadership is shared equally, and relationships drive the agenda.
The PeaceTable draws on the women-centered organizing tradition:
relationships first, structures second. It invites communities to build peace with each other, not just about each other.
PeaceTables can take many forms — local arts events, community dialogues, school programs, digital gatherings. WCP supports their growth in communities around the world.
What WCP Advocates
WCP works on several interconnected fronts:
Cultural policy: Advocate for Culture for Peace as a priority in national and international policy, building on the momentum of MONDIACULT 2025.
Civil society networks: Connect women’s groups, artists, educators, and community organizations across borders — sharing tools, strategies, and stories.
Arts-based peacebuilding: Support and fund projects that use creativity to heal, bridge, and transform communities affected by conflict.
Heritage and storytelling: Recognize and preserve women’s cultural contributions as a foundation for community identity and resilience.
Education: Integrate Culture of Peace values into schools, universities, and community learning programs.
Digital platforms: Use technology and new economic models — including community-supported digital tools — to fund and sustain cultural peace initiatives worldwide.
WCP in Practice: Connecting Local to Global
WCP mobilizes civil society, artists, educators, and women’s groups.
It aims to bring Culture for Peace to the center of global policy.
But global change starts locally.
Each community that hosts a PeaceTable, supports a peace artist, or teaches nonviolent conflict resolution in a classroom is a node in a growing network.
These local actions connect to global frameworks — the WPS agenda, UNESCO’s Culture of Peace program, and the post-2030 development goals.
WCP helps make that connection visible, and gives local actors a place in the global story.
Suggested Developments for WCP
The following initiatives could strengthen WCP as a complementary framework alongside WPS:
- WCP National Action Plans
Inspired by the WPS model, countries could develop WCP Action Plans — setting targets for cultural investment in peacebuilding and women-centered community projects. - UNESCO Culture for Peace Grant Program
WCP can advocate for dedicated UNESCO funding streams supporting civil society organizations that use arts and culture for community peacebuilding. - WCP as an NGO
Formalizing WCP as an independent NGO — with consultative status at the UN — would give the framework a seat in global policy forums, alongside and in dialogue with WPS actors. - Women’s Days for a Culture of Peace
Annual community events — locally organized, globally connected — celebrating women’s cultural contributions to peace.
These events build visibility, solidarity, and momentum. - Culture of Peace Curriculum
Partner with educators globally to develop a practical, arts-based curriculum rooted in UNESCO’s Culture of Peace framework.
Make it freely available and adaptable for local contexts. - PeaceTable Digital Network
An open digital platform where communities can document, share, and learn from PeaceTable experiences worldwide.
Knowledge-sharing across cultures strengthens the collective practice. - Research and Documentation
Commission research on women-centered organizing in peace contexts globally.
Build the evidence base that cultural peacebuilding deserves in policy discussions.
Sources and Links
- UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) — Women, Peace and Security
UN Women | unwomen.org/what-is-the-women-peace-and-security-agenda - Global Study on the Implementation of UNSCR 1325
UN Women | wps.unwomen.org/ - Stall, S. & Stoecker, R. (1998). “Community Organizing or Organizing Community? Gender and the Crafts of Empowerment.” Gender & Society, 12(6), 729–756.
SAGE Journals | journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177 - UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme
UNESCO | unesco.org/en/culture-of-peace - MONDIACULT 2025 — UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development
UNESCO | unesco.org/en/mondiacult - MONDIACULT 2025 Outcome Document
UNESCO | MONDIACULT_Outcome_Document.pdf - MONDIACULT 2025: Over 100 Ministers in Barcelona to Shape the Future
UNESCO | unesco.org/mondiacult-2025-barcelona - EUNIC Members Engaged at MONDIACULT 2025 in Barcelona
EUNIC | eunic.eu/eunic-members-at-mondiacult-2025 - 20 Years of Women, Peace and Security
UN Peace Operations | peacekeeping.un.org/en/20-years - RYB Global Development — MONDIACULT 2025 Overview
RYB Global | redyellowblue.org/mondiacult/