New project to address barriers to women in peacekeeping commences
Opening ceremony for the preplanning workshop on the project; From left is Ms Pearl Wierenga, Global Affairs Canada’s Senior Liaison Officer for the Elsie Initiative in Ghana, Air Commodore George Arko-Dadzie, Deputy Commandant of the Centre, Group Naval Captain Veronica Arhin, the Gender Policy Adviser to the Chief of the Defence Staff of the GAF and Col Sena Lokpa, representative of the Director of Intelligent PSO at the GAF
Global Affairs Canada has provided funding to KAIPTC to implement an 18-month project aimed at addressing barriers to women in peacekeeping operations. The project, dubbed “Enhancing Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) capabilities to address barriers to Women in Peacekeeping”, was informed by the recommendations of the 2020 Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations (MOWIP) Report.
Second from left; Col Vida Otoo (Rtd), with Brig Gen Kusi (Rtd) who shared their peacekeeping experiences during the pre-planning workshop for the project, interacting with female personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces.
The report, which assessed the GAF’s ability to deploy women to, and ensure their meaningful participation in United Nations (UN) peace operations, identified eligible pool, gender roles, and social exclusion as top barriers to women’s meaningful participation in UN peace operations. It recommended, among others, the development of specific policy interventions to address issues impeding women’s eligibility as well as the implementation of training and professional development programmes to advance the skills and capacities of women in the GAF.
The GAF was the first military institution in the world to complete a MOWIP assessment as part of the development of this ground-breaking, comprehensive methodology for the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations.
This project will build the institutional capacity of the GAF to address the challenges that impede the deployment of women to UN peace operations. Under this project, GAF will furnish selected offices of appointed Gender Advisors and Gender Focal Points with office equipment to enable them undertake their day-to-day functions/roles effectively. The project will also develop four (4) packages of standardized gender training and an online course for Gender Advisors / Focal Points, with the goal to strengthen their capacities to fulfil their mandate within the GAF. In addition, GAF’s operational database will be improved with the installation of software to monitor deployments, in pursuit of the goal of the project to address the barriers women encounter in peacekeeping, and ultimately increase their numbers in peacekeeping missions.