Representatives of the Platform of Women for Peace in Casamance (PFPC), recipient of the 2026 ICIP Peace in Progres Award, visited Lleida on Monday 21 September, International Day of Peace, as part of their stay in Catalonia on the occasion of the presentation of the ICIP Peace in Progress Award. The following day, 22 September, the activists received the award at a ceremony held at the Parliament of Catalonia.
The day in Lleida, organised by ICIP in collaboration with the University of Lleida (UdL) and Lleida City Council, gave PFPC representatives the opportunity to visit several of the city’s institutions and spaces and, above all, to share their experience in peacebuilding with university and institutional actors and with Lleida’s Senegalese community.
The delegation consisted of Ndéye Marie Diédhiou, president of the PFPC, and Niako Seck, a member of the Platform’s Board of Directors and representative of its member organisations, accompanied by ICIP president Xavier Masllorens.
A day of meetings and visits
The day began with a visit to Lleida’s Seu Vella and continued at the University of Lleida, where the activists met with university staff involved in cooperation, peacebuilding and gender-related projects in Africa. The meeting was attended by Blanca Salinas, director of the UdL’s Cooperation and Solidarity Unit; Mariona Lladonosa, deputy director of the Equality and Diversity Unit; and Professor Albert Roca, researcher in the project Women and Peace in Casamance (Senegal): From Culture and Memory to Mediation, launched in 2023.
During the meeting, PFPC representatives highlighted the need to strengthen women’s leadership in peace processes and conflict mediation. “It is essential to promote women’s leadership as mediators and leaders in conflict resolution,” they stressed.
The activists explained that, after years of violence and economic and social crisis, which have had a particularly severe impact on women, they decided to organise and make their voices heard in order to contribute to peacebuilding. “While the men were fighting, we decided to break the silence and make our voices heard as women,” they said.
The visit continued with an institutional reception at the Paeria, where PFPC representatives were welcomed by representatives of Lleida City Council. The meeting was attended by Councillor for International Cooperation Jackson Quiñónez Vernaza; Councillor for Feminisms Carme Valls; the Mayor’s Commissioner for Feminist Policies, Verònica Martínez; as well as representatives of cooperation organisations, feminist organisations and the city’s Senegalese community.
The day concluded with a meeting with representatives of Lleida’s Senegalese community at the Paulo Freire Room. The meeting provided an opportunity to share the Platform’s experiences and discuss the links between the Senegalese community in Catalonia and the reality of Casamance.
A network of women for peace in Casamance
The Platform of Women for Peace in Casamance is a network established in 2010 and made up of 15 organisations working for peace, security and women’s rights in the context of the conflict between the Casamance independence movement and the Senegalese state, which began in 1982.
Throughout its history, the PFPC has organised community consultations to document people’s experiences and understand their aspirations, facilitated spaces for dialogue, and organised Peace Tables bringing together representatives of the parties to the conflict, as part of a mediation initiative promoted by women’s organisations.
Since 2015, the Platform has also run a shelter and medical and psychological support centre for women and girls who have survived sexual and physical violence. In partnership with UN Women and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), it has developed initiatives to combat gender-based violence and created the Women’s Forum of the Senegal–Guinea-Bissau–Gambia Space to contribute to regional peace and stability.
The Casamance conflict has been under a sustained ceasefire since 2012, but a peace agreement that politically addresses the demands underlying the conflict has yet to be reached.
The 2026 ICIP Peace in Progress, endowed with €10,000, recognises the PFPC’s work in positioning women as agents of peace in the resolution of the conflict and in helping to break the silence surrounding the war through the creation of community dialogue spaces at local, regional and national levels.
