South Sudan women activists have just concluded a strategic meeting in Kigali to set "priorities for the transitional period” as the country struggles to find a sustainable solution in the ongoing conflict.

The women’s verve and determination to end the conflict ravaging their country is somewhat reminiscent of how Liberian women planned, and unrelentingly agitated to win back peace for their country from debilitating war in 2003.

The power of women should not be underestimated. It will be recalled how women in Rwanda were instrumental in ending the insurgency in the north between 1996 -1999 by telling or persuading their insurgent sons and husbands and other militia to abandon their armed conflict with the government.

They succeeded and continue to be central in conflict resolution and peace-building in their communities across the country.

The South Sudan women had picked on Kigali for the venue of their meeting for its neutrality, but to especially learn from the Rwandan experience.

The women certainly need to be more assertive if the warring male political leadership is to come to an amicable understanding.

In any case, the vicious strife needs to end. Already tens of thousands of people have died in the 14-month conflict, with 1.5 million displaced and 2.5 million now in dire need of food aid.

At the beginning of this month, the warring political leaders signed the seventh ceasefire deal (see Let’s push for a lasting ceasefire in South Sudan). The deal did not last a week.

The disappointment of one after another of broken peace deals must serve to firm the women’s resolve; which brings me to how the Liberian women won back their country as shown in the now popular video documentary, "Pray the Devil Back to Hell: Women, War and Peace in Liberia”.

The documentary powerfully demonstrates the power of collective resolve, and tells the moving story of Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war, and won a once unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003.

The long and short of it is that Charles Taylor is now serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the United Kingdom. And Liberia is now headed by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the world’s first elected black female president and Africa’s first elected female head of state.

Without adding much about the women’s role in all of this, I will invite you to look out for the documentary. It memorably demonstrates the power women harbour if they should seek to realize a social ideal.

The international community has given President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President, now rebel leader, Riek Machar, a deadline of March 5 to reach a final peace deal that includes a transitional unity government.

A second deadline of April 1 has been set to launch preparations for the transition that should be completed no later than July 9.

The South Sudan women in the Kigali meeting were strategizing for this eventuality, to which the political leaders must be held accountable.

Even as the meeting was going on, the United States was presenting a UN draft resolution to the Security Council on imposing sanctions on the warring leaders.

Under the resolution, the Security Council could impose targeted sanctions such as a global travel ban and an assets freeze on individuals who are deemed a threat to the stability of South Sudan.

The draft raises the possibility of imposing an arms embargo on the country, a measure strongly backed by European countries.

The eight-member eastern Africa bloc, the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad), which is brokering the South Sudan peace deal, is keeping a close watch. But the deal must succeed this time.

Otherwise, the South Sudanese women could always borrow a leaf from their Liberian counterparts.

The writer is a commentator on local and regional issues.