Measuring effectiveness gains arising from gender integration and women's participation in peacekeeping

In a world where the changing face of conflict has led to the majority of casualties of war being women and children, the need to recognise women as essential participants in the peace resolution and peace building process is critical. This thesis aims to illustrate how it is possible to demonstrate that the integration of a gender perspective and the participation of women in peacekeeping improve the effectiveness of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions. A review of the literature, including official UN reports, and interviews with select UN personnel reveal that there is credible evidence that female peacekeepers improve the effectiveness of peacekeeping missions and that some quantifiable measures exist that indicate that the integration of a gender perspective contributes to the effectiveness of mission outcomes. However, this research also reveals that there is no standardised approach or baseline that exists for capturing the available data in order to gauge improvements from these activities. Grouping activities identified in the research into four categories of benefits - approachability, inclusiveness, access and inspiration - provides a framework for activity outcomes and performance measures to be linked with mission outcomes. This framework of effectiveness gains demonstrates how to capture the benefits arising from women’s participation in peacekeeping and the integration of a gender perspective. Furthermore, it provides a baseline of actions and tasks from which best practice can be shared across missions and provides an opportunity as a tool to leverage additional resources