PRIO and DPCR launch Women’s Empowerment in War and Peace (EMPOW) project

The Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF'd) has awarded the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University funding for a data project to help us better understand the impact of women’s empowerment in peace processes and post-war development: EMPOW. EMPOW is a two-year initiative designed to provide novel open access data on women's mobilization for peace and gender equality reforms in the wake of war.

As war alters societies and disrupts hierarchies, women mobilize for security, peacebuilding, and rebuilding efforts. Thanks to funding from CRAF’d, the EMPOW project will generate and compile novel open access data on women's mobilization and gender equality reforms across conflict and post-conflict settings. EMPOW will build on the world renowned Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) and benefit from the unique machine learning competences of the Violence & Impacts Early-Warning System (VIEWS). EMPOW will be interoperable with other leading datasets in the CRAF'd crisis data universe and can thereby help inform policymaking, strengthen operational planning, and support important programs led by international organizations like UN Women and local grassroots movements alike.

Led by Louise Olsson from PRIO, the EMPOW team includes researchers Erika Forsberg, Juan Diego Duque Salazar, Julia Palik, Paola Vesco, Siri Aas Rustad, and Sonja Häffner. We are happy to collaborate with the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and their Women’s Activities in Armed Rebellion project.

EMPOW aims produce a robust and accessible datasets that can support both high-quality academic research and real-world policy on the role of empowerment when addressing insecurity, crisis, and war.