Security for Whom? Gender, Security and Development: A case study of the New Zealand Community Policing Programme in West Papua

Abstract

The importance of linking development and security has become a policy mantra in recent years. Within the growing nexus between security and development, projects such as police capacity development have become commonplace in aid programming in conflict and post-conflict environments. However, to date, there is little research on the impact of the merging of security and development from a gender perspective, especially in the context of police reform in the Pacific. Studies suggest that there are significant gaps between the theory and practice of gender-sensitive approaches to development. This thesis uses the New Zealand pilot Community Policing Programme held in West Papua as a case study, to examine the theory and practice of these merging’s from a gender perspective. This research finds that simply adding more women to existing frameworks or including women’s voices in policy documents does not necessarily lead to more gender-sensitive policies. It further shows that paying analytical attention to the ways that language is employed in these policy documents has important consequences for the way these policies are implemented.