Women in Ghana do not wait for conflict to escalate. In crowded compounds, they mediate between quarreling neighbors. At water collection points, they de-escalate rising tensions. Before a dispute reaches any formal body, whether the National Peace Council (NPC), a district mediation committee, or a chief’s palace, a woman has already intervened. They do this without training, recognition, or payment. Studies confirm their efforts go systematically unrecognized. This is not a problem of arrival time. It is a problem of exclusion.
Peacebuilding in Ghana focuses on formal structures: the National Peace Council (NPC) and district mediation committees. These matter. But they arrive after escalation, sometimes days or weeks later. Every day, peace happens in kitchens, markets, and compound houses, spaces dominated by women. However, when formal peace processes begin, women are routinely excluded. This is the story of Ghana’s excluded peacebuilders: queen mothers (female traditional leaders) and elderly women who mediate when no one else will.
What the Research Shows
A 2022 study in the Canadian Journal of African Studies by Shaibu Bukari, Kaderi Noagah Bukari, and Richard Amatefe, examined market women in Ghana’s Central Region. Its conclusion was direct: Women’s “efforts are not being recognized and supported in organizing peacebuilding activities.” Researchers found that women in the informal sector build everyday peace through social networks, but formal peacebuilders view them primarily as victims, not agents. The same study documented that although these women “were not well organized and did not have much formal education, they were able to contribute to peace by creating and using informal social networks.” Add – The findings suggest that a small investment in training could further strengthen their effectiveness. While the studies cited focus on particular regions and communities, together they point to a broader pattern of women’s under-recognized contributions to local conflict prevention.
Who Are the Invisible Peacebuilders?
Queen mothers hold authority over women’s affairs and family disputes. But unlike male chiefs, their mediation is informal. Their recommendations are not binding. In February 2024, stakeholders, including queen mothers and the NPC, met in Bolgatanga to address a pressing concern: The queen mother institution lacks clear documentation. There are no universally recognized rules governing selection, responsibilities, or succession. Dr. Joseph Ayembilla warned that “if these things are not properly documented, people are going to claim and counterclaim, and that is going to bring more conflicts.” The Upper East Regional Peace Council’s Executive Secretary noted that during conflicts, women and children are most affected, yet queen mothers have no defined role in formal peace structures. Then there are elderly women in urban and rural compounds. They have no formal authority, no training, no backup. Their authority rests largely on age, reputation for fairness, and community trust. A 2014 study on the Gonja in Northern Ghana found that “men feel weak and intimidated to bring in women to make decisions on conflict.” Even when women contribute, men actively exclude them from formal decision-making.
The National Peace Council Recognizes the Gap
Critically, the NPC has acknowledged this gap. In 2019, with funding from the Canadian High Commission, the NPC launched a project titled “Increasing the Voices, Participation and Inclusion of Women in Conflict Prevention,” specifically targeting queen mothers’ associations. The very existence of this program underscores the persistence of the problem. This gap was later articulated by Alhaji Abdallah Suallah Quandah, Bono Regional Executive Secretary of the NPC, who stated in August 2022, “Despite progress, there remain situations where women’s contributions to peacebuilding are undermined or underutilized.” He attributed this to “structured exclusion from decision-making positions.”
Why Exclusion Hurts Peacebuilding
First, women’s informal mediation prevents escalation. A quarrel between neighbors in a compound house can become a blood feud within hours. An elderly woman who intervenes early stops that chain. Formal peace councils cannot be everywhere. Women already are.
Second, empirical evidence indicates that women’s participation in peace processes correlates with increased agreement durability. This position was articulated by Alhaji Abdallah Suallah Quandah, Bono Regional Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, during an August 2022 seminar in Sunyani. Quandah explicitly stated, “When women participate in peace processes, the resulting agreement is more durable. A high level of gender equality is associated with a lower propensity for conflict,” (National Peace Council, Ghana, 2022).
Third, the current architecture is incomplete. The NPC Act 818 mandates that the Council strengthen conflict prevention, including, but not limited to, chiefs, women, and youth groups. However, the gap between mandate and implementation persists. Women remain underrepresented in formal peace spaces even as they do the invisible work that keeps communities stable.
What Recognition Looks Like
Recognition does not require formalizing informal mediation. Over-structuring could destroy the flexibility and trust that make women’s work effective. But specific steps are possible.
First, the National House of Chiefs could issue guidelines that define queen mothers’ procedural roles in mediation. The stakeholders at the Bolgatanga forum explicitly called for documentation of succession plans and responsibilities to prevent future conflicts. This is risk management, not radical change.
Second, peace councils could conduct community mapping to identify women already acting as informal mediators — queen mothers, elderly women, market women — and offer them basic training and referral pathways. The 2022 study on market women proved they are effective with minimal resources.
Third, the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET), supported by WANEP, provides a model. Scaling such programs would not bureaucratize women’s work but would resource it.
Time to Include Women
Before the peace council arrives, a queen mother has already intervened. Before the dispute reaches any formal court, an elderly woman in a compound has already separated the quarreling parties. Before mediators are appointed, market women have already de-escalated tensions using social networks that researchers have documented and peer-reviewed journals have validated. The evidence is clear: women’s peace work in Ghana is active, effective, and systematically unrecognized. Even the National Peace Council has acknowledged that women are “undermined or underutilized.” Ghana’s formal peace institutions have achieved much. But they arrive too late. The rest of the story belongs to women, the excluded peacebuilders who keep communities together, one quiet mediation at a time.
Keywords: Ghana, women, peace, peacebuilding, market, central, conflict, conflict resolution, national peace council, npc
Abubakari Najimu
Abubakari Najimu is a Deputy Registrar at Tamale Technical University, Ghana, and a PhD student in Public Law at the University of Venda, South Africa, with interdisciplinary academic training in law, management, human resource strategy, business planning, and development studies. He holds an MSc in Management and Human Resource Strategy from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate degrees from the University for Development Studies, Ghana, and a Master's in Labour Law and Practice from the University of Ghana, Ghana. This interdisciplinary background, law, human resource strategy, development studies, and labour rights, combines to produce research interests in conflict prevention, institutional accountability, and inclusive development. He focuses his research on employment and labour law, particularly workplace justice, labour rights, and public regulation. Beyondhis academic work, he has extensive professional experience in university governance and administration at Tamale Technical University, where he has served in several roles supporting academic planning, accreditation, quality assurance, and faculty administration. His broader research interests include public law, employment relations, governance, and the legal and policy dimensions of social protection, conflict prevention, and inclusive development in Africa. He is particularly interested in how legal and institutional reforms can promote fairness, stability, and social justice.
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