The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) released the fifth edition of its global conflict tracker that analyzes women’s contributions to peacemaking as well as their safety and well-being across 25 different countries Oct. 24.
GIWPS, which conducts research and advocates for the role of women in conflict prevention and resolution, created the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Conflict Tracker in 2024 to assess and monitor global conflicts. The tracker, in partnership with the Embassy of Denmark and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, collects data from 25 countries affected by conflict.
Jessica Anania, the GIWPS conflict and security fellow, said the tracker is updated monthly to best assess each country’s level of conflict.
“The tracker launched in March 2024, and since then we’ve done monthly updates around 25 different countries that are either at risk of conflict, experiencing armed conflict or transitioning away from armed conflict,” Anania told The Hoya. “Every month, we are monitoring those countries closely — we use publicly-available data, we use insight from our networks in those countries, research, et cetera, a very holistic assessment.”
The tracker monitors women’s participation — or lack thereof — in society and peacebuilding, the risks and opportunities women face during conflict and countries’ conflict status. The tracker, which analyzes over 80 data points, provides a gender-sensistive analysis, a risk summary and opportunities.
Vicka Heidt (CAS ʼ24), a Hillary Rodham Clinton fellow in GIWPS, said the institute’s network of female leaders in the conflict-affected countries allows the tracker to update quickly.
“The institute that we work at has an unparalleled network of women leaders whose insights also inform the tracker,” Heidt told The Hoya. “We have out-network members on the ground in 25 conflict-affected and fragile settings that we track who give us real-time updates that help us build out our coverage of ongoing crises.”
Heidt said data shows that women’s rights status is an important indicator of a country’s overall security.
“We also know, as a research data point, that women’s status is closely linked to predicting general security outcomes,” Heidt said. “So states that have a higher level of gender inequality and gender-based violence are also at a greater risk of internal armed conflict or conflict resurgence, as well as they’re less likely to comply with international norms and treaties.”
Anania’s previous professional experience in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which organizes humanitarian aid for regions affected by disasters, and the UN Office for Project Services, which manages projects for the UN, governments and other partners, placed her in conflict-affected countries. She said being in these countries allowed her to more clearly understand the struggles and leadership of women living there.
“My background before the Institute was working in armed conflict and humanitarian response, and accountability processes after conflict,” Anania said. “It was looking at a few different angles across conflict, but obviously, across all of that, it was really clear how women were oftentimes leading these efforts, but then also oftentimes unfortunately bearing the burdens of armed conflict.”
Heidt said the tracker analyzes more than 80 data points to measure progress for the WPS’s goals.
“The methodology, and how we collect research for our conflict tracker outputs, is determined by reviewing more than 80 different qualitative and quantitative data points across the four pillars of the women, peace and security agenda,” Heidt said. “So that’s participation, protection, prevention, relief and recovery.”
Heidt said her work on the conflict tracker stems from a goal of ensuring women’s experiences are not overlooked in conflict-affected areas.
“My connection to the conflict tracker is very, very personal,” Heidt said. “I think in a time in which global armed conflict is on the rise, it’s more important now than ever to continue to center women’s voices, especially when, as scholars and practitioners and academics, we know that women are too often overlooked and excluded before, during and after conflicts.”
Heidt said the tracker shows that including women in democracy and peace processes is essential.
“This is true in humanitarian aid facilitation, in negotiating tables, in recovery efforts and in accountability processes, but it’s also true in the research and analyses of armed conflict,” Heidt said. “I think a huge portion of how the WPS agenda has come to the fore is from having legitimate research that tells us and shows us that we must include women: it’s critical to democracy, it’s critical to peacebuilding and it’s critical to sustainable peace.”
Ava Kawamura (CAS ’26), a research assistant on the tracker, said the tracker’s real-time updates allow it to capture the rapid updates in conflict-affected countries.
“One of the most important parts of the project itself is the fact that it’s so frequently updated, just because conflict itself is super dynamic and really prone to change, so having a resource that is keeping up with that change regularly and tracking women’s status as it reflects that change is really important and crucial,” Kawamura told The Hoya.
Heidt said the WPS tracker is an important resource for understanding a wide range of global issues.
“We know that women’s rights are not a siloed issue, which makes the conflict tracker important for people not just working on women’s rights, but also for anyone working broadly on any of these issues: conflict, human rights, security, peace-building, development,” Heidt said.
