Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping with Sabrina Karim

Before 2016, US foreign policy looked much different than it does today. Upon her confirmation as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton moved US foreign policy towards advocating for women's, rights and equality. In a WAPPP seminar, Sabrina Karim argues that while these actions weren't necessarily a feminist foreign policy, they did put gender equality on the frontlines, not only as an issue of development, but as one of peace and security.

The UN’s Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace, and Security” also affirmed the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, and in post-conflict reconstruction. Moreover, the Resolution stresses the importance of women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

The Resolution also applies to the UN’s peacekeeping missions. A peacekeeping mission is a negotiated settlement, where UN forces are deployed to provide security, and peacebuilding support post-conflict. The UN cites peacekeeping to be one of the most effective tools to help countries return from conflict to peace. Peacekeepers are composed of civilians, soldiers, and police officers. It is other developing countries that provide the military, and these countries often profit from sending their soldiers because the UN pays more than what the soldiers would have made in their home countries.

With her award-winning book Equal Opportunity Peacekeeping; Women, Peace, and Security in a Post-Conflict States, co-authored with Kyle Beardsley, Professor Karim finds that there are many gender inequalities that exist within peacekeeping missions.

Question:

To begin her research Professor Karim asks “To what extent have peacekeeping missions achieved gender equality in operations and been vehicles for promoting gender equality in post-conflict countries?”

To answer that she looks at multiple ways in which gender inequality could take place in peacekeeping missions, specifically she asks:

1. Are there women included as peacekeepers?
2. Are the peacekeepers perpetrators of abuse?
3. Are there specific protections against wartime sexual violence?

To answer her first question, Professor Karim analyzes years of data from the UN’s peacekeeping missions. She finds that after passing Resolution 1325 the UN had set a goal of having 10% women for the military peacekeepers, and 20% for the police peacekeepers, by 2014, almost 15 years later, they had not met that goal. The highest proportion of women peacekeepers existed in missions in Cyprus and Nepal, and even these countries did not reach 8%.

Many scholars would agree that including women in peacekeeping missions would lead to better outcomes. The presence of female peacekeepers helps reduce conflict and confrontation. In addition, it helps women and children feel safer, improves access and support for local women, and makes peacekeepers more approachable to women. However, women who are included often face structural inequities that prevent them from doing their work as peacekeepers.

Problem 1

Women in peacekeeping missions have more informal work assigned to them, than do their male counterparts.

Women in peacekeeping missions are subject to implicit bias that often pushes them towards gendered work within peacekeeping, rather than providing security. All peacekeepers engage in community activities, not formally, but in addition to their work in providing security. However, women peacekeepers, including all female units are more likely to be recognized for facilitating community activities.

In addition, it is often up to the female peacekeepers to police behavior of male counterparts. This presents a whole set of barriers, as it is difficult for women to report inappropriate behavior because it might pose some issues to their future and careers as peacekeepers. Professor Karim argues that it is these unfair burdens and expectations upon female peacekeepers, which set them up for failure.

Problem 2

Women Peacekeepers are often assigned ‘safer’ placements than their male counterparts.

Although women peacekeepers are supposed to provide security, they are also vulnerable to gendered violence, and require their own protections. As such, safety, security, and cultural factors are all taken into consideration before assigning women to placements. Women tend to be deployed to safer missions, specifically to countries with lower rates of sexual violence. Sabrina Karim argues that if employing women peacekeepers is supposed to decrease sexual violence, it is difficult to do that if they are not assigned to the appropriate missions.

Problem 3

Peacekeepers are often perpetrators of sexual exploitation, abuse, and violence.

Professor Karim notes that of the 50% of the women she interviewed who had engaged in transactional sex, 30% of them had engaged in transactional sex with a peacekeeper. She also notes that the presence of a peacekeeping mission led to an increase in an adolescent’s girl’s first time engagement in transactional sex.

Although the UN collects data on military and police peacekeepers, civilian peacekeepers are private citizens so the UN does not collect or release data about them specifically. It is also nearly impossible for local people to report sexual assault perpetrated by the peacekeepers to the UN. However, some reports note that civilian peacekeepers are more capable than either military of police perpetrators.

Establishing a Culture of Gender Equality:

Professor Karim provides many insights and recommendations to address the current issues present in peacekeeping:

1. Mission leadership: Choosing leaders who value gender equality may have a trickle-down effect. Professor Karim recommends using performance on gender equality as a prerequisite for leadership recruitment on peacekeeping missions.
2. Promotion and Demotion: Incentivize gender equality within peacekeeping missions.
3. Role Models and Mentors: Establish a network of role models for women in peacekeeping roles.
4. Training and Professionalism: Peacekeepers receive 2-3 hours of training on gender and sexual abuse and exploitation. Professor Karim recommends expanding these trainings and having the facilitator be someone serving in leadership. 

Building an Inclusive, Responsive National Police Service: Gender-Sensitive Reform in Liberia, 2005-2011

In the summer of 2008, Laura Bacon, (Cultural Bridge Fellow’08; MPP ’09) interned in Liberia’s Ministry of Gender and Development. After graduation, she was selected as a White House fellow. Laura has now published her work from her time in Liberia, "Case study: Building an Inclusive, Responsive National Police Service: Gender-Sensitive Reform in Liberia, 2005-2011," (published by Princeton University, April 2012).

Abstract

After Liberia’s 14-year civil war ended in 2003, the government began to overhaul its security sector. The Liberia National Police (LNP), whose capacity was ravaged and reputation tarnished during the war, sought to improve its services and build the community’s trust. Gender-sensitive reform at the LNP was high on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s agenda, given low numbers of women in the security sector and high rates of sexual and gender-based violence. Between 2005 and 2011, LNP reformers Beatrice Munah Sieh, Asatu Bah-Kenneth, Vera Manly and others led innovative efforts to make the police service more inclusive and responsive. In particular, they sought to recruit female officers at a rapid pace and to launch a Women and Children Protection Section. By July 2011, although the police service still identified shortcomings in capacity and the justice system more broadly, it could boast an increased percentage of female officers (17%, compared with 2% in 2005), 217 specially trained officers deployed in 52 Women and Children Protection Section units across Liberia, more women in leadership positions, and improved responsiveness and public image. This case chronicles police reform in a post-conflict setting, examining the challenges of promoting diversity, building capacity, conducting community outreach and awareness, and delivering services to remote areas.

It’s as simple as it is profound...

The Woman: Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues

Last week I had the honor of hearing Ambassador Verveer speak to a crowded room of incredibly impressive women -- the capstone to three days of events, courtesy of the Women in Public Policy bi-annual board meeting. While this post will certainly fall short of the event, I will try and capture just a smidgeon of the essence from someone whose impact is as simple as it is profound: focus on women.  

Four Areas

Ambassador Verveer stressed four areas critical to elevating the status of women: 

1. Access to education
2. Economic participation
3. Access to basic health care
4. Political engagement

These four simple criteria provide both the foundation, as well as the strategies, to gauge and increase the status of women anywhere in the world. And, unfortunately, nowhere does parity on all four of these criteria exist. 

Why are these areas important? 

Education: When women and girls are educated, it provides a positive feedback loop that breaks the cycle of poverty. Girls marry later, have fewer children, raise healthier families, and are more likely to invest in their community. It has an exponential, and extensive, ripple effect that raises individuals and communities out of poverty. It is often colloquially referred to as The Girl Effect.

Economic participation: When women have access to economic opportunities, they reinvest 90 percent -- 90 percent -- into their families, communities, and countries. They raise the standard of living not just for themselves, but the world around them. They invest in the education of their children, the resources of their communities, and their household and financial assets. In places where banking sectors are slim or nonexistent, increased assets in the form of livestock or crops often serve as a necessary form of capital to protect against financial shocks, usually for medical emergencies. 

However, it goes beyond this; in countries where women are economically empowered, the entire countries’ GDP rises. Goldman Sachs calls it “Womenomics”. At a 2011 APEC summit, Secretary Clinton remarked that, “by increasing women’s participation in the economy and enhancing their efficiency and productivity, we can bring about a dramatic impact on the competitiveness and growth of our economies.” Ambassador Verveer also gave this staggering statistic: $46 billion is lost in economic growth from restricted job opportunities for women. The numbers seem to speak for themselves, but they are infrequently echoed.

Healthcare: In addition to economic inclusion, and especially in developing counties, having access to basic healthcare services is critical to ensuring equality. Women and girls are less likely to receive necessary immunizations or medical treatment, and limited financial resources are often extended only for boys. However, when women and girls have access to basic medical care, they are less likely to die in childbirth, more likely to see their children live past the age of five, and tend to raise healthier families. It provides another mechanism to break the cycle of poverty while simultaneously decreasing maternal and child mortality rates. 

Political participation: Political engagement is paramount. In countries where women are not allowed to receive inheritance or are denied property rights, they lack the legal and political rights to change these laws and policies. Even in the U.S., women represent less than 17 percent of Congress. Holding such a minimal amount of power prevents the dialogue and discourse from tackling issues impacting 50 percent of the population -- equal pay, preventative health care, and violence against women. Outside the U.S., and in newly minted countries, constitutions are being written without a single female voice. The inclusion and acceptance of women in the political process is essential to increasing their equality.

While these four areas are essential, they are not exhaustive. Ambassador Verveer discussed several other arenas where the role of women are paramount, yet often neglected. 

Women, Peace and Security

In December of last year, the U. S. State Department released the U.S. Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. The plan calls for women to be integrated into peace processes, conflict-prevention, transitional committees, and negotiating teams. Perhaps more importantly, it provides a bold declaration from the U.S. government that women are essential, perhaps even the crucial linchpin, to continued peace, stability and prosperity for countries. Personally, I like to believe the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates send a similar international message. 

Women are the canary

Ambassador Verveer said the State Department often views the role of women in a society as the canary. In regions where international security concerns are heightened, the role of women can speak volumes about the direction the country is headed. While the Ambassador did not mention specific situations, the metaphor easily translates: when the role of women is silenced or compromised, countries often find themselves headed towards instability.  

The importance of allies

Ambassador Verveer added an additional, often overlooked, component to the discussion - the importance of allies, specifically men, in securing the equality and inclusion of women. Allies are fundamental to encouraging this paradigm shift in women’s economic and political participation.  “Women’s issues are still perceived as ‘soft’. In reality, women’s issues are the hardest issues out there.” However, this asymmetry in power can be broken, especially when groups are familiar with the social, moral, and economic justifications of women's rights.  

Melissa Sandgren is a MPP1 at the Harvard Kennedy School and a participant in WAPPP's From Harvard Square to the Oval Office program.

*Photo cpyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org) / Photo Eric Miller emiller@iafrica.com

Women as peacemakers: Activists share success stories at Harvard Kennedy School

Published in the Harvard Gazette

When three women, including Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, an alumna of Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), received the Nobel Peace Prize in October, it was more than just a testament to their work. The prize was also a clear signal to the many unheralded women around the world that their peace building efforts were not only noble but necessary.

Several such women from across Africa and the Middle East gathered at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum Wednesday to share their stories and convey a similar message. “Why Women Won the Nobel Prize,” hosted by the Institute of Politics, the Center for Public Leadership, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, and the Women and Public Policy Program at HKS, testified to the influence of women in peace efforts around the world.

The Nobel was just another example of the ways women leaders, both at the highest reaches of government and at the ground level, are “changing the whole security paradigm,” said moderator Swanee Hunt, Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy. “Right now, security, in most people’s minds, means bombs and bullets.”

Increasingly, however, leaders recognize a need for women’s participation throughout the entire peace process, from street-level protests to formal negotiations. President Obama, for example, recently signed an executive order on women, peace, and security that he hopes will provide “a comprehensive road map” to increasing female participation in peace building, Hunt noted.

Women bring “soft skills” to the negotiation table, said Orit Adato, a retired lieutenant general in the Israeli Defense Forces and former commissioner of the Israeli Prison Service. Those traits — “the ability to see the whole picture but at the same time to identify and give your attention to the details,” to contain situations and deal with them, and to balance priorities — are crucial to the peace process.

Samira Hamidi, director of the 5,000-member Afghan Women’s Network, noted that women, so often denied a role in peacemaking, are likely to show steadfast commitment to the process if given the chance — if only to prove to themselves and their families that their presence at the table is worthwhile.

In the summer of 2010, she recalled, at Afghanistan’s national peace jirga, three rockets hit just outside the tent where she and other delegates had gathered for an address by President Hamid Karzai. While many male delegates left to ensure their safety, the women remained on principle.
“Peace is too important,” Hamidi said. “It is dangerous, but we are proud of what we’re doing.”

Mossarat Qadeem, a Pakistani activist, discussed her work rehabilitating young men formerly of the Taliban and other radical militias. The work often involves getting the boys’ mothers to trust her to intervene.

“Those boys would dare not come to a woman like me,” she said. “The most difficult part is reintegration into their communities.”

In the world’s newest country, South Sudan, which gained its independence from Sudan in July after nearly 20 years of conflict, women leaders are hoping to turn “years of fear into opportunity and stability,” said Rebecca Joshua Okwaci, founder of Sudanese Women Empowerment for Peace. Women recognize the importance of building up civil society and individual rights to create long-lasting peace, she said.

Her years as a “freedom fighter” for South Sudan’s independence confer not power but a great responsibility to her fellow citizens, said Okwaci, who is now deputy minister for general education and instruction. The new government must repay the sacrifices the South Sudanese made for so many years to support the war.

“The same way their eggs were taken from them [during the war], it is time now for us to give them peace,” Okwaci said. “Their chickens were taken from them — now it is time to give them stability. Their goats were taken from them — it is time to give them independence, give them recognition, and give them hope.”

The evening, which ended with a call-and-response performance of a traditional Arabic song and impromptu dancing led by Okwaci, seemed to inspire those in attendance.

Those who follow conflict for a living “flirt a lot with cynicism, and I didn’t hear a note of that tonight,” said Jina Moore, a human rights journalist, during the question-and-answer session. “Which reminds me that cynicism is a luxury for people who think about conflict and not for people who are forced into living with it. For me that was very powerful.”

Women activists from conflict regions have been coming to Cambridge since 1999 as part of an annual conference supported by the Institute for Inclusive Security, a program of Hunt’s family foundation, Hunt Alternatives Fund.