TAPS International Panel Discussion

Tragedy Assistance Programme for Survivors International (TAPS) in association with The Geneva Centre for Security Policy are pleased to host a virtual live session during the 2020 Geneva Peace Week.

About this Event

This session will showcase women who have survived conflict in their own community and have taken action to bring hope, healing, community and peace through the economic empowerment of women. Attendees will hear from women who have survived conflict grief and identify how they empowered women by creating critical economic opportunity and through entrepreneurship, created community and opportunity; share key insights from these leaders on practical ways to ensure these opportunities become sustainable; and explore the impact on the surviving family unit of rebuilding trust, creating economic stability, and accessing global networks of opportunity. 

Women have been an integral voice in the development of peacebuilding and economic transformation. Though cultural implications are often considered when discussing women as actors of economic transformation, the impact of conflict-related grief and loss on a woman's ability to achieve financial security is often overlooked. Women are marginalized before the conflict and stand to be further marginalized following a conflict, especially if their freedom is dependent on a male relative who was killed. In this session, women from around the world will discuss the programs they have built to empower women impacted by death and conflict.

In addition to rebuilding trust, a key goal of GWP20 is to highlight trends in peacebuilding. Women have a critical role to play in the economic, institutional, and human security aspects of positive peacebuilding. To rebuild trust, communities must heal their grief and find stability and security, only possible through economic opportunity. Additionally, in a time when the global community is faced with a wave of COVID related grief, it is important to focus on the ways in which death of a loved one increases the marginalization and risk factors for groups living in conflict-affected nations.

Members of Panel

• Ms Bonnie Carroll, President & Founder at Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors
• Ms Honey Al Sayed, Founder, Media and Arts for Peace Initiative; GCSP Associate Fellow 
• Ms Zubeida Alawi, Director of Strategic and Visual Communication, OBazaar
• Ms Lily Thapa, Lecturer, Tribhuwan University, Founder, Women for Human Rights, Nepal
• Ms Salma Seraj, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, Arlington, Virginia, USA and Kabul, Afghanistan
• Ms Nada Ibrahim, The Iraqi Organization for Woman and Future, Iraq

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