PM Bureau Support for Women, Peace, and Security

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) recognized the inordinate impact of war and conflict on women and the pivotal role women must play in conflict management, conflict resolution, and sustainable peace.  The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Act of 2017  established U.S. policy across the interagency to promote the meaningful participation of women in all aspects of overseas conflict prevention, management, and resolution. Subsequent U.S. government strategy and planning documents include:  the United States Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security   (June 2019), the Department of State Plan to Implement the U.S. Strategy on Women, Peace, and Security (June 2020). 

WPS Goals and Objectives Implemented by PM

The PM bureau advances the implementation of the goals and objectives outlined in the WPS policy documents cited above by accelerating the mainstreaming of women’s participation and gender perspectives – especially at leadership and decision-making levels – within the security institutions of partner nations.  PM programs, events, and activities accomplish this by focusing on the political-military aspects of the following four Department of State WPS outcomes:

1. Women around the world meaningfully participate in decision-making processes related to conflict and crises.
2. Women and girls around the world have access to aid and are safe from all forms of gender-based violence, abuse, and exploitation.
3. U.S. personnel and international programs advance women’s and girls’ equality and empowerment.
4. Partner governments adopt policies, plans, and capacity to improve the meaningful participation of women in processes connected to peace and security and decision-making institutions.

PM promotes WPS goals and objectives, particularly women’s meaningful participation in the security sector, through diplomatic and programmatic efforts.  The bureau addresses WPS issues and gender-based violence principally through peacekeeping capacity building, security assistance programs, and conventional weapons destruction.

Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI)

PM manages GPOI, the world’s largest peace operations capacity-building program.  GPOI partners with nearly 50 countries that contribute personnel to UN and regional peace operations.  Through GPOI, PM encourages women’s participation and leadership in peace operations, trains women peacekeepers, and integrates gender-related topics into training for peacekeepers.  Consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), the WPS Act of 2017, and the UN Gender Parity Strategy published the same year, GPOI promotes and conducts program activities focused on expanding the role of women, meaningful participation, and gender integration in peace operations.  Through GPOI, more than 18,000 women peacekeepers have been trained and both men and women have been trained on the operational impact of a gender perspective and integration in peacekeeping.  In 2024, GPOI partner countries provide 68% of all deployed women military peacekeepers despite representing only 39% of the countries that deploy military peacekeepers to UN missions.

Through GPOI, PM also works to remove barriers to women’s participation in training through facility upgrades, such as separate accommodations, bathrooms, and showers, that encourage women’s increased inclusion in training events and deployments.  Recently, responding to studies on the inadequacy of unisex personal protective equipment for women peacekeepers, the United States, through GPOI, and the Netherlands jointly funded and are managing a women’s body armor pilot project with Ghana and Zambia.  The women-specific body armor features a tailored cut, rounded chest, shortened torso, and adjustable back that tightens to fit, allowing the vest to conform to the women’s torso, providing better coverage of vital organs, and enhancing mobility.  When delivered in 2025, the women’s body armor is expected enhance both operations and safety during training and deployment.

Additionally, PM works to improve accountability for acts of misconduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeepers.  Through GPOI, PM funded and initiated planning to develop a first-of-its-kind joint U.S.–UN training course for National Investigation Officers (NIO), who investigate conduct and discipline issues with a focus on SEA.  Seven regional NIO courses trained over 170 students from 36 countries in the Africa, Latin America, and Indo-Pacific regions.  In 2022, GPOI, with India and the UN, launched the first NIO training of trainers (ToT) course for partner instructors.  Five more NIO ToT courses have since followed in the African, Latin American, and Indo-Pacific regions, the latest concluding at the end of 2024.

International Military and Education Training (IMET)

The IMET program, managed by PM, provides opportunities for foreign military personnel from 135 countries to receive professional military education at U.S. defense institutions alongside U.S. counterparts to build expertise, interoperability, and people-to-people ties that deepen security partnerships and enhance mission efficacy.  All Security Cooperation Officers working at U.S. embassies are encouraged to include qualified women candidates for IMET programs in at least the same percentage as they are present in their host country’s military.  These efforts resulted in training provided to approximately 1,783 women between fiscal years 2015-2019.  In FY 2022, the Department also intends to obligate at least $3 million specifically to train women personnel to attend IMET courses.

Conventional Weapons Destruction (CWD)

PM funds and manages CWD programs implemented by various non-government organizations through which women work as senior managers, deminers, community liaison officers, or deliver explosive ordnance risk education to affected communities.  In societies that continue to limit the role of women, PM’s CWD programs offer powerful examples that change viewpoints.  These programs not only give women a seat at the table in mine action but provide a path to that seat by working in all aspects of mine action, from leading survivor advocacy to engaging and surveying communities, providing municipal government oversight, and training deminers.  CWD programs currently support all-women or mixed demining teams in numerous countries across the globe.  CWD programs also help partner countries improve physical security and management of conventional weapons stockpiles, decreasing the chance of their diversion while protecting communities from accidental explosions involving unstable munitions.  They empower women to take leading roles in securing and managing munitions stockpiles, a job previously reserved for men in many countries around the world.

Global Defense Reform Program (GDRP)

Through GDRP, PM aims to enhance security sector governance, institutional capacity, and resilience of U.S. partner countries while advancing U.S. foreign policy priorities, including WPS efforts.  GDRP’s advisory support builds the capacity of women in the security sector through training and strategic advising to lead and implement security sector reforms that advance peace and security in their country.