Is Rights Talk Just Talk? Implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda at the Global-Local Nexus in Kosovo

This paper examines the translation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda at the national level through UN agencies in post-war states, taking the UN system in Kosovo as the primary case study. Through a comparative analysis of different UN agencies in Kosovo, the paper assesses how the ideas of economic empowerment enshrined within the WPS agenda operate in practice and are translated at the field level. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, it analyses how various UN entities have engaged with the socio-economic aspects of the WPS agenda on the ground, such as the under-researched fourth pillar of WPS ("Relief and Recovery") and the degree to which it features in socio-economic programming. The paper concentrates on the decision-making and design phases of UN country-level office programming, in order to analyse agencies’ awareness and knowledge of the economic aspects of WPS and the extent to which they conceive of their work in relation to WPS. This paper makes a significant theoretical and empirical contribution by reflecting on how women's post-conflict economic empowerment and security have been conceptualised by IO staffers and which logics of economic empowerment dominate on the ground.