Policy Impact
The Gender and Security Sector Lab is funded by Global Affairs Canada. It was previously funded by DCAF The Geneva Centre for Security Governance. Both grants are a part of the larger Elsie Initiative. The grants have allowed for the lab to create a rigorous methodology and set of tools for different countries to measure the barriers to women’s meaningful participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. For more information about DCAF and the Elsie Initiative, click on the button below.
Policy Outputs with DCAF
The Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations (MOWIP) Methodology is a rigorous and innovative tool to measure the degree to which women can meaningfully participate in peace operations from the perspectives of the troop- and police-contributing countries (TPCCs). It develops ten issue areas and measures the degree to which the issue areas constitute a barrier or create opportunities for women’s meaningful participation in UN peace operations.
You can learn more on DCAF’s involvement in the Elsie Initiative on DCAF Elsie Initiative webpage. The MOWIP Methodology is the standard methodology for assessments required for applications to the Elsie Initiative Fund.
The Measuring Opportunities for Women In Peace Operations (MOWIP) Toolbox provides all data collection tools, templates and Explainers necessary for conducting a MOWIP Assessment, using the MOWIP Methodology. All data collection tools, templates and Explainers referred to in the MOWIP Methodology are downloadable on this webpage.
The Gender and Security Sector Lab has helped to write and publish MOWIP reports for over ten countries. They can be found here.
This policy brief series addresses salient issue areas in MOWIP assessments that emerge as barriers, or opportunities (or both), to women in peacekeeping. It aims to debunk policy myths that have failed to generate systemic change in peacekeeping and to introduce new narratives, based on fresh evidence and research findings across MOWIP data, that identify clear ways forward for key policy actors.
Overall, the series aims to promote a shift in policy frameworks and its corresponding policy actions, from “increasing participation” (in numbers) to “increasing meaningful participation” (via the transformation of structures, practices, and attitudes).