Why is gender important to security sector reform (SSR)? How can gender issues be integrated into SSR? This guide from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) provides an introduction to SSR and gender issues. The integration of gender issues into SSR processes is crucial in enhancing operational effectiveness, establishing local ownership and strengthening oversight of the security sector. The integration of gender issues into SSR will face different challenges and opportunities based on the specific context in which SSR takes place.
Integration of gender issues into SSR can be pursued through two complementary strategies: gender mainstreaming and promoting the equal participation of men and women. Integrating gender issues into SSR enables women’s organisations to serve as sources of expertise and as bridges between communities and policymakers, promoting local ownership. It improves service delivery by creating more representative security institutions, strengthening responses to gender-based violence (GBV) and encouraging collaboration with women’s and men’s organisations. It strengthens oversight by increasing the representativeness of oversight bodies, thus increasing the responsiveness of oversight mechanisms to the concerns of all citizens.
Gender issues can be integrated into SSR policies and programming cycles by:
- Involving gender experts from women’s ministries, legislatures, civil society and academia in drafting SSR policies and implementing programmes.
- Building support and capacity for gender issues amongst staff responsible for drafting, implementing and evaluating policies and programmes.
- Conducting gender impact assessments of policies and continuing to monitor gender impact during implementation to determine how policies affect women, men, girls and boys specifically.
- Establishing a framework for programme design that considers the gender aspects of programme objectives, beneficiaries, activities, outputs, indicators, time frame, budget and partners.
- Establishing accountability mechanisms to ensure that all personnel are responsible for the integration of gender issues.
- Ensuring the representation of women and men in teams responsible for the assessment, drafting, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of security policies.
National governments, donors, security sector institutions and regional and international organisations responsible for the development of SSR policy and programming should:
- Build local ownership through the full involvement of civil society, including women’s organisations, in assessing, designing, implementing and monitoring/evaluating SSR policies and programmes.
- Review existing security-related legislation and policies to ensure that they are not discriminatory and take into account women’s, men’s, boys’ and girls’ specific security needs.
- Implement specific policies, mechanisms and programming to prevent, address and sanction GBV against women, girls, men and boys as part of SSR.
- Establish strategic targets and specific initiatives to increase the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and other under-represented groups in security sector institutions.
- Establish internal mechanisms to enforce zero-tolerance of GBV by security sector personnel and include specific gender training in the core curriculum for security sector personnel.
- Strengthen oversight of SSR processes and ensure that oversight bodies are gender-responsive and collaborate with women’s civil society organisations.
The full publication ‘Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit’ is available at:
