On March 27th, 2025, a panel discussion titled “Gender, Geopolitics and Forced Displacement: Global South Perspectives” took place online. This fourth and final webinar of the series, hosted by the IDRC Research Chairs Network on Forced Displacement and supported by LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network, featured Susan Martin, Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emerita of International Migration, and two IDRC Research Chairs, Paula Banjeree (Thailand) and Mary Setrana (Ghana). The speakers reflected on the relations between gender, geopolitics and future of gender in forced displacement policy discussion, specifically from the Global South perspectives.
Susan Martin, Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emerita of International Migration provided a brief overview of issues related to gender and displacement, mostly focusing on how the UN system has evolved to think about gender and displacement. Displacement is highly gendered and reflects class, education, economic status, among other factors. The UN has developed many policies on gender in the context of displacement with the aim of having on the ground improvements in the protection of refugee women. Her presentation also highlighted the importance of closing the gap between the rhetoric and reality of women’s participation and decision making.
Paula Banjeree, as the IDRC Research Chairs for Thailand, reflected on the geopolitical shifts in the 1990s during which borders mattered. Her presentation outlined the importance of engaging with the structural environment to engage with the depths in which powerful inequalities manifest themselves. She underscored the importance and expertise of women’s lived experience in policy development. Mary Setrana, as the IDRC Research Chair for Ghana, discussed externalisation policies at the global level. She emphasised the reality of most refugees are forcibly displaced rather than migrating for economic benefits. Her presentation specifies West Africa as having become a dumping ground for the externalisation of European refugee policies and border regime which has direct implications on how refugees and forcibly displaced persons, particularly women who make up the majority of these numbers, experiences their daily lives.