Achieving gender parity in the United Nations staff remains an Organizational imperative. In response to the United Nations Secretary-General’s call for accelerated action to advance gender parity, the Police Division has reinforced its efforts in this regard as well as implemented several new initiatives. For instance, since the passage of Security Council resolution 2242, which called for doubling the number of women serving in police contingents, United Nations Police (UNPOL) has seen a more than twofold increase in women members of Formed Police Units (FPUs), from 6% in 2015 to 14.4% in 2022, surpassing the target of 12% set out in the United Nations Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy 2018-2028.
The UNPOL component in the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has taken meaningful steps to give effect to the initiatives of the Police Division to increase women’s full, equal and meaningful participation.
Working with Mission administration and leadership, the UNSOM Police Section has achieved its gender parity goals by creating a truly enabling environment, including:
- implementing actions to prevent sexual and other harassment within the Police Section.
- creating a network to empower women police officers, including uniformed personnel serving with AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) and EUCAP (European Union Capacity Building Mission in Somalia).
- co-locating at least two women uniformed officers in Mission team sites where possible.
- improving camp accommodation conditions to better meet the needs of women.
- carrying out mandatory staff engagement surveys with concrete and timely follow-up on the findings.
The progress began in 2018-2019 when the percentage of women in the UNSOM Police Section was consistently around 30%. It has since increased to 36% in 2020, 46% in 2021 and now stands at 64% in 2022. Real action, real results!
Read more about UNPOL Gender Toolkit here.