Having focused in the last chapter on how the functioning of the reintegration and reparation processes weakened participants’ citizenship practices by reinforcing prior tendencies of clientelism and paternalism, in this chapter, I describe how I believe those obstacles could be overcome to help women achieve a better future in a more sustainable way. While my main research question asked what the gendered dynamics of current reparation and reintegration laws and policies are on the ground and whether they effectively transform structural gender inequality, thus enabling communities to move forward, this chapter looks at what this ‘moving forward’ means for the women in the communities where I worked. What are the hopes that women themselves hold for their future? Are these ideas similar or different for survivors and ex-combatants, and how do they contrast with their current situation? These were questions that we explored through the photovoice process with the women in Chibolo, and through video recordings with ex-combatants in Pondores. Women's ideas about this, which describe their hopes of salir adelante, form the starting point of this chapter. I then contrast these dreams with reality, where persistent gendered roles and stereotypes prevent the active citizenship that would enable women to realize their dreams. Finally, I return to organization and participation among women, which I already touched upon in Chapter 2. Being organized can promote collective action, which is a key element for women's citizenship practice and can help them to demand changes to fulfil their citizenship rights and overcome gender inequality.

Gendered dreams for the future versus reality

As I have described elsewhere (Weber 2018), women in Chibolo had quite a clear idea of what they wanted their future to look like. Although they did not use the feminist jargon of agency and citizenship, they clearly had visions of emancipation. One key element for this was to overcome poverty and alleviate their time-consuming household tasks through basic services such as water and electricity. Many women took photographs of their daily task of fetching water, the bad quality of this water and the lack of electricity which forced them to cook in the dark at night (see Figures 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3).