ABSTRACT
Security sector reform is a key focus of liberal peacebuilding. Conflict legacies can often compromise the standing of state security agencies leading peacebuilding missions to focus attention on these agencies to make them more accountable and legitimate in the eyes of local populations, and less prone to sectional capture. In Solomon Islands (SI) and Bougainville, security sector reform has been a powerful feature of peacebuilding. In each context, these programmes have incorporated some level of gender focus with the aim of creating new opportunities for women’s participation as rank and file personnel, within community policing programmes, and in leadership. This chapter examines where and how gender reforms have become a feature of SSR programmes in each state’s conflict transition process, but also demonstrates how informal gendered logics present within, and beyond, security agencies can frustrate reform objectives.
