Refugees International's Recommendations

• DPKO move to hire more male gender advisors to counter-balance the idea that gender issues can only be addressed by women;
• Donors and others interested in effective peacekeeping and UN reform continue to advocate for increased attention to mainstreaming of gender principles within all UN bodies;
• UN peacekeeping missions separate the positions of gender advisor and Sexual Exploitation Focal Point or personnel involved in conduct and discipline units. If this is not possible, adequate resources, both financial and human, must be allocated to the position;
• Member states provide more human resources within DPKO Headquarters for gender mainstreaming;
• Member states actively put forward the names of qualified female candidates for senior management positions;
• The UN Security Council encourage more female representation in troop-contributing countries;
• Troop-contributing countries examine their policies for recruiting women in the military and police forces and sending them to peacekeeping missions and send numbers of females proportionate with the national average of women in their security forces;
• US Department of State insist that the contractors it uses to recruit for civilian police officers provide women for UN peacekeeping missions and, if they fail to do so, discontinue their contracts;
• The UN deploy key personnel such as code of conduct officers, Senior Gender advisors and investigators of Sexual Exploitation and abuse in the early stages of peacekeeping missions.

• The UN make measures to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse part of the performance goals for all managers and commanders and rate managerial performance in accordance with the actual implementation of these goals;
• An independent watchdog organization be set up by humanitarian agencies and donors to monitor actual implementation of UN policies in the field;
• Any SRSG or senior UN employee who fails to implement measures to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse be removed from his or her position.

• The Secretary-General appoint a group of experts to review UN personnel rules and recommend ways to ensure that loopholes that allow civilian personnel to avoid prosecution be tightened;
• The UN amend Staff Regulations to specifically provide that acts of sexual exploitation and abuse constitute serious misconduct.

• Training on UN universal mandates such as gender equality and enforcement of human rights should be mandatory for civilian and military personnel;
• DPKO must ensure that training on gender equality and human rights is carried out by bona fide trainers with expertise on the subject matter;
• Donors fund regional peacekeeping training centers to provide training on gender mainstreaming and sexual exploitation and abuse prevention for troop-contributing countries;
• DPKO should conduct an evaluation to determine what messages resonate with peacekeepers and the effectiveness of their trainings;
• Militaries from troop-contributing countries actively work with local women’s groups in their own countries to design culturally appropriate responses to mainstreaming gender and combating sexual exploitation and abuse;
• Country commanders train their troops using country-specific training modules and verify completion of training in writing to the Force Commander;
• Military commanders and civilian personnel supervisors follow up and continually emphasize training on sexual exploitation and abuse.

• Public Information directors for UN peacekeeping missions design programs along with local women’s groups to inform and educate the local population regarding sexual exploitation and abuse;
• Public Information programs in UN Peacekeeping missions communicate the findings of investigations into sexual exploitation and abuse;
• The UN actively move to protect “whistleblowers” by strengthening confidentiality rules;
• The UN install a person focused on coordinating actions towards trafficking in all UN peacekeeping missions.

• Donors fund income-generation projects and micro-credit schemes aimed at women in post-conflict countries;
• Donors and designers of DDR programs pay particular attention to the reintegration needs of former female combatants;
• All donors ensure that programs in post-conflict countries mainstream a gender perspective and encourage women’s empowerment in social, political, and economic activities.