Women working in peacebuilding at the grassroots face limited recognition and support for their leadership roles and inadequate funding to undertake the critical work of conflict prevention, management and resolution. Despite this, women activists, civil society actors/organisations and grassroots movements of peacebuilders have displayed initiative, leadership and commitment to building peace movements, advocacy and action. All over the continent, the remarkable efforts of these actors in generating research, building capacity for mediation, reconciliation, monitoring and lobbying for peace is evident. Their effort, skills, information and commitment constitutes resource be to a harnessed strategic for the enhancement of women’s decision-making in formal peacebuilding processes. DURABLE SOLUTIONS: Strengthening the nexus between gender, governance and peacebuilding There is a growing realisation in African states that bad governance causes inequalities that can lead to the outbreak of sustained violence. Violence against women is a manifestation of gender inequality resulting from unequal power relations in times of peace or conflict. Sustainable solutions requires women to be their spokespersons and to articulate their concerns and issues within formal governance platforms and peace processes. As recognised in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Maputo Protocol, women should be accorded equal access to decision-making and power structures in governance processes in order to improve the chances of a fair, inclusive and sustainable peace. The Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was established in 2002 as Africa’s response to the continent’s governance problems and is a vehicle for entrenching positive values of governance and democracy. The UN Secretary General’s report on 6