influence. The AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security illustrates the case of Malian women who expended efforts to mobilise and capacitate women through the Platform for Women Leaders to participate in ongoing negotiations. 60 The platform successfully lobbied for 8 more women from civil society on top of the 3 women originally among the 50 government delegates in the negotiations. Despite this, as a collective, women, came out empty handed when the emerging positions neglected to integrate women’s priorities. In Sierra Leone, a Plan for the post conflict Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper only allocated $2 million out of $100 million to human rights under which a gender component was included, but with no interventions earmarked for women.61 One dimensional, heterogenous portrayals of gender priorities during and after conflict cannot respond to the complex layers of vulnerabilities that women face nor the value they add in post conflict recovery. The European Union for example notes that ‘Women’s security needs are, therefore, both the same as and different from men’s.62 Even within a conflict situation, women continue to face gender based challenges at the personal level, in the family and community sphere. Women who remain in conflict areas during the outbreak of violent conflict may suffer some or all of the risks and violations faced by women in forced displacement. Many conflicts have resulted in women in their countries being forcefully abducted and turned into sex slaves, combatants of victims of trafficking. Women’s inputs as non-state actors often span political affiliations and highly charged hostilities on negotiating sides,63 helping to break impasses and broker peace. While women do not always display a bias free agenda, they have strong motivations to avoid war out of self-preservation and a desire to avoid seeing relations harmed and community descend into chaos. Women have contributed to stopping and alleviating violence and its consequences in a range of ways that include providing humanitarian relief, urging and facilitating negotiations through advocacy and exerting influence 60 African Union Special Envoy’s Remarks at Panel Discussion on the Theme ‘Women’s Empowerment in the 21st Century’ To Mark South Africa’s Women Month, Addis Ababa, 31 August 2016 61 UNDP (2010) Price of peace: Financing for gender equality in post-conflict reconstruction. New York: United Nations Development Programme. 62 Onslow C, Schools S and Maguire S ‘Peacebuilding with a gender perspective: How the EU Can Make a Difference’ Initiatives for Peacebuilding 2010 63 UN Women ‘Women’s Participation in Peace Negotiations: Connections between Presence and Influence’ UN 2010 30