Add women and hope? Assessing the gender impact of EU common security and defence policy missions: a policy report

Abstract

This project bridges the divide between policy makers and critical approaches to gender by engaging with both the quantitative (number of women) and qualitative (shifts in underlying social power structures) aspects of gender in the context of CSDP. To do so it examined the policy documents and secondary literature on women, peace and security and the EU. We also conducted interviews with key personnel in Brussels and in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina to examine the planning, practice and impact of EU crisis management missions in the field. The Project makes the following recommendations based on this research: • Greater commitment to the Women, Peace & Security (WPS) agenda is required at the very top-level, both within EU planning offices such as the CMPD & CPSS, and within Member States at the highest political level and in addressing institutional cultures within personnel contributing agencies. • Better resourcing for Gender planning and Gender Focal point staff, doublehatting should be ended and continuity planning between staff should be enhanced. • Gender-mainstreaming has to include addressing institutional culture at the planning stage in addition to looking at staffing ratios and implementation on the ground. • Improving gender outcomes requires cooperation between CSDP missions and civil society, as well as better linking between gender mainstreaming initiatives in the other EU institutions and the EEAS. • Academic researchers working on gender and conflict need to emphasise the translational aspects of their findings and actively seek to engage with policymakers and practitioners • The CSDP institutions need to improve transparency and accessibility for academic researchers to maximise the accuracy, relevance and impact of researc