Rethinking female ex-combatants, reintegration, and DDR: towards political reintegration?

ABSTRACT United Nations-led Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programmes have increasingly included female ex-combatants; however, the contribution of such DDR programmes to female ex-combatants’ empowerment and reintegration, as well as to peace-building, remains debated. Drawing on 77 semi-structured interviews with female ex-combatants and DDR officials in Liberia and Nepal, this article explores the potential of political reintegration to better support female ex-combatants’ reintegration and the building of an inclusive, positive peace. This article contends that political reintegration can provide female ex-combatants with peaceable means to address grievances and bring together ex-combatants and non-combatants to work towards peace. Political reintegration support should not be a substitute for economic and social reintegration or physical and mental health support, but rather should work to compliment these. To be meaningful to female ex-combatants and to peace, political reintegration support must prevent a ‘triple burden’ of productive, reproductive, and peace-building/political labour. Lastly, this article argues that UN-led DDR has potential to contribute to or undermine building an inclusive, positive peace if it were to provide reintegration support to female ex-combatants.