Enhancing Women’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping: The Role of Gender-responsive Leaders – 2023 UN Peacekeeping Ministerial, Side Event (Accra, Ghana)

A top priority for UN peacekeeping is to ensure that missions have a gender-balanced workforce with more women in the full range of occupational positions, that the work environment supports their meaningful participation, and that the work of our operations are conducted gender-responsively and advancing the women, peace and security agenda.

While significant progress has been made towards gender parity within uniformed components, more work remains to be done. 

The United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial is an important opportunity for Member States to come together in a collective effort to strengthen the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations and their impact on the communities they serve. In 2023, the Peacekeeping Ministerial will be hosted by Ghana in Accra on 5-6 December.

With missions facing greater challenges than ever, the Ministerial will focus on protection of civilians, strategic communications (including addressing mis-disinformation and hate speech), safety and security, the mental health of peacekeepers, and women in peacekeeping.

Peacekeeping is a powerful demonstration of multilateral cooperation. In this regard, further progress in improving our effectiveness requires strengthening and expanding partnerships, including in areas such as conduct and discipline and environmental sustainability, where Member State support is critical.