Gender Training For Peacekeepers: Preliminary Overview of United Nations Peace Support Operations

Gender training has been promoted as a key strategy in efforts to mainstream gender perspectives into United Nations peacekeeping operations since the Security Council passed its Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in 2000. Important gains have been made during the past seven years in the integration of gender awareness training into pre-deployment as well as in-mission training programmes. Gaps still remain, however, as the implementation of gender training varies considerably from one troop-contributing country or peacekeeping mission to another and the reach and impact are not well documented. This paper introduces the concept of gender training for peacekeepers, discusses the institutional and political contexts within which gender training has been implemented in United Nations missions and troop-contributing countries and presents a preliminary overview of gender training opportunities for peacekeepers globally.