Office of the Gender Adviser

gender UNMISS women peace and security UNSCR 1325

Gender sections across United Nations peacekeeping and political missions were established to support the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) on Women, Peace and Security.Photo by Nektarios Markogiannis/UNMISS.

Who we are 

Gender Sections across United Nations peacekeeping and political missions werw established to support the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) on Women, Peace and Security, namely 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), and 2122 (2013) within the scope of mission mandates and in alignment with the Department of Peace Operations' Gender Equality Policy (2010) and the Gender Forward-Looking Strategy 2014-8. 

In total, 18 officers work at the UNMISS Gender Section; they are based at the Mission's headquarters in Juba as well as all 10 Field Offices.

The Section is led by the Senior Gender Advisor and reports directly to senior mission leadership.

Why we are here

The United Nations recognizes the need for gender mainstreaming across all the areas of the mission mandate to ensure full, equal and effective participation of women. It emphasizes the vital roles of women in preventing and resolving conflict and peace-building (Operative Paragraph 7, 14 and 32 UNSCR 2327).

The importance of appropriate gender expertise and training in all peacekeeping missions mandated by the Security Council is also emphasized (Operative Paragraph 24 UNSCR2327).

 What we do

  • Develop capacity in order to ensure peacekeeping activities are gender sensitive and responsive to the different needs of women and men.
  • Ensure accountability in order to ensure resources are allocated to address women, peace and security agendas.
  • Build partnerships in order to ensure effectiveness of advocacy support provided to national partners.

What we have done

Global Open Days: The Gender Section has facilitated dialogue processes between Special Representative of the Secretary-General, David Shearer, and women leaders from civil society organizations to discuss women’s experiences in conflict and peace and their concerns in the light of four action points of UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security and their action plans. In 2016, 20 women delegates presented SRSG Shearer the report called Peace and Justice for Women in South Sudan. 

Bottom-up, inclusive, participatory and interactive approaches and methods were applied to dialogue processes in the form of Women Peace Forums. Partnerships with the UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes, in particular, UN Women, has been a central feature and is being scaled up with a view to enhance the engagement of women in peace and security issues.

Technical and Operational Support: The Gender Section applies systematic approaches and methods while providing technical and operational support to mission components with regard to gender mainstreaming, gender equality and gender parity, in accordance with the DPO Gender Equality Policy, the DPO/DFS Forward-Looking Strategy and the mission's own planning cycle.

Capacity Development: The Gender Section has provided the UNMISS Military component with training inputs in order to strengthen capacities of Force Gender Focal Points, Advisors and Enablers on gender and Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), including Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV), in order to increase their knowledge, skills and readiness. The Section provides weekly induction trainings coordinated by the Military component and the Integrated Mission Training Centre (IMTC) to design and deliver gender and SGBV training to new deployments to the mission. This includes CRSV modules.

The Section has offered training inputs to key institutions in the implementation of the Peace Agreement. In 2016, it trained 47 staff of the Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangement Monitoring Mechanism (CTSAMM) and gender focal points from the Government of the Republic of South Sudan, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). 

The Section is also a secretariat of the UNMISS Gender Task Force, an institutional mechanism that catalyzes and facilitates gender mainstreaming across the mission. It meets quarterly, combining updates,  transfer of skills and planning and delivery of joint advocacy initiatives.   

Research and Analysis: Integrating gender perspectives into conflict analysis, mission planning, implementation and reporting is one of the core functions of Gender Section. Data and information pertaining to the four pillars of UNSCR1325, namely increased participation of women into public decision-making and peace processes, preventing sexual-and gender-based violence, protecting women and girls from sexual- and gender-based violence and maintaining humanitarian characters of refugee camps, including those of internally-displaced, and taking into different needs of women, men, girls and boys in humanitarian settings. 

Where we work

The Gender Section works both at the mission headquarters and 10 Field Offices under the direction of senior mission leadership.

Who we work with

The Gender Section works with all parties within the mission from senior mission leadership, senior managers and the workforce across including military, police and civilian components. Externally, the Section is a member of established coordination mechanisms both within the UN System and beyond, namely the Protection Cluster, the GBV Sub-Cluster, the Gender Technical Working Group, the Monitoring Analysis Reporting  Arrangements (MARA) and the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM).