International Centre for Gender, Peace and Security (IC-GPS)

In a partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women), the SSRC has led the incubation of new International Centre for Gender, Peace and Security. The mission of the International Centre for Gender, Peace and Security is to mobilize knowledge, strengthen capacities and support research that will increase women’s security and the gender-responsiveness of peacebuilding policies, programs and institutions. By strengthening southern intellectual leadership and research capacity, IC-GPS will provide urgently needed knowledge, evidence and analysis to inform the implementation of global commitments to gender equality, peacebuilding and sustainable development. The goals of IC-GPS are to:

• Strengthen intellectual leadership and research capacity in crisis affected, developing and transition countries;
• Support research that is intellectually sound, policy relevant and theoretically innovative
• Increase the visibility, dissemination and utilization of existing research
• Build a community of practice, research, policy and activism

In partnership with the African Leadership Centre, the IC-GPS is currently establishing its permanent central hub in Nairobi, Kenya as a fully independent, international charitable Trust. 

During the Centre’s incubation (2009-2011), 11 programs were piloted with a wide array of partners from around the world. Developed in partnership with the Consortium on Gender, Security, and Human Rights, The Gender, Peace and Security Research Hub is an online platform for mapping gender and secu­rity research, the hub includes over 4,800 entries and provides the first centralized, publicly accessible, and word-search­able collection of peer-reviewed research, profiles of researchers and their institutions. Visit the hub here.

Pilot Programs

IC-GPS Research Institutes

Proposal Development Course

Practitioner Writing for Publication

Research Fund

Gender and Security Participatory Research Agenda and Hub

Translation, Adaptation and Diffusion

Fellows in Residence

Cross-Regional Dialogues

Militarism and Women’s Activism in Africa

Regional Security Mechanisms

Policy and Research Dialogues and Agenda Setting

Founding Board:

Carol Cohn, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights

Jennifer Klot, Social Science Research Council

Luz Mendez, National Union of Guatemalan Women

Kaari (Betty) Murungi, Independent Lawyer

Funmi Olonisakin, African Leadership Centre

Seteney Shami, Arab Council for the Social Sciences

Ndeye Sow, International Alert

Advisory Council:

Suresh Babu, International Food Policy Research Institute

Balghis Badri, Ahfad University for Women, Sudan

Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University

Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council

Lin Chew, Institute for Women’s Empowerment, Hong Kong      

Kathleen Cravero, Oak Foundation, Switzerland

Mala De Alwis, Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Sri Lanka

Charlotte Isaksson, Allied Command Operations, North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Suad Joseph, University of California

Youssef Mahmoud, International Peace Institute

Theo Sowa, African Women's Development Fund

Dubravka Zarkov, International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands