NGO Support / Mediation and gender based violence The absence of women from peace negotiations and insufficient expertise on gender-based violence (GBV) in peace mediation teams limit the success of peace processes. In 2010 CMI and the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) joined forces to develop
 policy guidance and recommendations on how to address questions of gender-based violence more effectively in all stages of peace processes from the pre-conflict period to peace mediation and the post-conflict phase.The continuation project builds on the w
ork of the project's first phase accepted for funding by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for 2011-2012. Through the collection and comparative analysis of experiences from West African conflicts and peace mediation processes most notably those of 
Liberia and Cote d?Ivoire the original project has focused on increasing professional practice in addressing gender-based violence (GBV). The project brings its key findings to a dialogue with ECOWAS as well as local and regional mediators in West Africa i
n order to increase their knowledge on GBV and to influence peace and mediation processes to become more gender-sensitive. A senior-level Advisory Board composed of experienced regional mediation and peacebuilding professionals supports the high-level advo
cacy and dissemination of the project results.The proposal at hand aims to strengthen and consolidate the work commenced in the first phase of the project by widening the scope of the project advocacy and by expanding the case studies with complementary re
search. While the advocacy of the first phase has focused on bringing the findings into a dialogue with ECOWAS the continuation project aims to advocate for a higher level of acknowledgement and acceptance for the need to address GBV not only within ECOWAS
 but also among other relevant international organizations active in West Africa (e.g. the African Union the United Nations and the European Union).Moreover thorough external and internal evaluations of the project will be carried out during the continuati
on period.