The development of manuals and training tools for the Blue Helmets has promoted gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping missions and in predeployment planning and training of troops and police.

Secondly, our focus in future must be on building the capacities of women to build and sustain peace in their own countries. We must invest more in facilitating women's participation in political processes and in newly restructured security sector institutions. We must also work closely with local women to identify and implement protection strategies.

Resolution 1325 (2000) has fundamentally changed the conduct of peacekeeping operations over the past 10 years.

Our greatest indicator of success must remain, however, the extent to which our collective energies contribute to building a sustainable, nationally owned platform from which local women, working with men, can themselves define, shape and influence the course of peace in their countries.

Naturally, we know that peacekeeping missions must cooperate closely with other United Nations partners present in the country in order to deliver coherent support that can be sustained when our missions withdraw. Our common response should, of course, demonstrate our unwavering commitment to the rights of women.

In the first instance, there are many more actors engaged in the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) at the field level today than was the case 10 years ago. Besides the gender expertise available within peacekeeping missions, many of our United Nations partner entities are also deploying gender experts to post-conflict countries. That requires that we strengthen the coordination of our efforts on the ground.

In Afghanistan, Darfur and Timor-Leste, we have seen to what extent the leaders of our peacekeeping operations can use their good offices to facilitate women's participation in political processes. The experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo clearly shows that forming partnerships with women in post-conflict situations greatly enhances our understanding of the operational environment.

In addition to those lessons, we can also cite a number of developments on the broader global and peacekeeping agenda in recent years that will influence our future strategy.

Fourthly, during the early post-conflict phases, when peacekeeping missions have the largest presence and resources on the ground, we will continue to provide the leadership and coordination of an integrated United Nations response.

First, the necessary financing must be in place to support implementation of resolution 1325 (2000) — which has not always been the case.