Peace negotiations, political leadership, national security, global diplomacy… these are often the spaces where decisions shape our collective future. Yet women remain underrepresented in formal peace processes across the map, even as they continue to lead community reconciliation, humanitarian initiatives and grassroots conflict prevention around the world.

This disconnect raises an important question, if lasting peace requires understanding different perspectives, why are so many of those perspectives still missing from the table? The United Nations’ Women, Peace & Security agenda recognizes that women’s meaningful participation is essential to conflict prevention, peace negotiations, peacebuilding and recovery. But commitments on paper do not automatically translate into influence in practice. Representation matters but so does the power to shape decisions, allocate resources and determine what peace looks like after an agreement is signed, and inclusion is not a courtesy.

Conflict does not happen in a vacuum, and neither does peace. Communities experiencing violence also face interconnected challenges involving education, economic opportunity, health, displacement and access to resources. People closest to these realities often possess valuable knowledge about what their communities need to recover and thrive.

When women participate meaningfully in peacebuilding, they can bring perspectives shaped by different experiences, networks and community priorities. Excluding them risks narrowing the range of solutions considered—and overlooking opportunities to build more inclusive, durable agreements. The same principle applies beyond diplomacy; from corporate boardrooms to technology development, the decisions that shape our future benefit from broader participation. As artificial intelligence, climate pressures and economic transitions reshape societies, whose knowledge informs the solutions matters as much as the solutions themselves.

At the Peace Innovation Initiative, the DNA of Peace offers a framework for connecting these challenges. Health and well-being, education, climate and energy, and data infrastructure are not isolated priorities, but rather interconnected foundations for societies where people can participate, access opportunity and resolve differences without violence. So what happens when women are not merely invited into existing systems, but empowered to help redesign them?

We may discover new approaches to community resilience, more responsive institutions and forms of cooperation that conventional decision-making has overlooked. Building peace requires more than negotiating an end to violence, it requires creating conditions in which people have a meaningful stake in their shared future and this means moving beyond symbolic inclusion toward genuine influence, investment and leadership. Peace cannot reach its full potential when the people shaping it do not reflect the people living with its consequences.

So, here’s the question: What would change if inclusive leadership were treated as essential peacebuilding infrastructure rather than an optional commitment? Let’s make room for more voices… and build a future that benefits from them.