‘Doing Gender’ After the War: Dealing with Gender Mainstreaming and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peace Support Operations in Liberia and Sierra Leone
Although recommendations for gender mainstreaming and the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse in United Nations peace support operations have increased in recent years, a comparative analysis of different approaches towards these policy objectives remains wanting. As a result, the effectiveness of the UN guidelines for gender mainstreaming as expressed in Security Council Resolution 1325 has not yet been evaluated and debated academically. By comparing UN missions in Sierra Leone and Liberia, this article provides a summary of the current literature on UN policies on gender mainstreaming and sexual misconduct. Relying on interviews with mission staff, the article argues that although the effects of 1325 look promising, efforts to integrate gender perspectives and prevent sexual exploitation still suffer from staff, funding and enforcement deficiencies. More importantly, it reveals how urgently further field research and an active scholarly debate on UN policies on gender awareness and sexual misconduct are needed.