ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how community-centred primary health work might increase the peacebuilding agency of women community health volunteers (CHVs), and the constraints to this agency, in few informal settlements in Kenya's capital city, Nairobi. It focuses on qualitative data from 23 women CHVs from Mathare and Kibera, two informal settlements in Nairobi. The chapter argues for policy initiatives that recognise the health–peace nexus in order to develop multisectoral, multilevel peacebuilding approaches that acknowledge and incorporate the peacebuilding agency of CHVs. It also argues that local women CHVs are valuable resources for peacebuilding and there is a need to recognise and include their insights in Kenya’s peace architecture. The chapter explores women CHVs’ lived experience with health and peace work. It also focuses on women CHVs’ conceptualisation of peace and their lived experiences of health–peace work. It discusses how women CHVs construct peace and see their health work as part of the peacebuilding process, thereby making links between health and peace.
