Recommendations to the UN System on implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda in Peacekeeping and Political Missions

Leadership and accountability:

o   Responsibility to implement and deliver on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda should be an integral part of compacts with SRSGs and Special Envoys.

o   SRSGs and Special Envoys should have a clearly defined responsibility to implement, communicate and follow up on central policies on gender.

o   Gender-related goals and WPS goals should be included in the performance indicators of mission leadership (civil, military, police) and Special Envoys.

o   The Senior Gender Advisor should be placed in the SRSG’s office and report directly to the mission leadership, in line with UNSCR 2242.

Strategy, planning and operationalization:

o   Strategic planning teams should be responsible for ensuring that a gender perspective is part of planning processes at mission level (regardless of whether gender is explicitly mentioned as a cross-cutting issue in the mandate).

o   Mission leadership, together with the relevant national authorities and other stakeholders should ensure that women are part of the whole chain of peace processes, from mediation, negotiations and peace agreements, to their implementation.

o   Strategic review missions should always include a gender component and dedicated gender expertise.

o   Centrally developed and easily accessible tool boxes and check lists should be provided by the secretariat for easy implementation of the WPS agenda.

o   System-wide integration of planning for WPS should be enhanced through, for example, joint country strategies initiated by the mission and supported by UN Women. (Missions’ Gender Unit could conduct a gender analysis of the mandate to support this process.)

o   System-wide understanding, cooperation and efficiency should be enhanced through strategic exchanges of personnel between different parts of the UN family.

o   The sustainability of WPS efforts should be considered from the outset so that procedures and clear responsibilities in the handover help avoid a vacuum following the drawdown of the mission.

o   Incentives for Troop and Police contributing countries to increase the number of women in police and troops should be identified, including by highlighting and exchanging best practices, considerations regarding living and working conditions in mission conducive for both women and men, including as parents.

o   Gender Focal Points posted throughout missions should be at adequate seniority, have clear work description and enough time and resources for the job. It should be professionally rewarding to take on the extra responsibility as a Gender Focal Point. 

o   Mission implementation and monitoring plans should be informed by a thorough gender analysis of the whole chain of mission implementation and draw down.

o   Missions should have a clear strategy for dialogue with civil society organizations, including women’s organisations on matters related to all parts of the respective mandate.

Training:

o   An integrated gender perspective should be included across pre-deployment training and complemented with an obligatory and substantial component focusing on gender and WPS, encompassing e.g. aspects of human rights and all parts of the WPS agenda (prevention, participation, protection, including from sexual and gender based violence).

o   A specific and substantial course on WPS should be obligatory for senior leadership and a prerequisite for deployment. ‘WPS literacy’ should be a required merit for promotion to senior positions. 

Analysis and reporting:

o   Higher standards of statistics and sex-disaggregated data are needed in mission reporting. A clear policy and guidelines should be developed for when and how to use sex-disaggregated data in reporting.

o   Concrete support should be provided from HQ to the field on how to support an integrated gender perspective in reporting, beyond basic statistics and the exclusive focus on women, including common criterias in reporting templates.  

o   Conflict analysis should have a gender perspective.

o   Conflict analyses with a gender perspective should be integrated in reporting, including the mission reports to the Security Council.

o   Reports should contain actionable recommendations pertaining to WPS.

Financing

o   Peacekeeping and special political mission’s budgets should be gender responsive.

o   Adequate resources must be allocated for gender and WPS components. Integration is about making sure such components are included throughout the entirety of a mission’s activities and life cycle.

o   Financing of women’s civil society organisations need to be considered during peace processes, peace agreements and their implementation.

o   The UN system should put forward ambitious budgetary proposals for WPS to member states.