Contributions from:

Gender Focal Points

Gender Affairs Section

Edited by:
Chloé Lewis and Catalina Perdomo

Approved by:
Jamila Seftaoui

2019, Kinshasa

© Gender Affairs Section, MONUSCO

 CONTENTS
I. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
II. Gender Analysis by Offices in MONUSCO .................................................................. 3
1. Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General ..................................... 3
2. Office of the Chief of Staff ............................................................................................ 4
3. Office of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (Rule of Law
and Operations) .............................................................................................................. 6
4. Child Protection Section .............................................................................................. 7
5. Civil Affairs Section .................................................................................................. 10
6. Conduct and Discipline Team ...................................................................................... 12
7. Corrections Unit ........................................................................................................... 14
8. Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration, Reinstallation and Repatriation 16
9. Electoral Division ........................................................................................................ 19
10. MONUSCO Force ..................................................................................................... 21
11. Human Resources Specialist Support Unit .................................................................. 23
12. Integrated Security System .......................................................................................... 25
13. Joint Human Rights Office .......................................................................................... 26
14. Joint Operations Centre................................................................................................ 29
15. Justice Support Section ................................................................................................ 31
16. Legal Affairs Office ..................................................................................................... 33
17. Political Affairs Division ............................................................................................. 34
18. Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework Unit .................................................... 36
19. Stabilization Support Unit............................................................................................ 38
20. Strategic Communication of Public Information Department ..................................... 39
21. Strategic Planning Cell ................................................................................................ 41
22. UN Police ................................................................................................................... 43
III. Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 45
 INTRODUCTION
United Nations (UN) Security Council
Resolution 1325 from 2000 and the broader
Women, Peace and Security agenda, affirm
the importance of integrating a gender
perspective within the mandate and work of
UN peacekeeping missions. It is therefore
well established that understanding and
addressing the needs and contributions of
women, men, boys, and girls to peace and
security is key to the effectiveness of the
actions and services provided by
peacekeeping missions.
Most recently, and building on previous
resolutions, United Nations Security
Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2463 from
2019 requests MONUSCO to:
‘[…] take fully into account gender
considerations as a crosscutting issue
throughout its mandate and to assist
the Government of the DRC and other
relevant stakeholders in ensuring the
equal and meaningful participation
and full involvement and
representation of women at all levels
for the maintenance and promotion of
peace and security, including in the
conduct of elections, protection of
civilians and support to stabilisation
efforts through, inter alia, the
provision of gender and women
protection advisers and focal points
at headquarters and field levels,
participation of women civil society
organization members with regards
to conflict prevention and resolution,
and further requests enhanced
reporting by MONUSCO to the
Council on this issue’ (OP. 32).
The Mission and its components, divisions,
sections and units (hereinafter referred to as
“Offices”) have taken significant steps
towards integrating gender as a cross-
cutting issue throughout its work, including
appointing gender focal points (GFP)
within some Offices in MONUSCO. Yet,
the Gender Affairs Section found that for
1
some GFPs, ‘gender’ was too abstract a
concept. To address this and other
challenges, the Mission’s leadership
adopted a Gender Strategy through its
Mission Leadership Team (MLT) meeting
in December 2016. As part of this strategy,
a more extensive and professional level
network of GFP was established. It was also
decided that the Mission would adopt a
gender markers methodology to enhance its
gender responsiveness and accountability.
The gender markers approach is itself
made-up of several elements. These include
requesting the Mission’s individual Offices
to conduct a gender analysis of their work.
The gender analysis identifies the main
functions of each Office, to then examine
selected priority functions through a gender
perspective. The analysis also identifies the
challenges and mitigation measures for
delivering in a gender responsive manner,
and the specific ways forward to ensure
gender sensitive work. Some offices also
include information on their internal gender
balance and its importance to the effective
implementation of their functions. Based on
the gender analysis, Offices identify gender
sensitive indicators and sex-disaggregated
data, which they report on a quarterly basis.
These reports inform the Mission the
extend in which Offices are adapting their
actions to be more gender responsive. As
such, the gender markers tool has been used
to assess, improve, monitor and report on
the Mission’s gender responsiveness in
quantitative and qualitative manners.
The gender markers accountability tool has
changed the mindset of the Mission from
non-specific, often subjectively defined and
insufficient “gender mainstreaming” to
measurable gender-responsiveness with
concrete impacts to report. Gender markers
have been offering a way to evaluate,
document and adapt practices, as well as to
track progress on gender responsiveness.
Through this joint strategy all Mission
Offices have been mainstreaming gender,
joining forces to contribute to improving
gender equality in the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC).
This Gender Analysis offered an important
step towards facilitating this process. The
current document compiles the first gender
analysis produced by Offices in
MONUSCO during the first gender markers
reporting period, 2017- 2018.
By systematically identifying how the
different services and programs delivered
by MONUSCO reach and affect women,
men, girls, and boys, this Gender Analysis
offers an important step towards facilitating
Mission-wide gender responsiveness. In
effect, it promotes a closer understanding of
communities as it aims to deliver gender
inclusive provision of services across the
Mission’s Offices. In addition, by ensuring
women’s participation helps that their
perspectives, needs, experiences and
capabilities are accounted for and
integrated in MONUSCO’s work.
With varying degrees of substance and
specificity, 23 of the 25 priority Offices for
gender contributed to this document,
representing an encouraging 92% of the
Mission’s constituent parts. 1 Crucially,
however, these Offices noted clear ways in
which gender relates to their respective
work and internal office management, and
identified strategies to promote gender
responsiveness looking forward. Overall, it
provides encouraging and demonstrable
commitment towards gender
responsiveness across the Mission.
There are several key cross-cutting
mechanisms through which gender can be
systematically integrated across the
Mission, both in its substantive work and
the internal management of individual
Offices. In its substantive work, these
include ensuring consistent systematic sex-
disaggregated data monitoring, combined
1
Four MONUSCO Offices with Gender Focal
Points who were not able to provide a gender
analysis, these were the Joint Mission Analysis
Centre (JMAC), the Office of the Director for
Mission Support (ODMS) and the UN Volunteers
2
with contextual gender narrative, to better
understand the impact of armed conflict and
of MONUSCO interventions on women,
men, girls, and boys in the work and
reporting of the Mission; ensuring that the
gender dimensions of the mandate are
consistently and systematically integrated
into substantive agendas and budget
allocations; and ensuring gender markers
are integrated into Office and individual
workplans and progress evaluations. In
terms of internal Office management, this
document highlights the importance of and
challenges to achieving gender parity and a
diversity of roles for female personnel
(civilian and uniformed) in the Mission, in
Senior and field posts. The analyses to
follow therefore point to tools and
strategies to promote gender parity across
MONUSCO. Taken together and tailored to
the specific mandate of each Office, these
analyses help ensure that gender becomes
integral to an effective and systematically
gender responsive implementation of the
Mission mandate.
The remainder of the document presents the
individual gender analyses produced by
MONUSCO’s Offices, beginning with the
Mission leadership and Deputy leadership
and subsequently proceeding in
alphabetical order with the Mission’s
Offices. Each section provides a brief
overview of the principal functions of the
respective Office before introducing their
substantive, and at times managerial,
analyses. Each section closes with the
Office’s suggestions for the way forward to
ensure gender responsiveness in their work
looking ahead to the following fiscal year.
The document ends by offering some brief
conclusions.
(UNV). The Gender Affairs Section recognises that
these gaps limit a complete picture of the integration
of gender markers across MONUSCO.
Nevertheless, this 92% response rate provides a
comprehensive first Mission-wide gender analysis.

GENDER ANALYSIS BY OFFICES
IN MONUSCO
Office of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Office of the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General (O/SRSG) and Head
of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission
in the DRC (MONUSCO) is responsible for
providing direct substantive, political,
managerial and administrative support to
the SRSG in relation to the functions of the
office. The three primary functions of the
SRSG are as follows:
First, as the senior-most UN official and
representative of the UN Secretary General
in the DRC, maintain diplomatic, political,
good offices and representational functions,
and ensure the leadership of the UN
presence in the DRC—including
MONUSCO and all Agencies, Funds and
Programmes. Second, as head of
MONUSCO, which entails leadership and
management functions, oversee the
implementation of the Mission’s mandated
priorities and operations. Thirdly, as the
Designated Official for the DRC,
responsible for the safety and security of all
UN staff, dependents and UN premises.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions of the Office:
With respect to these three roles, the Office
supports the SRSG in her tasks to lead a
gender sensitive and inclusive approach as
senior-most UN official and as head of
MONUSCO. Two key areas are a priority
for the O/SRSG, as mandated by the
Security Council: support to the
strengthening of State institutions and the
protection of civilians (PoC). The O/SRSG
will ensure that these priorities are
delivered in a gender responsive manner
through, among others, supporting her
advocacy with external partners and UN
3
headquarters and ensuring that gender
considerations are fully mainstreamed in
MONUSCO as a work place.
As for the advocacy with external
partners and UN headquarters, the
O/SRSG can ensure gender sensitive
approaches in briefing notes and talking
points of the SRSG. More specifically, the
O/SRSG will focus mainly to deliver,
among others, messages related to the
stronger inclusion of women in the political
process with key political parties; gender
sensitive national legislation which protects
and promotes the political and social rights
of women in the DRC with national and
provincial parliamentarians; and the full
inclusion and participation of women in the
entire electoral and political process in
meetings with the Congolese government.
The O/SRSG can also support the
prioritisation of strategic messaging, in
coherence with the SRSG’s advocacy,
through the Spokesperson, the Strategic
Communications and Public Information
Division (SPID) and Radio Okapi, on
women’s political participation and
protection. As for the later, the O/SRSG can
ensure that gender considerations fully
feature in strategies for the PoC, including
strategies against armed groups, for
protection from militia and ethnic violence,
and strategies on the prevention and
mitigation of electoral/political violence.
Furthermore, the O/SRSG can ensure that
references to the specific issues faced by
women, girls, boys and men in the current
political and security environment, but also
reference on the advances made by the
Mission in terms of gender responsiveness
and gender markers, are included in her
speeches to the Security Council. The
O/SRSG can also schedule relevant
meetings for the SRSG with key
interlocutors to promote the role of women
in the DRC; advocate for the inclusion of
meetings that deal with gender related
priorities into the agendas of key visits to
MONUSCO, or meetings that have some
elements that focus on gender dimensions.
The O/SRSG can also ensure regular
engagement with UN Women and all other
UN agencies, funds and programmes to
identify synergies and opportunities for
joint action for gender related matters,
through her Deputy SRSG Resident
Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator
(DSRSG RC/HC).
As for ensuring that gender
considerations are fully mainstreamed in
MONUSCO as a work place, the O/SRSG
can focus on the following. Support the
SRSG so that the fulfilment of gender parity
targets in recruitment decisions, not only
within O/SRSG but throughout the
Mission, are achieved; and ensuring
progress reports on gender parity within
MONUSCO personnel are shared with the
core MLT by the SRSG herself, with a
prefacing message. The O/SRSG can also
support so that the SRSG advocates for the
development and implementation of
strategies which position MONUSCO as
an equal employer of persons of all gender
identifications, including male, female,
trans-identified and non-binary persons;
initiates measures which establish a lasting
culture of gender equality and inclusion in
MONUSCO; promote adherence to, and
the implementation of, the Mission’s
Gender Parity Strategy, even during
drawdown; hold follow-up meetings on the
measures undertaken to promote an
enabling work environment that promote
gender parity in the Mission; and hold
meetings with the leadership/management
in staff unions to address the specific
challenges faced by male and female
personnel in the Mission.
With respect to her role as Designated
Official, the SRSG is primarily supported
by the Principal Security Advisor, who has
a direct line to UNDSS, rather than her front
office. However, measures that could be
taken by O/SRSG to enhance the gender
sensitivity of the implementation of these
functions could include requesting a
quarterly gender analysis report from
Security/PSA, providing an analysis of
4
UNSMS security incidents and response
measures.
The Office recognises that it is unlikely that
there will ever be a ‘right moment’ to
prioritise gender responsiveness certainly
without the requisite institutional will from
the Mission leadership.
The Way Forward:
The O/SRSG is committed to ensure
support so that the SRSG promotes gender
parity and gender equality within and
outside of the Mission. As such, two
approaches will be prioritized. One in
relation to the support given to the SRSG in
her advocacy with external partners and UN
headquarters. Two, in relation to the
support given to the SRSG in the
accomplishment of her managerial tasks,
particularly so that the Gender Strategy and
the Gender Parity MLT decisions are fully
implemented in the Mission.
The O/SRSG will develop and keep to an
established plan that deliberately includes
high-level meetings with the top leadership
of political actors in DRC, wherein
women’s political participation is central to
the agenda. Similarly, within the Mission,
the O/SRSG will continue to work closely
with the Offices to ensure the systematic
implementation of the gender markers and
the Gender Parity strategy of the Mission.
Office of the Chief of Staff
Principal Functions of the Office:
Reporting to the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General (SRSG), the Mission
Chief of Staff (MCOS) is responsible for
ensuring the integrated and coherent
functioning of the Mission. She ensures the
effective direction and management of all
Mission activities and components, in
accordance with the Mission’s mandate and
the strategic vision and guidance of the
SRSG. To that end, the MCOS oversees the
core mechanisms and processes that enable
the integrated delivery of the mandate,
strategic and operational planning, overall
Mission coordination, development and
adherence to policy, information
management and senior-level decision-
making.
The Office of the Mission Chief of Staff
(O/COS) is the executive arm of the SRSG;
it enables, coordinates and directs
implementation by Mission components of
MONUSCO’s mandate. The O/COS
supports the SRSG and MCOS by
managing strategic information flows and
business processes, facilitating decision-
making by the SRSG and Mission
Leadership Team (MLT), and translating
direction into action through coherent
tasking, while managing timelines.
Through the Mission components directly
reporting to the MCOS, the latter directs,
with the Strategic Planning Cell (SPC) in
the lead, mission planning; ensures the
promotion of situational awareness and
provision of forward-looking strategic
analysis, with the Joint Operation Center
(JOC) and Joint Mission Analysis Cell
(JMAC) in the lead respectively; ensures
the effective processing of all legal matters,
with the Legal Advice Unit (LAU) in the
lead; supports the maintenance of conduct
and discipline, with Conduct and Discipline
Team (CDT) in the lead; ensures and
appropriate response by management to
serious incidents, including through Boards
of Inquiry, with Boards of Inquiry Unit
(BoIU) in the lead; and, finally, maintains
operational relations with the Host
Government and facilitates visits by
partners, with the Protocol Unit in the lead.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions of the Office:
O/COS does not have its own programmes
or activities that directly benefit the
Congolese population or work with
Congolese institutions into which gender
could be mainstreamed. However, due to its
central role in ensuring the coherent and
effective implementation of the strategic
vision and guidance of the SRSG, its tasks
and functions can nevertheless have a large
5
impact on how gender-responsive the
Mission as a whole is, and specifically, on
how gender is considered in: 1) Senior
leadership decision-making; 2) Reporting
to UNHQ; and 3) Strategic planning.
More concretely, O/COS can bring about
better gender responsiveness through the
following actions: 1) Supporting the
inclusion of gender-related topics onto the
agenda of the MLT, ensuring that all topics
on the agenda of the MLT are addressed in
a gender-responsive way, and tracking the
decisions of the MLT to ensure decisions
are implemented in a gender-responsive
way. 2) Reviewing all documentation
coming through O/COS, especially official
reports and correspondence for UNHQ, for
gender-responsiveness and the inclusion of
sex-disaggregated data and requesting
amendments/additions as necessary. 3)
Through the Policy and Best Practice
Officer, supporting gender parity by
reviewing the exit interview template and
ensuring that exit interviews are conducted,
to know more about the different reasons
why men and women leave the Mission,
while suggesting actions to improve the
recruitment and retention rates for women.
Currently, the gaps in the gender-
responsiveness of O/COS are mainly linked
to non-systematic tracking of MLT
decisions and non-systematic review of
documentation (cables, reports, MLT
agendas) for gender-responsiveness and the
inclusion of sex-disaggregated data. The
lack of a Policy and Best Practice Officer
also hampers the efforts to increase
knowledge about further actions that could
be taken towards retaining women in the
Mission, and thus, enhancing gender parity.
One priority will therefore be to
systematize the tracking of MLT decisions
and to improve the review of
documentation for gender-responsiveness
and sex-disaggregated data. Two new tools
that are currently being developed and
tested, one for code cable tracking and one
for tracking MLT decisions, will support
this effort.
Challenges for ensuring gender
responsiveness of the O/COS work include
the absence of enough gender expertise in
some Offices providing the documentation
for MLT consideration; the fact that the
Gender Advisor is not always present in
MLT discussions (only when the agenda
includes gender-specific topics); and the
lack of sex-disaggregated data in some of
the raw data received from Offices. The
following mitigating measures will be taken
to address these challenges: 1)
Incorporating tracking of gender-
responsiveness and the inclusion of sex-
disaggregated data into the MLT and code-
cable tools; 2) consultation with Gender
Affairs on MLT agendas and agenda points
based on preliminary analysis by O/COS;
and 3) identification of where gender
narratives and sex-disaggregated data is
missing in reports and consultations with
relevant Offices to increase provision of
such data through the gender focal points in
the respective offices.
Gender parity in O/COS:
As of the second quarter of 2019,
O/COS has 12 posts, of which nine
are currently encumbered. Of these
nine posts, three are occupied by men
(all national General Service (GS)
staff, two of whom are on loan to
other Offices), while the other six are
occupied by women (one Director
level (D-level), three Professional
level (P-level), two Field Support
level (FS-level), and one national GS-
level. The GS post is also on loan to
another section). Thus, of the
encumbered posts that are with
O/COS (i.e., not on loan), five are
occupied by women and one by a
man.
The Way Forward:
6
Based on the O/COS work plan, the
following goals with the respective gender-
responsive actions were identified. First,
the O/COS will ensure that the Mission
effectively translate the MLT’s gender
related direction into action and that 75% of
gender-related MLT decisions are
implemented within the set deadline. All
the MLT gender-related decisions that are
not implemented within the set deadline
will be followed-up upon by O/COS with
the relevant section/office/pillar.
Second, the Mission Leadership will
provide gender responsive direction and
guidance, as the O/COS will ensure that a
minimum of three MLTs per year have a
gender-specific item on the agenda. Also,
O/COS will ensure that agendas and related
documents for MLTs are gender
mainstreamed.
Third, strategic decisions and approaches in
the Mission are gender responsive, as
O/COS will ensure that at least 75% of
strategic documents, such as Code Cables,
include gender considerations and/or sex-
disaggregated data as per Code Cable
Guidelines. In addition, MONUSCO will
inform HQ through its reports, particularly
SG reports, how major trends and efforts of
the Mission affect Congolese men and
women. O/COS will ensure that a least 75%
of Offices in each SG report include gender
considerations and/or sex-disaggregated
data and that over the fiscal year at least
75% of other major reports include gender
considerations and/or sex-disaggregated
data. Finally, MONUSCO will adopt
measures to improve its gender parity
balance, after O/COS identifies through the
analysis of exit interviews measures to
attract and retain female staff in the
Mission.
Office of the Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General
(Rule of Law and Operations)
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Office of the Deputy Special
Representative of the Secretary-General on
the Rule of Law and Operations (O/DSRSG
RoLOps) supervises and supports field
offices. The Office assists in the
coordination of operations undertaken by
the Mission’s civilian offices and
uniformed personnel in fulfilment of their
mandate. It provides strategic guidance,
advising Heads of Offices (HoO) and
substantive and support offices, and
oversees budget allocation and spending,
planning and recruitment in the Rule of
Law and Operations pillar. In terms of
process, its core functions are decision-
making, coordination and sharing between
HQ and the field.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions of the Office:
The O/DSRSG RoLOps ensures that gender
is mainstreamed into MONUSCO field
offices’ (FOs) work plans and ensures that
female personnel are included in
monitoring and investigation teams. This
enhances the likelihood that Missions are
equipped to adequately address the
gendered dimensions of the protection of
civilians (PoC) mandate.
The O/DSRSG RoLOps also works with
FOs to ensure that gender sensitive
indicators and sex-disaggregated data are
systematically integrated and tracked
across their mandated work. The Office
ensures and monitors that HoO are
accountable for gender related success
criteria in their performance evaluations (E-
passes).
The Way Forward:
The O/DSRSG RoLOps will continue its
routine efforts to integrate gender across the
operational work of the mandate, ensuring
that gender markers are systematically
considered, and gender balance is achieved
to the greatest extent possible across the
Mission. The O/DSRSG RoLOps will
continue to work with relevant Offices,
including Gender Affairs.
7
Gender parity in O/DSRSG RoLOps:
Given its oversight role, the O/DSRSG is
attentive to the integration of gender
across the Mission from a managerial
standpoint, including its own. Overall,
the gender balance in the Mission is not
favourable. The O/DSRSG RoLOps
notes several considerations contributing
to the male to female gender imbalance
across field offices, including security
conditions, remoteness, lack of gender-
separate facilities, particularly in military
bases, and general hardship. Despite this,
the Office affirms the importance of
redressing these challenges to ensure that
female staff are routinely able to
participate in field missions to ensure
gender responsive operationalisation of
the Mission’s mandate.
Within the O/DSRSG RoLOps itself,
however, there is currently a higher
proportion of female staff than male. Of
the 9 recently recruited planning officers,
for example, include eight (8) women
and one (1) man. All these data is as of
first quarter 2018.
Child Protection Section
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Child Protection Section (CPS) focuses
specifically on children directly affected by
conflict, including children associated with
armed groups and children who have
suffered abuses by parties to the conflict.
MONUSCO is mandated to take fully into
account child protection as a crosscutting
issue throughout its work. This includes
assisting the Government of DRC in
ensuring the protection of children’s rights,
inter alia, in Demobilization, Disarmament,
Reintegration, Reinsertion and Repatriation
(DDR/RR) processes. CPS conducts its
work through monitoring, reporting, and
advocacy, within MONUSCO and with
local authorities. MONUSCO does not
engage in programmatic or direct assistance
provision work related to child protection.
Instead, it identifies child protection
concerns and coordinates with partners,
such as UNICEF, authorities and other
operational entities.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions:
CPS works towards systematically
collecting and integrating sex-
disaggregated data in its reporting. The
Global Horizon Note (GHN) produced by
the Section and draft report on grave
children’s rights violations systematically
include sex-disaggregated analyses.
Similarly, the quarterly GHN and CPS’
draft contributions to the United Nations
Secretary General (UNSG) Annual Reports
to the Security Council on Children and
Armed Conflict (CAAC) also provides sex-
disaggregated analyses. Although these are
sometimes taken out of the final UNSG
reports due to formal word limits, they
remain important to ensuring gender
responsiveness in CPS’ work.
CPS documented that from 1 January 2014
to 30 June 2017, 6,315 children were
separated from an armed group across
DRC. This included 5, 071 boys, 426 girls,
and 818 children whose sex was not
reported. These figures indicate that
children are targeted for recruitment by
armed groups in DRC. According to these
figures, boys represent up to 80% of
children separated from armed groups, with
girls representing at least 7%. CPS notes,
however, that girls are likely to be
significantly under-represented in these
figures for a number of reasons, including
the different ways boys and girls escape
and/or demobilise from armed groups.
Boys are more likely to approach
MONUSCO or other institutional child
protection actors to access DDR/RR
programming. It is more probable that boys
are taken by FARDC during clashes with
armed groups due to their combat role.
Boys are also more exposed to communities
as their roles entail going outside from their
military camps. Girls, however, are more
likely to perform support roles in the camps
and therefore are less exposed to DDR/RR
sensitization campaigns. Girls also tend to
return directly to their communities if
escaping, to prevent the high stigma of
8
coming from an armed group, as this often
represents losing their worth as a potential
wife. As a result, boys are more likely be
documented by institutional actors, whilst
girls may remain invisible.
In CPS’s work, girls are highly represented
as survivors of sexual violence in DRC
where they constitute 95% of children
recorded as survivors of sexual violence. It
is important to note here that socio-cultural
gender norms contribute to under-reporting
and under-counting of boys as possible
survivors of sexual violence. Given cultural
taboos and traditionally conservative
gender norms, boys may be less likely to
report sexual abuse. Due to their combat
roles, CPS data indicates, however, that
boys are more likely to be killed by armed
groups or FARDC, representing 61% of
children killed in fighting, and representing
77% of documented child victims of
maiming. Girls documented as survivors of
sexual violence may also have been
maimed. To avoid duplication, they are
generally recorded as survivors of sexual
violence.
Such a gender sensitive understanding
informs CPS and its partners’ responses to
the specific and shared needs of girls and
boys affected by armed conflict. In cases of
children separated from armed groups, CPS
documents cases and refers them to
UNICEF for psychosocial support and,
where possible, works towards family
tracing and reunification. UNICEF ensures
gender-responsive psychosocial support for
children affected by armed conflict. In
addition, Joint Protection Missions are
carried out and adequate protection
measures for girls and boys are ensured,
including through the provision of
psychosocial and legal support tailored to
the specific needs of each sex.
CPS also works with partners to ensure that
girls and boys are represented as witnesses
in judiciary proceedings against
perpetrators of grave children’s rights
violations. Between the 1 July 2017 and the
1 November 2017, children were identified
as witnesses for 7 judiciary proceeding.
Exact and sex-disaggregated figures of girls
and boys are not available for this period.
However, between the 1 January 2018 and
the 1 November 2018, girls and boys were
identified as witnesses for 2 judiciary
proceedings, representing 24% and 76%
respectively.
To address the specific issue of the
recruitment and use of girls in armed
groups, CPS is developing strategies to
engage directly with armed groups.
Recognising the sensitive nature of this
work, CPS notes that progress in this area is
likely to be slow. While no formal
engagements have yet taken place with
armed groups, CPS has started to engage
with the commander of the groups NDC-
Rénové, including on the issue of girls. CPS
is working with NDC-R to advise the
commander on addressing this issue within
the group’s troops. CPS amended
documents concerning engagement with
armed groups to draw greater attention to
the issue of the recruitment and use of girls.
In addition, the different and shared
protection issues affecting girls and boys in
NDC-R controlled areas are duly taken into
account in the drafting of CVR project
proposals.
Developing its knowledge-base in this area,
CPS participated in in-office coaching on
girls in armed groups. Three (3) CPS
personnel attended a workshop on the
methods to address the reintegration of girls
formerly associated with armed groups in
DRC. The Gender Focal Point disseminated
all relevant information to CPS staff. Staff
also received a series of documents and
articles on gender, including Guidelines on
the development of Gender-responsive
Community Conflict Reduction Projects
(CVR), which it integrates in its work.
As an outward demonstration of the
Section’s responsiveness to the needs of
girls affected by armed conflict, CPS logos,
stickers, posters, and all newly printed
9
material now feature both girls and boys.
The Section is also discussing the design of
new pocket cards and brochures addressing
the protection concerns of girls in armed
conflict, as well as the possibility of having
the TV programme, ECHOS du GTTC,
dedicate a monthly broadcast on this issue.
Finally, the Section continues to hold age
assessment trainings with FARDC, while
working to ensure that it comes within the
range of its target indicator of 10-30%
female participation, notably of female
military personnel. Efforts to increase
female participation are ongoing.
Gender Analysis of Office
Management:
P4 and P5 Child Protection
personnel effectively integrate
gender-related performance
indicators in their E-Passes.
Data as of first quarter 2018.
The Way Forward:
CPS will continue to ensure that in all its
work, including engaging with armed
groups, the different and shared needs of
boys and girls affected in armed conflict are
addressed. Where possible, CPS will work
to ensure that the experiences of girls and
boys are heard and represented in criminal
prosecutions in efforts to fight impunity,
while ensuring that witness protection
measures are in place and adapted to boys’
and girls’ particular protection concerns. To
do so, CPS will continue to ensure that in
all its sensitisation efforts – including
within MONUSCO, to national security
forces, local partners, civil society and
armed groups – boys’ and girls’ shared and
differentiated experiences are substantively
represented and understood.
The particular needs and experiences of
boys and girls armed affected by armed
conflict will continue to be represented in
CPS communication materials, as reflected
in its logo. The Section will also conduct or
support at least one outreach event
specifically addressing girls’ protection
concerns in armed conflict with the aim of
better reaching girls. This event will be
conducted with either local populations,
civil society, national security forces,
and/or government authorities with the aim
of continuing to raise awareness about the
particular realities and experiences of girls
in DRC. Increased awareness may translate
into ensuring gender responsive protection
at the local level.
For age assessments trainings conducted
with FARDC and PNC, CPS will ensure
that between 10 and 30% of participant
trainees are female officers. Internally, all
CPS staff will benefit from in-office
coaching by the CPS Gender Focal Points
on the gender dimensions of children’s
experiences of armed conflict, and how to
prevent, mitigate, and respond to them in
their work. Finally, all Child Protection
GHN reports and contributions to the
UNSG Annual Report on CAAC will
include analyses of the different
experiences and needs of girls and boys in
DRC.
Civil Affairs Section
Principal function of the Office:
The Civil Affairs Section (CAS)
contributes to the protection of civilians and
the implementation of the 31 December
Agreement. The Section regularly engages
with key partners and stakeholders at the
subnational levels, acting as an interface
between the Mission, Congolese
populations, and authorities. In support of
PoC, Civil Affairs works to strengthen
community-level engagement in security
governance and early warning, as well as to
promote community reconciliation through
dialogue. Additionally, CAS seeks to
mitigate risks of election-related violence
through targeted engagement with civil
society to support its efforts to mobilise
10
towards dialogue and peaceful electoral
processes.
Gender Analysis of its Principal Functions:
It is important to promote gender inclusive
and gender responsive local security
governance. The failure to include women
in community dialogue supports the notion
that only men are allowed to take decisions
that affect the community as a whole.
Indeed, women are actors in conflict and
not just victims in need of protection. As
stakeholders in the community, women are
crucial to securing sustainable peace.
For this reason, CAS encourages women’s
participation in local protection
mechanisms supported by the Section and
in the organisation of peaceful elections.
According to data collected by CAS,
between the 1 July 2017 and 15 November
2017, women represented 24.6% of
members in local protection committees
(LPCs), benefiting from coaching and
capacity-building sessions. While
encouraging, this figure is below the
Section’s 30% target. Alongside LPCs,
Civil Affairs works with Community Alert
Networks (CAN) for information gathering
and early warning alerts. Women currently
represent 33% of CAN focal points.
CAS notes that women’s
underrepresentation in LPCs is most
pronounced in rural areas. This is partly due
to the time-consuming responsibilities of
women farmers and small traders, as well as
the influence of entrenched conservative
gender norms. In some communities,
women are not permitted to speak in the
presence of men.
To ensure that women’s security concerns
are captured by CAS, the Section
systematically conducts separate focus
groups with men, women, and youth to
identify perceptions of security and justice
through its quarterly population polling in
the Kivus and Ituri. This ensures that all
protection and security-related activities
that respond to these polls, are gender
sensitive. Focus groups can identify
specific patterns related to security
perceptions, for example, women in eastern
DRC feel less secure in conducting their
daily activities and walking at night than
men. Also, women are also less likely to
trust national security and international
peacekeeping forces deployed to maintain
security in their villages. Analysing and
processing this information is essential to
ensuring gender responsive protection
measures.
In further efforts to enhance female
participation in local security governance,
CAS continues to promote women’s
participation in its LPC capacity building
sessions. In Q1 2018, women constituted
29% of beneficiaries of its capacity
building activities, demonstrating an
ongoing need for active efforts to promote
women’s participation in LPCs. CAS also
conducts skills development activities on
best practices for peaceful election,
peaceful cohabitation, and on the role of
civil society in mitigating violence,
ensuring female participation across its
offices in Kinshasa, Dungu, Lubumbashi,
and Goma. In effect, during the period
July–November 2017, 37% of beneficiaries
of such activities were women, and in Q1
2018, women represented 32% of
beneficiaries. Women also represented 25%
of participants in CAS restitution sessions
and focus groups with territorial authorities
and civil society on poll results.
The importance of women’s participation
and leadership in the abovementioned
initiatives is exemplified in North Kivu
through the Synergie des Femmes Unies
pour la Paix et le Developpement (SFUPD).
SFUPD is an inter-ethnic women’s
platform, which plays a key role in
sensitisation campaigns for peaceful
cohabitation, specifically in the territory of
Rutshuru. The security situation in this
territory urged women to organize at the
local level, calling on youths to desist from
armed groups and to restrain from solving
conflicts through violence. Similarly, in
11
South Kivu, Solidarité des Femmes
Activistes pour les Droits Humains
(SOFAD) has greatly contributed to
stabilisation efforts, notably across Uvira,
Fizi, Kabare, and Mwenga. The work of
SOFAD activists, including sensitisation on
inter-community co-habitation, played an
important role in encouraging the return of
IDPs following the massacres in Mutarule
in 2014.
However, and overall, women remain
vastly underrepresented in local security
governance in DRC. This is largely
reflective of women’s underrepresentation
in public institutions in the country. CAS
adopts and will continue to support a quota-
based system to promote women’s
participation in protection-related
activities. While such targets offer a useful
tool for enhancing women’s participation,
CAS notes that this approach, alone, does
not immediately lead to fundamental
improvements in women’s security. Nor
can it ensure women’s active, sustained,
and meaningful participation in local
security mechanisms. It is important to
recognise the entrenched nature of
patriarchal gender norms and structures in
the region. These both hinder women’s
active participation in public life and can
lead to social pressure and resistance
against women if female participation is
promoted too forcefully. As such, and in
line with the do no harm principle, CAS
recognizes power structures in the field and
establishes a dialogue with local leaders as
to find ways to promote and allow women’s
participation in protection-related
activities. CAS works to mitigate the risks
facing women through consultations with
local leaders and women to discuss female
participation and the provision of safe
spaces for women to discuss protection-
related concerns.
The Way Forward:
To effectively respond to the needs and
contributions of women, CAS performance
management systems will continue to
include gender sensitive indicators and sex-
disaggregated data. It will ensure that in all
activities performed, women represent 30%
of participants. Similarly, the Section will
aim to have at least 30% of females in LPCs
who will benefit from coaching and
capacity building sessions. To ensure
tailored and gender responsive approach,
the protection needs and contributions of
women and girls will be integrated in all
capacity building sessions and local plans.
Civil Affairs will also continue to ensure
that at least 30% of representatives and
participants in its focus groups with
territorial authorities and civil society are
women. In addition, skills development
activities on best practices for peaceful
elections, peaceful cohabitation and on civil
society’s role in mitigating violence will
include one third of female participants.
Conduct and Discipline Team
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Conduct and Discipline Team (CDT)
was established in 2007 out of the Office for
Addressing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
(OASEA) and is attached to the Office of
the SRSG. The Team upholds the UN
Standards of Conduct within the Mission,
which are based on three key principles,
ensuring: 1) the highest standards of
efficiency, competence and integrity; 2)
zero-tolerance policy on sexual exploitation
and abuse; 3) accountability of those in
command and/or leadership who fail to
enforce the standards of conduct.
Gender Analysis of its Principal
Functions:
To uphold the UN Standards of Conduct,
emphasising prevention, enforcement, and
remedial action, the CDT adopts a two-
pronged approach: one that is inward
focused within the Mission, and one that is
12
outward looking, towards conflict-affected
communities.
Within the Mission, the Team’s preventive
actions predominantly focused on training
target groups, including its military
component, police force, and civilian staff,
on the zero-tolerance policy and the
Mission’s accountability measures for
personnel and managers. All training
modules include the statement from the
Secretary-General affirming the
importance of increasing female
peacekeeper presence in peacekeeping
operations (PKOs). The CDT produced the
film ‘To Serve with Pride’ and developed
case-studies to help UN personnel
understand their role of protecting and
serving vulnerable populations with respect
and dignity. To personalise the issue, the
Team also disperses poster depicting a
young schoolgirl and a peacekeeper in a
hotel room with a message that reads “It
could be your daughter.” Other prevention
measures targeting uniformed personnel
that are enforced by the Mission include
curfew hours, the delimitation of out-of-
bound places, non-fraternisation policies,
and policies restricting the transport of non-
UN persons in UN vehicles without prior
authorisation. Offices within the Mission
also follow their own specific directives on
SEA, for example, the Force Commander
Directive on SEA and the Police
Commissioner Directive on SEA.
Viewing SEA prevention through a gender
perspective, as the majority of personnel
and the majority of reported incidents of
SEA are committed by men, it is important
that the CDT training predominantly targets
men. Yet, it is important to note that women
can also perpetrate sexual exploitation and
abuse. Men can also perpetrate this kind of
abuse to boys. These two types of incidents
are more likely to go unnoticed, unreported,
and therefore, unsanctioned due to
pronounced cultural taboos around male
victimhood, particularly of an abuse at a
woman’s hands and a homosexual, as well
as challenges around proving an offense
given that, notably, men and boys cannot
get pregnant. It is important, therefore, that
CDT adopts an approach to training that
accounts for female and homosexual
perpetrators of SEA, as well as male
victims, to ensure a gender inclusive
approach to SEA prevention and protection
without perpetuating stigma.
Looking outside of the Mission, one of the
challenges facing the CDT is ensuring
access to reporting structures within
conflict-affected communities. The CDT
conducts outreach activities targeting local
communities and partners to ensure and
increase awareness of reporting
mechanisms. As with its prevention efforts
within the Mission, the Team must ensure
that it adopts a gender inclusive and age
sensitive approach to sexual exploitation
and abuse so that all victims – women, girls,
men, and boys – are included within the
protective and remedial remit of the CDT.
The CDT’s enforcement efforts focus on
maintaining the reporting and case
management mechanisms to respond to
allegations of misconduct and SEA and
continuing to strengthen its community-
based complaint networks (CBCN). This
process largely relies on community
members writing reporting and complaints
about MONUSCO personnel misconduct
and placing these in boxes provided by
MONUSCO. CDT notes that this approach
to reporting does not account for the high
illiteracy rates in DRC, that particularly
impact women and girls. As part of its CDT
should consider and put in place innovative
and more accessible reporting mechanisms
that does not require individuals to write
complaints in this way.
It is important to note that the CDT does
not, itself, have a disciplinary mandate. As
a result, its principal role is to ensure
administrative follow-up from the receipt of
allegation through to the referral,
investigation, and distribution of remedial
action. To assess its effectiveness, the
Mission’s communications strategy and
13
complaints mechanisms is currently
ongoing across relevant offices, including
Field Offices, as well as Legal and Medical
sections. As part of implementing gender
responsiveness as a strategy in the work of
the CDT, this evaluation process should
ensure that it examines how and the extent
to which it is attuned to the different needs
of different populations – including men,
women, girls, and boys – while ensuring
that reporting and reparations structures do
not perpetuate discrimination and stigma.
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
The team is composed of 20 staff, from
which nice (9) female and 11 male
personnel. Given its role in responding to
allegations of misconduct and SEA, it is
especially important to ensure gender
balance in the CDT as victims/survivors
should be able to choose whether to
interact with female or male personnel
when seeking assistance. Data as of mid-
2018.
The Way Forward:
CDT will continue to uphold the UN
Standards of Conduct and the Zero-
Tolerance Policy across the Mission and
across its prevention, enforcement, and
remedial efforts. To do so, it will continue
to work with TCCs to promote the
importance of adopting a gender
perspective when deploying troops and
responding to allegations of misconduct
and SEA. CDT will remain available for
pre-deployment trainings to TCCs to ensure
the effectiveness and credibility of the
Mission, so that the respect and dignity of
civilian populations are prioritized.
Moreover, looking forward, the CDT will
work towards planning and implementing
more innovative approaches to SEA
prevention and protection, notably in
relation to its reporting mechanisms, so that
they are gender responsive and account for
high illiteracy rates, particularly of girls and
women in communities.
Corrections Unit
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Corrections Unit was established in
2010, following a recommendation of the
UN Secretary-General to enhance the
Mission’s legislative, organisation, and
operational support to the penitentiary
system in the DRC. The Unit advises and
supports authorities on issues relating to the
organisation of prisons, implementation of
programmes, security, sentence
management and the organization of life in
prisons. Among the key issues it addresses
include overcrowding in prisons,
inadequate resources, health and disease.
Overall, guided by the Mandela Rules,
establishing the United Nations Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the
Corrections Unit works to enhance best
practices across the penal system in the
DRC.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions of the Office:
The Correction Unit monitors 38 prisons in
DRC, including 14 high risk prisons, and
produces daily and weekly sex-
disaggregated reports on inmates and prison
staff from 31 of these prisons. In September
2017, the prison population across DRC
stood at approximately 21,370 inmates,
with women accounting for 447 of this
population, or 2.1%. The Mission also
documented 61 infants with their mothers
in detention. Like their male counterparts,
the majority women in detention are
awaiting trial. Data from the Corrections
Unit indicates that 70% of men in detention
are awaiting trial, and 76% of women in
detention are awaiting trial.
The living conditions in prisons in DRC are
extremely poor for men, women, and
children in detention. Women in detention
face particular needs, which are rarely
adequately, if at all, addressed. Indeed,
14
gender inequality and women’s low social
status in DRC is reflected in the experience
of female prisoners. For example, families
are more likely to invest resources into
visiting a male relative in prison but are
more likely to neglect those same
responsibilities towards female relatives in
prison. Furthermore, female inmates are
exposed to forms of sexual and gender-
based violence either from fellow inmates
when prisons are not adequately separated,
as well as from officers assigned to
supervise them. Women who give birth in
custody may have to care for their child if
they do not have a caretaker outside the
prison.
Services provided in prisons, such as
medical treatment and livelihood training,
generally target men specifically, who
represent most of the prison population.
This is to the detriment of female detainees.
As a way of broadening the scope of its
livelihood programmes for male and female
detainees, and in collaboration with
organisations such as Un Jour Nouveau
(UJN) and Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS),
these included training on making bags
with sacks and thread, basket weaving,
tailoring, moulding paper into necklaces,
agricultural work, bread making, liquid
soap making and literacy classes.
In terms of medical treatment available in
the prisons, these mostly treat body rashes,
malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrhoea.
According to data from the Corrections
Unit, women are most commonly treated
for malaria, high blood pressure, diarrhoea,
and are provided treatments for their babies
and young children. Gynaecological care is
also needed for female prisoners. The Unit
notes the support provided by entities such
the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), the MONUSCO Force, as
well as by some national private hospitals
and the DRC Ministry of Health, who work
in collaboration with the Corrections Unit
to provide medical treatment within the
prisons.
In line with Rule 11 of the Mandela Rules,
stipulating that different categories of
prisoners shall be kept in separate
institutions, or parts of institutions (taking
into account of their sex, age, criminal
record, legal reason for their detention and
the necessities of their treatment), the Unit
works to ensure that separate prison
facilities are available. The Correction Unit
notes that the central prison in Goma (North
Kivu) fully complies with this international
standard, providing total separation of
female prisoners who are held in a separate
facility. Similarly, in Kalemie
(Tanganyika) a recent block was
constructed for female prisoners giving
them total separation. In Bunia (Ituri), a
separate prison exists but is situated very
closely to the male prison. As such, the
construction of a new prison is under way,
with the support of the Correction Unit.
In terms of the representation of female
staff in prisons in DRC, of the 1,052
number of officers, women account for
14.9%. This amounts to 157 female staff,
50 of whom were trained by MONUSCO in
2017. In line with Mandela Rule 81, female
prisoners and detainees are to be attended to
and supervised by women staff. This is in
recognition of the vulnerable position of
detainees and that it may be easier for
women prisoners to relate to female guards.
The Unit notes that female officers rarely
occupy positions of leadership in the
prisons. In effect, female officers’ career
progression is often limited as they are not
able to be reallocated as easily due to family
and caregiving duties; but also, due to
conservative views about the role of female
staff within the penitentiary system.
Working conditions are also poor and there
are rarely separate toilet or showering
facilities for female officers, where these
exist at all. The Unit notes that for both
male and female staff, salary payments are
irregular. The Corrections Unit will
continue to work to improve the capacity
and conditions of the Congolese
15
penitentiary system, including for female
detainees and prison staff.
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
The Corrections Unit includes five (5)
female personnel among its 22 correction
officers, or 23%. The Unit recognises the
importance of ensuring a higher
representation of female personnel
among its staff, not only to ensure gender
parity but as a way of demonstrating the
presence of women in the sector to
promote the achievement of the
minimum international standards
highlighted above. Information as of
mid-2018.
The Way Forward:
The Corrections Unit will promote
enhanced compliance with the standard
minimum rules for the treatment of
prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules).
From a gender perspective, the Corrections
Unit will continue to promote and support
prisons in DRC to uphold Rule 11 on the
separation of categories and Rule 8 on
supervision by female staff. The Unit will
continue to monitor respect to these
minimum standards throughout its
inspections, monitoring, and assistance to
prisons in DRC. The Section will also
continue to organize training programmes
with prison personnel throughout the
following reporting year, these will include
on themes such as prisoner identification
systems; the establishment of Intelligence
Cells in seven (7) high-risk prisons; on the
provision of basic technology in prisons;
and on basic communication equipment.
Where relevant and possible, the
Corrections Unit will ensure that it
integrates a gender perspective across these
areas. In addition, and in more tangible
terms, the Corrections Unit intends to
construct maternity units for pregnant
women and women with young children,
which will be adequately staffed by trained
female personnel, across 14 prisons and the delivery of its work. A key strategy
supported by the Unit. towards this end is the systematic recording
of sex-disaggregated data on the three
entrant categories the Section assists:
Disarmament, Demobilization, Congolese and foreign ex-combatants
(XCs), children associated with armed
Reintegration, Reinstallation and
groups (CAAGs), and dependents (DEPs).
Repatriation According to the DDR/RR Final Report of
March 2017, a total of 1,410 persons passed
Principal Functions of the Office: through the MONUSCO DDR/RR process
between April 2016 to March 2017.
Disarmament, demobilisation, and Women and girls accounted to 328 or 23 %
reintegration (DDR) of combatants by of the total. Also, 609 or 43% of the entrants
MONUSCO was first mandated by UNSCR to DDR/RR process were ex-combatants.
1794 (2007) and was broadened to include The larger proportion of the caseload was
reinstallation and repatriation (DDR/RR). comprised of CAAGs and DEPs,
In line with the shifting operational context, representing 57%.
the Mission’s approach to DDR/RR
underwent a strategic paradigmatic shift The data indicate that men and boys
away from military structures and towards represent most ex-combatants and children
community-based responses. This ‘second- associated with armed groups, while
generation’ DDR Strategy, Community women and girls are more highly
Violence Reduction (CVR), emphasizes a represented as dependents in DDR/RR
community-based approach to reducing programming. A small minority of ex-
localised violence and promoting security combatants registered as entrants in
and stability. Functioning in partnership MONUSCO supported DDR/RR
with the Mission’s support to the National programming were women and girls. As
DDR program (PNDDR), it aims to erode show in the analysis below, this does not
subnational armed groups; facilitate mean that women and girls do not represent
economic and psychosocial reintegration a higher proportion of combatants in DRC
into civilian life of at-risk youth and ex- outside the programme.
combatants, prioritizing female access to Table 1. Entrants to the DDR/RR by beneficiary
economic opportunity; and capacity- category and sex in MONUSCO, March 2017:
building of community-based Entrant Total Male Female % %
organisations. The Division’s traditional Category Male Female
DDR/RR, its more recent CVR XCs 609 596 13 98 2
programming, and its Public Sensitisation CAAGs 324 318 6 98 2
and Outreach (PSO) represent the three DEPs 477 168 309 35 65
main pillars of its work. Foreign 716 447 269 62 38
National 694 635 59 91 9
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions Total 1,410 1,082 328 73 27
of the Office: Note: CAAGs: Children associated with armed
groups; DEPs: dependents; XCs: Ex-combatants.
How an individual presenting to the camp
is counted – i.e. as an ex-combatant or a At this stage, the DDR/RR screening
dependent – has significant implications on process is not equipped to establish in detail
the levels and types of services, support, the circumstances behind individuals who
and training they have access to. There are arrive at a camp. As such, the Section notes
significant gender dimensions to be taking that the under-representation of female ex-
into consideration, which the Section is combatants in DDR/RR and the over-
increasingly accounting for in its reporting representation of women and girls

16
associated with armed groups as
dependents is driven by multiple factors. In
line with traditional ideas of female roles in
armed groups, women and girls are often
assumed to be dependents. As women and
children often do not carry weapons when
they arrive to the camps, they are
subsequently assumed not to play an active
and violent role. In effect, groups entering
DDR/RR camps will often remove weapons
from women and children to minimise
suspicion of crimes under international law,
notably of child recruitment, abductions
and conflict related sexual violence.
However, the almost automatic counting of
women and girls as dependents overlooks
the fact they may have been abducted into
the group and is contrary to international
legal standards.
The challenge of accurately identifying
female combatants is compounded by the
fact that there is rarely a separate screening
process for women and girls, in which they
might be expected and/or feel more
comfortable to disclose their potential role
as combatants or victims, when entering
and registering in the camps. Moreover, as
women’s and girls’ association with armed
groups is heavily stigmatised within
communities, for behaving as men and for
potentially being victims of sexual
violence, women prefer to be identified and
be registered as dependents, or they may
choose to avoid DDR/RR camps altogether.
This further contributes to their under-
representation in DDR/RR programmatic
statistics. The Section recognises that this
under-representation limits responses to
women and girls associated with armed
groups, notably limiting their access to
psycho-social assistance, their reintegrating
into state security forces, or their
participation in trainings.
For these reasons, it is important that DDR
personnel working in camps provide
opportunities for women and girls to
disclose how they joined the group,
including whether they were abducted,
joined voluntary, and the roles they played.
17
This is central to ensuring women and girls
receive the support they need and are not,
for example, forced to repatriate as a
dependent of their potential abductor. To do
this, the Section can ensure that screening
forms are gender sensitive and that
screening procedures are gender
responsive. For this is important to ensure
gender balance among screening personnel
and military providing security. Such a
measure may also help mitigate against
incidents and accusations of SEA during
screening processes.
Whether as dependents or ex-combatants,
the presence of women and girls in
MONUSCO DDR/RR processes
demonstrates the importance of integrating
gender perspectives throughout the
DDR/RR cycle. There two main logistical
gender considerations of DDR/RR
approach are upheld to varying degree
across its camps. The first is ensuring
separate accommodation and facilities for
women and girls. The Division notes,
however, that the expansion of camps to
ensure such facilities has been overlooked
due to the lower numbers of combatants
demobilising and, correspondingly, the
lower numbers of female dependents
present in the camps. The second key
logistical gender consideration is ensuring
the presence of female staff in all DDR
entry points to respond to and separately
screen women and girls, as noted above.
The Division notes that its Mubambiro
transit camp is well-equipped in this regard
and has the capacity to accommodate
entrants, notably Congolese ex-combatants
who often arrive without dependents and
foreign ex-combatants who generally arrive
with dependents. The camp is
predominantly staffed by female DDR
personnel, accompanied by male
counterparts, meaning it is able to receive
large numbers of female entrants. In 2016,
39% of MONUSCO DDR/RR camps were
equipped with facilities specifically for
female entrants.
The Division is increasingly paying
attention to the relationship between the
length of time to the completion of the
DDR/RR cycle, i.e. from entry to
reintegration or repatriation with successful
reintegration. MONUSCO notes that for
foreign ex-combatants – e.g. ADF in Beni,
Bunia, and Lubero and FDLR in Bukavu,
Uvira and Kalemie – are habitually
accommodated for a short period before
being repatriated to Uganda and Rwanda,
respectively. Such a transit model may offer
a most effective approach to DDR. In
contrast, entrants to the voluntary
disarmament programme (VDP) camps in
Kisangani, Walungu and Kanyabayonga,
generally have a more protracted stay.
Because it did not capture sex-
disaggregated data on the attrition rate of
ex-combatants and dependents through the
DDR/RR cycle in MONUSCO’s camps, the
Division did not observe any major gender-
related trends in this respect. This
demonstrates the need to ensure enough
DDR/RR personnel, including female
personnel, and further underscores the
importance of systematically collecting
sex-disaggregated data.
The Division continued to implement its
CVR strategies alongside traditional
DDR/RR. The CVR SOP instruct all DDR-
CVR Regional Offices to ensure women
and girls participate through the project
cycle, from identification to
implementation and evaluation. Women’s
representation on project management
boards and committees is also encouraged.
At the beneficiary level, women and girls –
including as dependents, ex-combatants,
and civilians – should represent 30% of
participants in CVR activities.
Ensuring the participation of women, men,
girls, and boys across beneficiary
categories (ex-combatant, dependent,
civilians) is important in CVR for several
reasons. Notably, female beneficiaries who
are not directly associated with armed
groups may still be heavily affected by
violence in communities. Female civilians
18
therefore have an important stake in
violence reduction in their communities.
Equally, the demobilisation and
reintegration of male combatants into
communities also have a significant impact
on women and girls. Male ex-combatants
own gendered experiences and expectations
shape gender relations on their return, these
include ongoing psychosocial needs and
potential stigmatisation from family and
community members. CVR projects
therefore act to bridge these dynamics with
peace support measures in the onset of
longer-term peace consolidation initiatives.
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
Ensuring gender balance and the
presence of female staff in camps is
especially important during screening
processes and in creating an enabling
environment for female entrants –
whether as ex-combatants or dependents
– to narrate their experiences and needs.
Such gender sensitive information is
crucial to designing and providing
support services that are responsive to the
distinct needs of women, men, boys, and
girls associated with armed groups in
DRC.
With respect to the Public Sensitisation and
Outreach (PSO) component of the Section’s
work, all sensitisation tools and support
activities integrate gender as a key
mainstreaming strategy. The Section
ensures that women are visible in all
outreach materials, such as its newsletters,
leaflets/flyers, banners, radio programmes,
bookers, posters, calendars, etc. These
materials were especially widely publicised
during the celebrations of Women’s Month
in March 2018 and during the Amani
Festival in Goma in February 2018. The
Section ensures that women and girls
participate as planners, designers,
sensitizers and as beneficiaries of the PSOs
activities, ensuring their visibility in
executing public assignments.
The Way Forward:
The DDR/RR Section will continue to place
an emphasis on gender as a strategy central
to the effective implementation of its work.
To do so, the Section will continue to
ensure that gender is substantively
integrated into the three principal tiers of its
DDR/RR work, namely in its PSO work, in
the implementation of traditional DDR
activities, and its more recent CVR
projects. This will influence the Mission’s
hiring practices, which will ensure that
women are equally hired on short-term
employment, along with men, in CVR
programming.
The PSO Unit will ensure that it accounts
for gender in the conceptualisation and
production of outreach and training
materials, highlighting the need for equal
and fair treatment of women during the
DDR/RR process. In its support of
traditional DDR/RR programming, the
Section will work to ensure that conditions
in camps in its areas of operation take
gender into account at every stage,
including in the accommodation and
assistance available to beneficiaries, be
they ex-combatants, children associated
with armed groups, or dependents. Finally,
sex-disaggregated reporting will become
systematic practice to promote a clearer
understanding of gendered roles,
experiences and needs of women and
children in armed groups in DRC and in the
Mission’s DDR/RR and CVR
programming.
The Section will ensure that female staff
will work closely with their male
counterparts to facilitate gender sensitive
DDR/RR screening processes in its
operational zones. For example, women
and girls associated with armed groups,
where possible, should be screened by
female staff. This may promote a greater
sense of security and dignity, which may
contribute to facilitating tracing and family
reunification of ex-combatants, improve
our understanding of conflict dynamics,
and improve the effectiveness of
complementary CVR activities. The
19
Section will endeavour to raise women’s
and girls’ participation in its projects to
30%, in line with DDR-CVR special
operation procedures (SOP). Finally, the
Section is compiling lessons learnt about
the integration of a gender perspective in
CVR programming and is developing
external evaluations (programmatic and
thematic) of CVR work conducted by the
Section during the fiscal year 16/17.
Electoral Division
Principal functions of the Office:
As part of the United Nations Integrated
Electoral Team (UNIET), the Electoral
Division (ED) assists the Government of
DRC (GoDRC) in the preparation and
conduct of free, fair, credible, inclusive,
transparent, peaceful and timely
presidential and legislative elections. As
per MONUSCO mandate and based on
the request of the National and
Independent Electoral Commission
(CENI), the UN provides logistical and
technical assistance and supports security
arrangements for the elections. In
addition, the ED monitors electoral
activities and events, reporting of
political participation rights and election
incidents, media on the ground and civil
society organizations’ (CSO) activities
throughout the electoral process.
Working in close collaboration with the
Gender Affairs Section and UN Women,
among the ED’s principal functions are
promoting gender equality throughout the
electoral process, with a view to attaining
international standards on women’s
political participation.
Gender Analysis of Principal Functions:
Contributing to the overall implementation
of SCR 2348 (2017) and SCR 2409 (2018),
the ED supports the GoDRC to attain SCR
1325 (2000) global indicator 12 on
addressing the meaningful representation
and participation of women in the elections,
as voters and candidates (S/2010/173). To
achieve this, the Division advises and
mobilises integrated support of UN and
other partners to support CENI around the
gender and election agenda. However,
discussions around the electoral calendar,
along with logistical and infrastructural
questions have monopolised the electoral
debate in the DRC. This has resulted in
women’s participation in discussions and
allocation of resources being side-lined.
Ensuring women’s participation
throughout the electoral cycle is heavily
dependent on the political will of the
government. Legislatively, the
Constitution of the DRC calls for gender
parity, notably within national,
provincial, and local institutions (Art.
14). This same commitment to gender
parity and women’s representation is not
found in the country’s Electoral Law
though. In practice, the law encourages
the inclusion of women in electoral lists,
but failure to do so is not sanctioned. This
lack of legal coherence reflects the weak
institutional commitment to women’s
political participation.
There are further challenges to promote
the inclusion of women as candidates in
the elections. According to political
parties in DRC, these include a lack of
interest from women to run for elections,
as well as fears that parties will lose their
constituency base as people may not be
ready to vote for women. Political parties
often want to keep their known male
leaders who have mobilised support and
votes. The ED notes that it is also a
challenge to animate this debate across
the country, given both its size and social
diversity, including with respect to
gender norms, education levels, and
literacy. Nevertheless, the ED
emphasises the importance of
encouraging substantive dialogue on
women’s participation across party
structures, electoral authorities and across
provinces, emphasising the message that
politics and political participation is not
singularly a men’s affair.
20
In this context, the ED’s operational plan
and activities in support of CENI are
structured around four key areas of the SCR
1325 global indicators: 1) promoting
women’s participation through
sensitisations, education, training, capacity
building, communication and advocacy; 2)
protection by ensuring women’s security
and access to participation; 3) ensuring the
prevention of election-related gender-based
violence, including by linking early
warning/women’s protection needs
analyses to CENI’s ‘preventative’ elections
security efforts; 4) prosecution in support of
the rule of law, mediation, and
reconciliation. These objectives are
integrated in the CENI Gender and Election
Plan 2017-2022 developed as part of joint
strategic planning and advocacy efforts
with CENI Plenary Members. Such strategy
ensures key cross-institutional buy-in and
support. The ED also supports the visibility
the UN Integrated Strategy to support the
GoDRC and contributes to promoting
positive images of women, highlighting the
roles and contributions of women to
electoral and overall peace consolidation
processes.
In September 2017, Congolese women
represented 47% of registered voters across
DRC, which is 5% less than the proportion
of women registered to vote in 2006 and
2011. This means that across the country, a
significant number of women did not have
an electoral card and, therefore, did not
have an official capacity to cast their vote
in the upcoming elections. Among the key
barriers to women registration included
severe security and humanitarian concerns,
difficult access to registration centres and
missing or non-possession of
documentation for voter registration. Many
women are unable to register during
weekdays, due to agricultural, household
and other professional and community
responsibilities.
The ED adopted several strategies in
support of CENI to promote the registration
of female voters. For example, with the
support of ED, CENI developed and
implemented measures for women in the
voter registration process (Note Circulaire
No. 005/SEN/17). These included setting
out separate priority queues for pregnant,
lactating, elderly women, and women with
babies; as well as allocating Sundays as
women’s priority day; and advocacy for the
recruitment of female electoral agents.
These measures promote the message that
electoral politics is also a women’s affair.
Moreover, in addition to mass sensitisation
radio campaigns through the Public
Information Division of MONUSCO and
the UN Radio Okapi, the ED mobilised
women, religious and youth leaders across
through sensitisation workshops and
advocacy with government authorities.
They Way Forward:
ED will continue to work closely with
CENI and other key stakeholders to
promote, monitor and assess women’s
political and electoral participation,
contributing to ensuring consistent and
systematic gender accountable practices
within the electoral work of the Mission. To
further support this, the Mission re-
established the Gender Cell to better
support the CENI. The Division will
continue to work with political parties at the
national, provincial, and local levels to
continue to promote and support women’s
participation as voters and as candidates in
the following stages of the electoral cycle.
MONUSCO Force
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Force is the military component of the
Mission. It was authorised with a troop
ceiling of 16,215 personnel (UNSCR 2049
in 2018) and is composed of 17 contingents
stationed across DRC. At the centre of the
Force mandate is the protection of civilians
(PoC), including through the Force
Intervention Brigade (FIB), for the
neutralisation of armed groups. The Force
is increasing its interaction with civilians to
21
raise awareness about its role and activities
and strengthen local community
engagement. This is central to
strengthening early warning mechanisms
and to promoting efforts to monitor and
document violations of human rights and
international humanitarian law.
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions
of the Office:
The Force is composed by troops and staff
donated by contributing countries. This
makes the Force a rich blend of nationalities
and cultures. Within this mixture,
deployable elements to the Force have
different levels of knowledge and
understanding of gender and its
implications in military and peacekeeping
operations. Also, Force personnel have
differing perceptions of women’s and
men’s roles in communities as per their
cultures and their countries of origin. To
promote the same understanding on gender
responsiveness for all Force personnel
during their work at the UN, all troop
personnel are trained on arrival on the UN
gender mandates.
The Force actively promotes female troop
participation across the operational
spectrum. However, the troop laydown,
and even the nature and intensity of the
conflicts in DRC, vary across the country.
Reflecting this, the four Sectors of the
MONUSCO Force (Western, Southern,
Central, and Northern) and the FIB
approach military operations differently,
including with respect to the deployment of
female personnel. Where the environment
is more permissive, routine engagement
with the local population may more readily
take place and females may be used to
greater effect to support this.
By way of example, as the Ghanaian
Battalion have high numbers of well-
trained females and operate in a permissive
environment, they are routinely able to do
patrolling and engage with the local
population. However, in sectors where
there is the combination of a non-
permissive environment and there are few military planning. The overall aim of this
or no female personnel, female engagement type of training is to reduce barriers to
capacity is absent. Ways of addressing this interactions with local populations,
may include, first, wider training to enable particularly women and children, and
male troops to have the required skill sets ensure that the Force can gain an
and confidence to engage with the understanding of differing members of the
population, including women; and second, communities’ concerns and fears. Such
trained female teams who can be deployed information should then be fed into
to support operations or patrolling tasks. operational planning in order to respond to
Ensuring female personnel are present in the communities’ concerns. It is envisaged
different roles and capacities is important that the Force will develop different models
and should be based on their individual for engagement, depending on national
capabilities. As such, the Force avoids sensitivities and female troop numbers
compelling women into combat roles, but across the Sectors. Some may have mixed
recognizes that neither should they be teams, while other may benefit from more
confined to more ‘traditionally female’ dedicated Female Engagement Teams.
roles in the military.
The Force is increasingly collecting sex and
In addition to adequate Force generation, a age-disaggregated data on a systematic
challenge faced by the Force is to ensure basis. In relation to troop numbers
that female troops across troop contributing deployed, the Force has a system for
countries (TCCs) are sufficiently well tracking how many women the Force has
trained. Women should be deployed as and where they are deployed. This can be
equal partners and able to conduct a wide enhanced by more detailed reporting on
range of operational activities. As such, what tasks women have undertaken, and the
female officers must be capable of extent to which their contributions have
defending themselves, defending those they affected operational outputs.
are sent to protect and avoid becoming a
burden to their colleagues. Therefore, basic Table 3: Gender Composition of the MONUSCO
Force, June 2018:
ground combat prior to deployment and
appropriate in-theatre continuation training Force: Sectors and Units
should be a priority for female Force Contingent Total Female Female
personnel. Strength personnel personnel
(%)
To mitigate the abovementioned challenges Bangladesh 1,691 23 1.4
and to promote more effective engagement Benin 450 29 6.4
with local communities, the Force will be China 218 14 6.4
developing both Female Engagement Team Egypt 150 0 0.0
training, as well as wider engagement Ghana 462 68 14.7
training for both male and female officers. Guatemala 150 9 6.0
While it is important that both men and India 2,605 6 0.2
women can communicate effectively with Indonesia 175 6 3.4
the population, the need for trained women Malawi 850 54 6.4
is especially important in the DRC and PoC Morocco 835 4 0.5
context for three reasons: (1) female Nepal 875 26 3.0
officers are frequently more readily Pakistan 3429 4 0.1
South 1,155 196 17.0
accessible to those women and children Africa
who have suffered in conflict; (2) women Tanzania 1,150 44 3.8
can have a de-escalatory affect in situations Ukraine 250 0 0.0
of rising tensions; and (3) female officers Uruguay 930 61 6.6
can provide different perspectives to

22
 Total 15,375 544
Operational data is not always collected on
a sex-disaggregated basis, and the
identification of the gender dimensions of
hotspots is therefore weak. As reports are
simplified and refined in order to determine
key issues, important details which have a
gendered dimension can be filtered out. To
address this, gender responsive reporting
formats will be developed, and weekly and
monthly reporting mechanisms instigated
to allow for more frequent analysis of the
information received, as well as to ensure
that reported concerns have been responded
to.
Gender parity in the Force:
The Force Headquarters is exceeding its
aim of 13% of female representation,
with 14% of females on the staff. The
target for Military Observers is 15% but
female representation currently stands at
12%. Within the contingents, female
personnel are significantly under-
represented, primarily due to Force
generation issues at the level of TCCs.
As of June 2018, female personnel
represent 3.5% of the Force. The
proportion of female personnel deployed
by contingents varies immensely from
0% to 17% (see Table 3).
Female personnel tend to operate in
support roles within the Force, except for
female personnel deployed in the
Ghanaian Battalion and South Africa
Battalion who are employed in a much
wider range of roles. This low
representation of female personnel in the
Military Component of the Mission
renders the need to deploy more women
in roles that go beyond administration
and support. It also highlights a need for
more training of women and men to be
able to engage with male and female
populations and to ensure that gender is
included in all operational activity.
The Way Forward:
Leadership commitment to integrating a
gender perspective throughout all Force
3.5 activity is to be demonstrated through a
‘Force Gender Responsiveness’ standing
agenda item on the Force Commander’s
quarterly leadership meetings. This will be
supported by the development of a trained
and empowered Gender Focal Point (GFP)
System both at FHQ level and at Sector
Level. There is an aspiration to train GFPs,
including in battalions and companies, to
ensure that the Force is gender responsive
at every level. Training will be conducted
both on ‘Planning with a gender
perspective’ to ensure that military planners
have the knowledge and tools to implement
gender throughout all work-strands, as well
as ‘Engagement training’, to ensure that
men and women in the Force can engage
effectively with female and male
populations.
The collection of sex-disaggregated data
will continue to be encouraged and will be
aided by reporting formats that enable
patrols and GFPs to collect and report on
information in a gender responsive manner.
All outreach and civil-military coordination
(CIMIC) activities will be assessed to
ensure that it too is gender responsive and
meeting wider Mission aims. A monitoring
and evaluation framework will be
implemented to ascertain whether the above
aims are effective in delivering a Force that
is gender responsive and meeting the aims
of the Mission.
Human Resources Specialist Support
Unit
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Human Resources Specialist Support
Unit (here thereafter, HR) falls under the
leadership of the Division of Mission
Support (DMS) and oversees the
recruitment and administrative
management of MONUSCO staff.
Importantly, HR is responsible for ensuring
the implementation of the United Nations
Secretary General’s (UNSG) Strategy on
Gender Parity and the Gender Parity
Directive developed by the Mission.
23
Gender Analysis of Principle Functions of the Mission, including across different
the Office: grade classifications and across national
and international personnel. Women
Achieving gender parity is a priority across continue to represent less than 30% of
the United Nations, as affirmed by the UN international personnel and only represent
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. an average of 15 % of national staff. Human
Women are particularly under-represented Resources also notes the continued under-
in leadership and senior management in representation of women in senior
MONUSCO. As highlighted in the UN management positions across the Mission.
System Wide Strategy on Gender Parity,
there is an ‘inverse relationship across the Table 4: MONUSCO staff by category, as of 30 June
system between seniority and women’s 2018:
representation.’ This trend is especially Female Male Total
pronounced in peacekeeping operations. Category No. % No. % by
Reflecting an important step towards Grade
redressing the gender imbalance in Mission International
leadership, in January 2018, the SRSG, USG 1 100 0 0 1
Leila Zerrougui, was appointed. While ASG 1 33.3 2 66.7 3
encouraging, gender parity across the D-2 1 20 4 80 5
D-1 3 21.4 11 78.6 14
Mission still needs monitoring, notably in P-5 14 32.6 29 67.4 43
senior management and in the field levels. P-4 21 26.3 59 73.8 80
P-3 54 28 139 74 193
In response to calls to enhance gender P-2 16 38.1 26 61.9 42
parity across the UN, Human Resources in FS-6 5 16.7 25 83.3 30
MONUSCO, in collaboration with Gender FS-5 46 38 75 62 121
Affairs, is monitoring the implementation FS-4 76 27.5 200 72.4 276
of the Gender Parity Directive. As Subtotal 238 29.5 570 70.5 808
evidenced throughout this document, National
promoting gender balance across the NO-C 2 13.3 13 86.7 15
NO-B 20 14 123 86 143
Mission is central to the effective NO-A 6 22.2 21 77.8 27
implementation of the Mission mandate. To G-6 5 12.8 34 87.2 39
support the monitoring of gender parity G-5 124 21 466 79 590
objectives, the Office maintains and G-4 103 14.7 599 85.3 702
periodically updates Mission-wide, sex- G-3 64 9.8 592 90.2 656
G-2 5 17.9 23 82.1 28
disaggregated civilian staffing tables (see
Subtotal 329 15 1871 85 2,200
Section 10 on the Force for military
personnel). Total 567 18.8 2441 81.2 3,008
As of 30 June 2018, MONUSCO’s civilian
personnel stood at 3008 staff, including As highlighted throughout the document,
2200 national staff and 808 international gender parity facilitates the implementation
staff. It is important to note that the gender of the Mission mandate in a gender
balance across the civilian staff in the responsive manner. Female staff can
Mission, including among its senior facilitate communication with women in
management posts, changed in some communities, can provide different
significant ways. Notably, the appointment approaches when planning in the Mission,
of Leila Zerrougui as SRSG shifted the can better listen women victims of human
gender balance at the highest level of rights abuses, among others. There is some
Mission leadership. Despite this important variation in the gender imbalance across the
appointment, the table indicates that Mission’s substantive Offices and
women remain under-represented across Divisions. Where possible, the particular

24
gender balance – as well as contributing
factors and implications thereof – in
individual Offices is discussed throughout
this document.
Challenges to implementing the Strategy on
Gender Parity are structural, institutional
and political. A key barrier lies in the make-
up of rosters, generally prioritized for
recruitment and which are predominantly
filled-up with men. Also, women often do
not have the experience required, including
in the field, or specific locations are not
sufficiently women friendly. As recruiting
from outside rosters is a longer process,
hiring managers prefer roster-based hiring.
To overcome this, hiring managers should
put extra value to having versatile skillsets,
the capacity to learn and the knowledge
based on the job, to compensate for
restrictions to having more women in
rosters.
A further challenge to gender parity across
the Mission lies in working arrangements.
HR should consider strengthening flexible
arrangements, including allowing more
flexible hours and allowing personnel to
work from home for some hours during the
week, particularly in family duty stations.
Such measures are likely to make jobs in
MONUSCO (Kinshasa) more attractive to
existing and prospective female employees.
The Way Forward:
The Human Resources Specialist Support
Unit will work closely with the DMS, the
Chief of Staff, the Field Personnel Division
and the Outreach Unit in headquarters to
prepare a recruitment plan to redress the
gender imbalance in the Mission’s senior
management posts. HR anticipates that this
plan should have clear benchmarks and
timeframes to be monitored on a quarterly
basis. The Mission should also envisage
targeted recruitment for women based on
positive discrimination. HR will further
explore the prospect of creating a women
leadership programme for MONUSCO,
while continuing to support the internal
recruitment of P-3, P-4 and P-5 female
25
candidates to ensure career progression. HR
will conduct trainings on non-gender biased
hiring, particularly in those Offices with a
large shortage of female personnel. HR will
also launch an annual Gender Champion
initiative to encourage greater gender
sensitivity across the Mission.
Integrated Security System
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Integrated Security Section (ISS) was
created in 2015 following the integration of
the Mission’s UN Department of Safety and
Security (UNDSS) with its Security Staff.
The Office is responsible for the security of
UN personnel across the Mission’s 22 duty
stations, as well as eligible family members
in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. ISS conducts
periodic country-wide monitoring and
situational analysis, including of threats and
risks to UN personnel, which feed into
global assessments produced by UNDSS.
Overall, the Section seeks to cultivate a
security reporting culture and to eliminate
complacency.
Gender Analysis of Principal Functions of
the Office:
UN personnel work with significant
security challenges, some of which result
from or be exacerbated by factors including
gender, gender identity or sexual
orientation. To raise awareness and guide
security decision-makers in assessing and
addressing gendered security related
threats, risks and vulnerabilities, UNDSS
developed the UN Security Management
System (UNSMS) Policy on Gender
Considerations in Security Management.
This is supported by its Guidelines on
Gender-Based Security Incidents.
ISS is structured around an eight-point
workplan, one of which is to incorporate
and provide guidance on gender
considerations in security risk management.
This includes ensuring that gender-based
risks and vulnerabilities are considered in
the Mission’s security risk management
(SMR) areas; appropriate prevention and
mitigating measures to respond to gender-
based security incidents; managing stress
and reporting of gender-based incidents;
ensuring gender-sensitivity is applied in the
development of security plans and
procedures; and having residential security
measures that are gender sensitive.
Male and female personnel face shared and
distinct threats and risks in the
implementation of their work. As such, ISS
incorporates gender specific considerations
for staff. For example, the training material
encourages female personnel to consider
investing in light self-defence devices and
in learning some self-defence techniques;
asking someone you trust to escort you
when leaving the office unexpectedly late;
noting that crowded areas may pose higher
risk of sexual harassment; and staying by
the door if hotel staff is in the room. The
Section strives to ensure the presence of
female staff when delivering SAFER
trainings. ISS is also responsible for
ensuring that every Office country-wide is
equipped with Post-Exposure Prophylaxis
(PEP) Kits and that staff know how to
access and use this treatment. This
information should be included in the
SAFER training.
Finally, the ISS also ensures that it provides
sex-disaggregated data (SDD) in its
incident reports to provide more systematic
understanding of the issues that affect
female and male personnel, international
and national. For example, aggregated
analyses of security incidents, globally, for
the quarter January-March 2017 show that
nationally recruited personnel and
dependents are almost twice as likely to be
affected by security incidents as
internationally recruited personnel and
dependents. DRC is the country most
affected by security incidents and overall,
across missions, female personnel account
for 36% of all incidents reported. The
systematic collection of SDD is integral to
ensuring gender responsive institutional
support for MONUSCO staff.
26
Gender Analysis of International Office
Management:
The majority of staff in the Office is male.
It is important that ISS recruit more women
in the security system and ensure that
women are stationed country-wide across
units in the Mission so that female staff
have the option to approach female security
personnel in the event of a problem. In the
interim, ISS can ensure focal points are in
place for female personnel.
The Way Forward:
ISS will ensure gender responsiveness as it
assesses, analyses and manages risks and
threats facing UN male and female
personnel in the following fiscal year. It
will do so by continuing to integrate and
build on the gender considerations included
in training and briefing materials and will
work to recruit more female personnel to
promote gender sensitive responses to
security incidents. Finally, the Section will
ensure period incident reports include sex-
disaggregated data and the appointment and
training of gender focal points in field
offices, as to enhance the service by
providing gender responsive security.
Joint Human Rights Office
Principal functions of the Office:
The UN Joint Human Rights Office
(JHRO) was created in 2008, merging the
then MONUC Human Rights Division
(HRD) and the former Office of the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights in
the DRC, functioning in accordance with
their two mandates. UNSCR 1856 (2008)
tasked the Division with promoting and
protecting human rights, with particular
attention to women, children and
vulnerable persons, as well as to
investigating human rights violations with a
view to ending impunity. In addition, the
resolution mandated the Office to assist in
the development and implementation of a
transitional justice strategy and cooperating
with national and international efforts to
bring justice to perpetrators of grave
violations of human rights and international
humanitarian law. Equally, the Office
monitors the human rights situation in the
country and presents reports on the human
rights situation to thematic Independent
Experts (e.g. sexual and gender-based
violence; summary and arbitrary
executions; arbitrary arrests and illegal
detentions/disappearances; torture and
deaths in detention; violations of economic
rights/illegal mining). JHRO is driven by
the recognition that lasting peace in DRC
cannot be achieved without respect for
human rights by state security forces, to
men and women alike.
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions
of the Office:
Given their importance to, inter alia,
identifying hotspots and permitting a
gender sensitive analysis of trends,
UNJHRO ensures that sex-disaggregated
data on human rights violations in DRC are
systematically collected for adults affected
by conflict. To date, reporting by the Office
on grave violations of children’s rights are
documented and reported as a single
category. Among the human rights
violations documented by the Office is
conflict-related sexual violence. Data on
conflict-related sexual violence are stored
separately through the monitoring, analysis,
and reporting arrangement (MARA),
managed by women protection advisors
deployed to the Office. According to JHRO
data, from July 2017 to May 2018, adult
women continued to be disproportionately
affected by sexual violence, particularly in
conflict-affected areas. As documented in
the Secretary-General reports on conflict-
related sexual violence (CRSV), cases
verified by the JHRO indicate that men,
girls and boys are also affected by conflict-
related sexual violence in DRC. The Office
documented, for example, 16 male victims,
mostly related to the intercommunity
conflict between the Twa and Luba in
Tanganyika province. Nevertheless, the
vast majority of CRSV are women and
girls.
27
In addition to documenting, verifying and
monitoring sexual violence cases, the
Human Rights Office works through joint
partnerships with national and international
partners to provide holistic care to survivors
of sexual violence. While the focus of the
UNJHRO is on the provision of legal
assistance, the projects it supports
implement the referral pathways
established through the National Strategy to
Combat Sexual and Gender-Based
Violence in DRC. The Office trains service
providers working with survivors of sexual
violence, including medical doctors and
magistrates, on managing sexual violence
cases for the judicial process.
An effective gender responsive approach to
the work of UNHJRO extends beyond the
important work of addressing conflict-
related sexual violence. JHRO data indicate
that women are also affected by other
human rights violations in DRC, including
extrajudicial and summary killings. For
example, between January 2017 and May
2018, women represented 12% of victims
of extrajudicial killings documented by
JHRO (or, 198 women) and represented
13% of other violations to physical integrity
documented (or, 377 women). With respect
to violations to the right to liberty and
security of persons, women represented less
than 10% of victims (or, 789 women).
JHRO notes that women arbitrarily
arrested, notably during peaceful
demonstrations, tend to be released before
men they were arrested with. This
underscores the importance of collecting
sex-disaggregated data on all violations, not
just those that are presumed to target
women, such as sexual violence. Further
analysis is necessary to better
understanding any trends underlying why
these women and men were targeted.
It is also important to consider the
experiences and needs of women’s human
rights defenders (WHRD) in DRC. JHRO
did not document sufficient violations of
WHRD to be able to draw any substantive
analysis of the particularities of the threats
they face. In general terms, however, it is
clear that WHRD play an important role in
the promotion of accountability and respect
for women’s human rights. Although
WHRD face similar risks to their male
counterparts, they tend to be targeted with
gender-specific threats such harassment
and other forms of gender-based violence,
while their family members tend to be
targeted and threatened to a greater degree
than those of men’s. In addition to causing
physical and psychological trauma, this can
lead to further stigma and discrimination,
including in their homes. To address
WRHD’s protection concerns, joint
investigation teams (JITs) must comprise
female and specially trained personnel,
such as Women Protection Advisors
(WPAs), to respond to these concerns with
sensitivity.
In addition to documenting human rights
violations, JHRO is mandated to support
efforts to fight impunity for grave crimes,
including of sexual violence. As
documented in the 2017 Report of the
Secretary General on Conflict-Related
Sexual Violence, with the support of
UNJHRO, military authorities in South
Kivu successfully prosecuted three
emblematic cases of conflict-related sexual
violence. These included the conviction of
an FARDC colonel, an FDLR commander,
and a member of Parliament. Overall, the
report noted that 42 members of FARDC
and 17 members of the PNC were convicted
by military tribunals for rape. However,
barriers remain for victims to obtain
reparations.
Recognising the challenges women and
girls face in the justice system, JHRO
implemented a number of measures to
facilitate access to justice for women in
DRC. These included implementing legal
clinics, deploying women magistrates in
prosecution officers, and advocating for the
inclusion of female magistrates to judicial
field missions, for example for detention
inspections, judicial investigations and
mobile trials. The Office ensures that
28
protection measures are in place for victims
and witnesses, including women and
children, before, during and after judicial
processes. With respect to children, the
Human Rights Office ensures their parents
or guardians are present and supported
throughout the judicial process.
To further promote women’s participation
in its work, the Office conducts several
training and sensitisation activities on
human rights and clearly states that these
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
In terms of JHRO’s internal gender
balance, in 2017 the Office counted 47
female staff among its 168 posts,
amounting to 27.9%. This increased by
2.8% in the first quarter of 2018. JHRO
is currently working to fill vacancies and,
in order to comply with this indicator,
where equal competence is evident,
women have been given preference over
male candidates. Ensuring gender
balance across JHRO’s teams will help
guarantee that female staff are present in,
inter alia, JITs. This in turn will help
ensure that the Office is equipped to
investigate, document and verify human
rights violations in a gender sensitive
manner. Data as of mid-2018.
are intended for women, men, boys and
girls. In the trainings, gender consideration
is given to sexual and gender-based
violence, women’s participation in
democratic spaces, and support to women’s
groups and associations. The Office
adopted specific measures to encourage
women’s participation in its activities.
These include permitting women to
participate with their children, when
caretakers are not available, and ensuring
interpreters are present in the sessions to
support illiterate women to actively
participate. JHRO strives to ensure that its
training and sensitisation activities are
gender responsive, from theory and content
of the material covered, to the practical
organisation and delivery of the sessions
themselves.
The Way Forward:
JHRO will continue to institutionalise
gender through a number of actions. First,
all needs assessments prior to training of
organisations will take into account the
specific needs and experiences of women,
men and children. Additionally, the Office
will ensure that at least 20% of participants
in capacity building trainings are women.
Similarly, training evaluations will also
account for how gender was integrated and
addressed by trainers. While it will strive to
ensure a fair and balanced representation of
women in its trainings, JHRO notes the
challenges associated with women’s
general under-representation in security
sector institutions. Finally, with regards to
training, the Office will certify that these
include specific sections addressing gender
mainstreaming in the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Inter-
ministerial Committee.
In its reporting, JHRO will continue to
ensure that JITs continue to provide sex-
disaggregated data of all relevant human
rights violations and to integrate gender in
their analyses and recommendations. It will
also make sure that corrective measures and
remedies in case of human right violations
are tailored taking into consideration the
gender of the victims.
JHRO will continue its fundraising efforts
to protect women rights, especially on
gender-based violence, of which victims
are in great majority women and girls. In
relation with elections, it is already
undertaking capacity building and
sensitisation in various field offices
(provinces) with WHRD on promoting an
environment conducive for the successful
holding of elections, fighting electoral
violence and promotion of civil and
political rights, with women participation in
the electoral process as a key element.
29
Internally, the Office will aim to increase
the gender balance of its staff at all levels
by 25% and will request all its staff to
complete a mandatory online training
course on gender.
Joint Operations Centre
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Joint Operations Centre (JOC) forms
part the MONUSCO information collection
structures. Its overall functions are to: 1)
provide integrated Mission-wide situational
awareness; 2) facilitate integrated
operations and coordination; and 3) support
crisis management for senior Mission
Leadership. The multidimensional
composition of the Mission is reflected in
JOC leadership and duties. Civilian
deputies support JOC reporting, crisis
response and planning. The military chief
focuses on supervising watchkeepers and
operational outputs.
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions
of the Office:
Gender considerations are increasingly
reflected in JOC reporting, and are central
to ensuring Mission-wide, integrated
gender responsiveness. To this end, JOC is
enhancing the systematic integration of sex-
disaggregated data in its SRSG Daily Briefs
and Daily Situation Reports (Sitreps),
reflecting trends relating to security,
political, electoral, human rights and
humanitarian developments. Between 1
July 2018 and 31 December 2018, sex-
disaggregated figures were integrated into
more than 80 per cent of daily briefs and
situation reports and in 100 per cent of JOC
weekly reports. In the first quarter of 2019,
90 per cent of all briefs included sex-
disaggregated data or gender narratives.
During the preparations of the 30 December
2018 elections and in their aftermath, the
JOC office in Kinshasa focused on
monitoring and reporting rates of women’s
and men’s political participation. It also
provided updates on electoral results
disaggregated by gender. These helped
raise the importance of these gender issues
to the Mission leadership.
Where relevant and possible, JOC also
provides sex-disaggregated data on
children. In this respect, good progress was
made in JOC’s reporting on DDR/RR and
Child Protection, with relevant sections
providing more frequent and detailed
inputs. For example, JOC reported that
between 26 April and 1 May 2019,
MONUSCO extracted 215 children
associated with armed groups including 13
girls, as well as 11 boys/young adults
whose age was yet to be established, three
male adult combatants, and ten Rwandan
CNRD dependents (women and children)
from the general area of Nyange/Mpati
(30km NE of Masisi) in North Kivu
province.
For the inclusion of sex-disaggregated data
in its reporting, the JOC relies on regular
sex-disaggregated reporting from relevant
MONUSCO offices and sections, which
can be a challenge in ensuring a gendered
integrated Mission-wide situational
awareness. The JOC office is addressing
this challenge, in cooperation with the
Gender Affairs section, by continuously
engaging with contributing offices and
sections on this issue. For instance, duty
officers regularly reach out to contributing
Mission elements, such as UNPOL and
Field Offices, in order to disaggregate by
sex the information provided. In addition,
elements are regularly reminded during
JOC coordination meetings to share sex-
disaggregated information as well as gender
trends in their reporting. Furthermore, JOC
is ensuring that under the new incident
management tool of the Mission, SAGE to
be rolled-out in the second quarter of 2019,
the design allows for, and encourage, the
inputting of sex-disaggregated data and
gender analysis of incidents and activities.
SAGE will also promote more gender
responsive operations and coordination in
the Mission.
30
In order to inform Mission components and
leadership about the situation of women in
relation to the protection of civilians,
stabilization and elections, starting in the
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
The JOC’s Directive 187/19 and the
JOC Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) also require gender sensitivity in
the JOC’s managerial practices. These
stipulate that P4 staff and above have to
reflect gender mainstreaming in their e-
Pass goals and success criteria and
should strive to achieve gender balance
among civilian staff through “gender
conscious yet fair recruiting”.
Additionally, the Directive and SOP
demand staff to uphold codes of conduct
and discipline in all matters, notably in
relations to sexual exploitation and
abuse.
Looking at the gender balance of JOC (as
of May 2019), female personnel hold
nine of the 23 encumbered posts (39 per
cent). Four posts are currently vacant.
The proportion of female staff in the JOC
varies according to categories of staff,
notably in terms of national /
international and civilian / military).
Specifically, among the international
staff, women hold five of the eleven
encumbered posts. The national staff
include two women (administrative
roles) and one male (driver). In terms of
its uniformed personnel, JOC includes
two female UNPOL Liaison Officers,
relative to its seven male uniformed
personnel (1 Military Chief, 5 Military
Officers, 1 UNPOL Liaison Officer).
Overall, JOC is conscious of maintaining
a gender balance across its staff.
second quarter of 2019, the JOC will
include at least once a month a slide on
gender trends and / or sex-disaggregated
data in its presentations to Mission
leadership (e.g. SMG). The JOC will
cooperate with relevant Mission elements,
such as JMAC as well as the Gender Affairs
section, on elaborating these slides.
Including gender trends once per month
will reconcile the difficulty of managing the
limited time allocated to JOC presentations
during meetings to senior management with
the need to provide mission leadership with
information on gender trends.
The Way Forward:
In its efforts to continue to promote gender
responsiveness in its work, the JOC will
continue to include gender issues in the
training for JOC staff and will continue to
sensitise elements of the Mission to ensure
they consistently include sex-disaggregated
data gender narrative inputs in their reports.
To do so, the JOC gender focal point will
continue to work closely with the Gender
Affairs Section to increase gender sensitive
information is shared across the Mission
and with Headquarters.
Justice Support Section
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Justice Support Section (JSS) assists
the Government of DRC in strengthening
the capacity of judicial institutions, both
civilian and military. To support protection
of civilians’ efforts and to promote
accountability, the Mission established
Prosecution Support Cells (PSCs) to assist
the FARDC justice authorities in
addressing impunity, promoting respect for
human rights and deterring corruption. The
Section’s key objectives are to promote an
effective judicial system to inspire public
confidence and contribute to security and
political stability; to provide immediate
assistance to judicial entities; to assist
authorities in designing mid-term
coordinated strategic plans for judicial
reform, including at the level of legislation
military justice and courts; and to facilitate
the implementation of capacity building to
prosecute international crimes.
Gender Analysis of the Principle
Functions of the Office:
JSS is attentive to gender throughout its
work with Congolese judicial actors and
authorities. The Congolese judicial system
– military and civilian – remains highly
gender unequal, particularly at the higher
level of seniority. Illustratively, all of the
31
members of the Conseil Supérieur de la
Magistrature, which is responsible for
deploying magistrates across the country,
are men. Relatedly, 80% of civilian
magistrates are men. While a similar
disparity is observed among support staff,
such as clerks and secretaries, it is less
pronounced. JSS notes the gender gap
among civilian magistrates in DRC is in
large part due to the fact that women
generally do not have the same flexibility to
relocate across the country, as required, and
therefore often do not enjoy the same career
progression as their male counterparts.
Figures available for the military justice
system are not disaggregated by judicial
rank, role, or location. However, of the 371
military judicial actors in DRC, 23 are
women, representing only 6.1%.
JSS notes that the under-representation of
women in the justice system negatively
impacts on women and girls whose judicial
needs and concerns may not be adequately
addressed. For example, given that the
majority of victims of sexual and gender-
based violence in DRC are women and
girls, it can be especially difficult for
survivors to confide to male judicial actors,
notably magistrates and police.
Amidst this context, the Section works
closely with Congolese judicial authorities
to ensure sexual and gender-based violence
are addressed and prioritized in the
adjudication of international crimes,
particularly in mobile court hearings
supported by the Mission. Notably,
between 1 July to 22 June 2018, 80 of the
274 (29%) individuals convicted in civilian
and military jurisdictions in DRC were for
sexual violence crimes, while 17 of the 59
acquittals recorded (28.8%) were for sexual
violence cases. JSS continued to provide
assistance on the 38 priority cases of grave
crimes under international law selected by
military judicial authorities in 2015-2016,
of which 18 include sexual violence
charges. JSS supported six female and 19
male military authorities in the adjudication
of these priority cases.
In terms of the trainings provided to judicial
actors, the Section ensures women
participation. During the first quarter of
2018, 37 women and 143 men participated
in trainings organised by JSS, representing
20% female participation. JSS is pleased to
note that this was an increase of 7.7%
compared to the previous cycle, when
female judicial actors represented 13.6% of
training participants. It is important to note,
however, that this also reflects a broader
gender imbalance in Congolese judicial
institutions, particularly in senior positions
of authority, as highlighted above.
The Section also provided technical support
to officiers de police judiciaires (OPJ) and
Prosecutors on carrying out inspections of
police detention facilities, with particular
attention given to women and children in
illegal detention. As an example, in the first
quarter 2018, JSS supported 82 military
judicial actors on this issue, including 9
women. This low proportion of women
reflects the number of female magistrates in
the Congolese military justice system.
Between July 2017 to March 2018, 48 of
the 110 women found in PNC detention
facilities in eastern DRC were released. JSS
also advocates for ensuring that children
men and women are held in separate
detention facilities and for children to be
transferred before children’s tribunal, in
line with national legislation. This
demonstrates the need for gender sensitivity
in efforts to promote justice in DRC and to
continue to promote the participation of
women across the Congolese judicial
sector, both military and civilian.
32
Gender Analysis of Office Management
Of the 21 JSS staff, three are women,
including the Head of Section. Noting its
female leadership, JSS acknowledges
that this is a low representation of women
among its personnel (14%). In addition,
the Section has 15 Government Provided
Personnel (GPP), of which one is a
woman. In line with the UN Gender
Parity Strategy and to normalise the
presence of women in the justice sector,
JSS should strive to increase the number
of female personnel in its team.
Information as of mid-2018.
The Way Forward:
JSS will ensure that mentoring sessions
with civilians and military justice
authorities include gender narratives
relative to the specific challenges posed to
girls, boys, women and men in the
reporting, investigation and prosecution of
cases of serious crimes. In addition, the
Section will continue to promote an
increase of female judicial actors
throughout judicial structures, that is, as
judges, prosecutors, magistrates, clerks and
secretaries. The Section will continue to
map the numbers of female judicial actors
in DRC and will ensure that at least 25% of
files prioritized by civilian judicial
authorities for mobile court hearings
include charges of sexual and gender-based
violence, particularly as grave crimes under
international law.
The Section will continue to ensure that
civilian and military judicial authorities are
appropriately gender sensitive and
responsive in their inspections of PNC
operated detention facilities supported by
the Mission. Overall, the Section will
remain attentive to the gender balance in all
its activities, including its office
management, and will maintain sex-
disaggregated data for all activities its
supports.
Legal Affairs Office
Principal Functions of the Office:
The principal functions of the Legal Affairs
Office (LAO) are two-fold: 1) to ensure
relevant governmental authorities’ respect
of the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA);
and 2) provide legal advice to MONUSCO
Senior Management and staff in complying
with United Nations Rules and Regulations
and other related legal instruments. The
Office liaises with the Government and
other external parties to ensure respect of
the SOFA and the effective protection of
the privileges and immunities of
MONUSCO, all its staff and contractors.
Legal advice provided to institutional
clients ranges from issues related to, inter
alia, the Mission’s mandate, human
resources and internal justice matters,
Board of Inquiry investigations and reports,
and on the modalities of cooperation with
the International Criminal Court (ICC). The
LAO contributes to ensuring that rules are
complied with to prevent liabilities and
support Mission accountability.
Gender Analysis of Principal Functions:
Given the institutional focus of its role, the
integration of gender in the legal outputs of
the LAO can include the following:
ensuring that the UNSC resolutions on
Women, Peace and Security are referenced
when providing advice on the MONUSCO
mandate; insisting on the application of
specific measures to protect and responds to
the needs of women and children, for
instance, on detention and DDR; working in
cooperation with the Conduct and
Discipline Team and other MONUSCO
partners on cases of sexual exploitation and
abuse (SEA); and ensuring that, at a
minimum, instruments drafted take into
account the needs of women and girls.
The Office delivers gender sensitive legal
advice, for example when signing
33
agreements with national partners. For
example, LAO provided advice for the
construction of the women’s ward in the
prison in Bunia, in the drafting of a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) for
community violence reduction (CVR)
projects, and on the situation of women in
MONUSCO’s FDLR and SPLA-IO camps.
Notably, in cases of the repatriation of
members of FDLR, LAO can provide
advice on ensuring that women and girls
who do not want to be repatriated, as
dependents or otherwise, to ensure that
rights are met and that their situation of
vulnerability is not replicated and
reinforced through the DDR/RR process. In
addition, the Office can provide gender
sensitive legal advice when a base is being
closed or a new one opened, including vis-
à-vis the location of the base and its military
presence, for example, by advising against
positioning it too close to a market where
there are large numbers of women.
The Office also have a role in advising in
personnel downsizing. As part of
comparative review processes, LAO can
look into staff members and in cases that
involve similar profiles and similar
evaluations, it can advise in support of
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
The internal gender balance within the
LAO changed significantly as a result of
large personnel turnover between 2017
and 2018. For a period, the Office did not
have any female staff. In 2017, three of
the nine Officers were female, including
one P3 level, one P2 level and one UNV.
The P5 and P4 posts were held by men.
As the LAO rebuilds itself in 2018, the
Office currently has one female staff.
Two posts have yet to be filled. The
Office will seek to ensure gender balance
as it continues to rebuild the team. Data
as of mid-2018.
positive discrimination to retain female
staff as per requested by the Mission’s
Gender Parity Directive. Such legal output
is important to ensuring the Mission
operates in line with UN Rules and
Regulations and related legal instruments.
In line with its commitment to ensuring all
staff have the possibility of working on the
array of issues presented to the LAO, cases
are allocated within the Office in a gender-
neutral manner. It does so following three
cross-cutting principles developed by the
Office’s Gender Focal Point as internal
guidance: (1) special consideration is given
to the needs/strengths of its female staff; (2)
if the role of one gender is seen as
potentially problematic and preferences
expressed by clients (for example, when
representing the Mission to local
authorities; when planning field visits, or
when addressing SEA or sexual harassment
cases; and (3) gender considerations are
included in any legal output that may have
a specific impact on male or female clients.
The Way Forward:
The Office will continue to provide gender
sensitive legal advice, where relevant to the
client and case. This will particularly be
implemented in the framework of the
Mission’s downsizing. LAO will also
continue to allocate cases in a gender-
neutral manner to promote the professional
development of the Office’s personnel. As
the Office continues to rebuild, it will
ensure that it remains sensitive to ensuring
gender balance among its staff.
Political Affairs Division
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Political Affairs Division (PAD) acts
as a reflection and analysis cell for the
Mission, contributing to defining the
Mission’s strategic priorities. PAD
34
prepares reports on the situation in the DRC
and supports outreach and advocacy
operations for the implementation of the
Mission’s mandate –across the protection
of civilians, the implementation of the
Peace, Security and Cooperation
Framework, and Stabilization-. Thematic
areas of PAD’s work include
democratisation and institutional reform,
conflict prevention and resolution, and
building good neighbourly relations in the
Great Lakes Region. In line with the
Mission’s current mandate, PAD supports
national stakeholders in the implementation
of the 31 December agreement and the
electoral calendar. To this end, the Division
organises regular outreach events, at
national and provincial levels, with local
populations, political leaders, civil society,
and a broad range of national and
provisional authorities on the mandate of
the Mission.
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions
of the Office:
DRC has relatively strong legislative
provisions vis-à-vis women’s political
participation and engagement in the
political process. These include a 30%
quota for women’s representation in state
institutions inscribed in the 2002 Sun City
Agreement, a principle of 50-50 parity
political representation encoded in the
Constitution, and a Parity Law adopted in
2015. However, these provisions lack
legislative teeth in the electoral law and
Congolese women remain systematically
under-represented at every level of political
and public sector governance in DRC. In
national political institutions, women
represent 14% of Ministers; 9% of Vice-
Ministers; 9% of National Assembly
Members; and 4% of Senators. Of the nine
Ministers of State, none are women.
Provincially, of the country’s 26
Governors, one is a woman (Nord-Ubangi).
Similarly, of the 26 Vice-Governors, one is
female (Bas-Uele). Few women hold seats
in DRC’s Provincial Assemblies. Women
are highly under-represented in the lower
levels of administration (territorial, sector,
chieftaincy). Women’s representation in
political and peace processes also remains
limited (data as of August 2018).
PAD provides sex-disaggregated data on
women in politics, informing Daily
Political Updates, Situation Reports, and
the 30-day update on progress
implementation of the 31 December
Agreement and the electoral process, as
well as in the United Nations Security
Council (UNSC) reports. A new section on
Gender Responsiveness was included in the
Secretary-General Report on the Situation
in DRC, to which PAD ensures that
information is always included.
Collecting sex-disaggregated data on
women’s participation and representation is
central to identifying national, provincial,
territorial and institutional trends in the
progress in the promotion of women’s
participation in DRC. These data also
inform areas that require work and
advocacy, including the need of good
offices. To continue to be effective in this
regard, PAD should ensure that it requests
data from relevant Offices in the Mission
and from national institutions to ensure data
on women’s political participation at all
levels is captured and integrated in
reporting.
Given the relatively robust legislative
provisions described above, PAD assess
that the absence of legal frameworks is not
the principal barrier to women’s political
participation and representation in DRC.
Rather, it is the lack of enforcement of the
current legal framework which indicates
limited political will towards achieving
more gender equitable representation in
politics in the country. In its bilateral and
diplomatic work, PAD can continue to
engage with relevant stakeholders to
efficiently send a message to political
parties that women matter in politics.
Keyways to do so, are for example,
ensuring that the issue of women’s political
participation is on meeting agendas and that
35
participants include female and male
politicians. These measures reinforce the
message that the UN and the international
community cares about women’s political
participation.
PAD works with national, provincial and
local stakeholders to better understand and
redress the barriers faced by women to
participate in politics. For example, PAD
and Gender Affairs organised weekly
meetings with women politicians at the
national level to gain knowledge of best
practices and challenges for women in
political parties. By doing this type of
periodic meetings, the Division can inform
Mission leadership on the barriers to
women’s participation and find ways to
improve women’s participation in peace,
political and electoral processes.
PAD can also advocate for gender
mainstreaming of legislation to promote
women’s political participation. For
example, in 2018 MONUSCO gave inputs
to the draft Code of Conduct for Political
Parties. Four articles of the Code of
Conduct now refer to gender
considerations, demonstrating an
advancement vis-à-vis the 2011 Code of
Conduct, where there were no references to
gender. To expand the visibility and reach
of the importance of women’s political
participation, PAD can also advocate to the
inclusion of women and politics topics in
outreach initiatives of the Mission. In end
2018, for example, PAD together with
Gender Affairs, advocated for women to
represent half of the participants in radio
programmes on Radio Okapi with civil
society and political party affiliates.

Gender Analysis of Office Management:
As of mid-2018, the internal gender
balance in PAD is 50/50. The Division
comprises 10 female and 10 male staff.
This balance helps ensure that gender,
and the promotion of women’s political
participation, is addressed throughout the
work of PAD. However, the distribution
of men’s and women’s representation in
leadership positions in PAD can be
enhanced.
The Way Forward:
PAD identifies a number of strategies to
promote women’s political participation
through its work. PAD will continue to
meet with women at all levels of seniority
of political parties and governance
institutions – at the leadership and technical
levels – to exchange information and learn
how to best advocate for enhancing
women’s political participation and
representation.
PAD also proposes exploring opportunities
to advocate for campaign financing
mechanisms for women candidates, support
parties that nominate women, and
strengthen incentives for parties to
nominate women on their candidate lists.
Such strategies might include reducing
registration costs for parties presenting
gender-balanced candidate lists. PAD will
also explore strategies to advocate for new
legal provisions that promote gender parity,
for instance, on political party candidate
lists as well as in nominations to the
executive leadership roles of public sector
institutions, including CENI and the
National Counsel for the Implementation of
the Accord and the Electoral Process
(CNSA). Overall, beyond simply focusing
on obstacles faced by women in politics,
PAD will work to better understanding their
challenges, celebrate their successes, and
reinforcing mentoring opportunities for
future women leaders.
36
Finally, PAD’s analysis of the structural
and socio-economic barriers to women’s
political participation has clear implications
for the nature, focus and expected
effectiveness of internationally driven
programmes that promote gender parity.
Internationally funded projects promoting
women’s participation focus on training
and capacity building of women and
encouraging women’s enrolment as voters
and candidates. While important, this
approach presupposes that the principal
challenge to women’s participation to be
addressed in DRC is a lack of qualified
women. However, DRC has a robust
nationwide network of dynamic women
community leaders, human rights defenders
and civil society activists who are amply
qualified to run as candidates for public
office at the national, provincial or local
levels. As such, alongside capacity building
and training, efforts to enhance gender
parity must also address broader political
and socio-economic barriers to women’s
participation. PAD will therefore continue
to work with relevant stakeholders to
develop new approaches to promoting
women’s political representation and
participation that address these barriers in
DRC.
Peace, Security and Cooperation
Framework Unit
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Unit is tasked with reinforcing the
implementation and appropriation of the
Peace, Security and Cooperation
Framework (PSCF), signed by 13 countries
in February 2013 to put an end to the cycles
of conflict in the Great Lakes region. The
principles and priorities for DRC include
security sector reform (SSR),
decentralisation and the consolidation of
stare authority.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions of the Unit:
Since the signing of the PSCF and in line
with the WPS agenda, the role of women
has been considered fundamental to the
promotion of peace and security.
Nevertheless, the Unit observes a weak
level of participation by Congolese women,
particularly in high level political meetings
and in regional dialogues.
To redress this imbalance, workplans
developed by the Unit include activities to
reinforce women’s participation in peace
processes, notably in the promotion of
dialogue, mediation and conflict resolution.
This is carried out with members of the
Women’s Platform and the Congolese
Ministry of Gender, Children and Family,
the International Conference on the Great
Lakes Region (ICGLR), and local
organizations such as Fonds pour les
Femmes Congolaises (FFC) and Cardre
Permanent de Concertation de la Femme
Congolaise (CAFCO). In December 2017,
in partnership with the Minister of Gender,
the Unit organized a capacity building
event for women on conflict mediation.
This enabled the Unit to identify female
leaders capable of training and sensitizing
other women on conflict mediation and
resolution. Such events promote women’s
participation and capacity building in the
PSCF at a national level.
Ensuring women’s meaningful
participation in regional-level PSCF
dialogues proves more challenging.
Women’s dialogue generally takes place in
a compartmentalized forum, separate from
the main discussion. Women should not be
talking among themselves. Instead, they
should have a voice and participate directly
and meaningfully in the high-level regional
dialogue. The Unit can continue to advocate
for this to be ensured.
In early 2018, PSCF and in partnership with
the Strategic Communication of Public
Information Department (SCPID), bi-
weekly meetings were organized with at
least 20 women leaders of associations and
institutions to discuss women’s
participation in peace and political
processes as well as to plan activities to
37
celebrate the International Women’s Day.
Among the activities organized was a day
to reflect on women’s leadership in peace
and security and women’s participation in
electoral processes. The principal objective
of the activity was to highlight the necessity
of a multi-actor road map on gender
integration in national political institutions
and women’s leadership in peace and
security in DRC, particularly during this
electoral period.
The event usefully highlighted several
barriers to women’s political participation
and leadership in DRC. These included the
lack of enforcement of legal instruments
stipulating gender equality, the ongoing
influence of entrenched norms that promote
the discrimination of women, a political
culture that remains unfavorable to women,
ignorance of the Electoral Law, and the
restricted number of female political
leaders in the country. The Unit will take
account of such challenges in the next
cycle.
The Way Forward:
Based on lessons learnt, the Unit will
continue to work to build women’s
knowledge and capacity of the electoral
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
As of mid-2018 PSCF is under-staffed and with
recruitment ongoing. Nevertheless, the internal
gender balance of the Unit was favorable to
women, who represented 67% of total
personnel. This helped ensure that integrating
gender across the work of the Unit remained a
priority.
Table 6: Gender balance in the Integrated Office and
the PSCF Unit, July 2018:
Femmes
Office Femmes Hommes Total %
IO 8 5 13 62
PSCF 2 1 3 67
process in DRC. To do so, will continue to
organize sensitization and training
activities with women on the elections and
security. In addition, it will intensify its
advocacy efforts with politico-
administrative authorities on increasing
women’s representation at all levels of
national and public life. This will also
include intensifying advocacy with the
Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of
Interior to ensure gender sensitivity in the
application of the law and in the repartition
of seats in political institutions across the
country. In addition, and responding to calls
from women leaders in DRC, it will align
debates surrounding the Sustainable
Development Goals and the gender strategy
of the African Union with the aim of
expanding and elevating their demands.
The Unit will conduct a follow-up gender
analysis.
Stabilization Support Unit
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Stabilization Support Unit (SSU)
supports the Government in the
implementation of its Stabilization and
Reconstruction program (STAREC). The
Unit facilitates coordination between the
Government of DRC, international partners
and UN agencies to implement the
International Security and Stabilization
Support Strategy (ISSS), in a targeted,
sequenced and coordinated approach
informed by up to date conflict analysis and
a conflict-sensitive approach to establish
functional, professional and accountable
state institutions. Since UNSCR 2348
(2017), SSU is linked directly to DDR
through the coordination of CVR
interventions.
Gender Analysis of the Principal
Functions of the Office:
SSU notes that attention to women and
young people is essential to ensuring the
successful and sustainable stabilization of
an area but that, at the intervention-level,
women are often left out of peacebuilding
and stabilization processes. SSU adopts
several strategies to ensure gender
38
responsiveness in its work. First, 15% of
SSU’s budget is used for mainstreaming
gender across its five stabilization projects
in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri.
Projects, focusing on, inter alia, democratic
dialogue, restoration of state authority,
security or sexual violence, must dedicate
15% of resources to promoting gender
equality. Project proposals also need to
contain a clear gender strategy and gender
focal points for each implementing
consortia. This approach to budget
allocation helps ensure gender
responsiveness is financed and
institutionalised.
To ensure the participation of women and
young people in its projects, SSU includes
women’s and youth organisations, as
beneficiaries and implementing partners.
For example, SSU’s programme ‘The Path
towards Agreements’ includes reactivating
information exchange structures to promote
community dialogue and conflict
transformation. In its priority zone of
Kitshanga (North Kivu), the structure is
composed of 25 people, including 12
women. This helps ensure that women’s
and men’s differing perceptions of peace
and security in their communities are
addressed in stabilization programming.
SSU also ensures that it continues to train
members of civil society organizations to
become effective and meaningful
evaluators, who pay attention to gender and
age dynamics in democratic dialogue
spaces and initiatives. SSU’s findings of a
baseline survey of its project ‘Together for
Peace’ in Sud-Irumu indicated that men
reported feeling significantly more
comfortable expressing their views without
fear of criticism of reprisals than women
and young people in democratic dialogue
initiatives (32.2% adult men, compared to
only 12.6% of adult women). Interestingly,
young men reported greater confidence
than adult men (37%) and younger women
reported slightly more confidence than
adult women (14.1%), but nevertheless
show a similar gendered disparity. This
highlights the importance of taking active
measures to ensure that women feel able to
participate meaningfully, confidently and
safely in democratic dialogue initiatives.
SSU will identify mitigation measures in
this respect.
SSU ensures that it collects sex-
disaggregated data on and through its
programming. In its three intervention
zones – Kitshanga (North Kivu), Ruzizi
(South Kivu) and Sud-Irumu (Ituri) – the
Section notes important similarities and
stark differences between men and
women’s experiences and perceptions of
stabilization. These data enable the Unit to
observe gendered trends in perceptions of
peace and security. For example, since the
baseline study conducted in July 2017, SSU
observed that in Kitshanga women are more
optimistic about the effects of stabilization
projects. In December 2017, 1% of men
responded that perceptions of the
stabilisation projects contributed
significantly to the amelioration of their
neighbourhood or village. This figure was
over 10% for women. According to SSU’s
implementing partners in Kitshanga, this
disparity may be due to the fact that women
value seeing gender issues being addressed
in programming. Whereas men’s greater
perception demonstrates their need for
longer-term stabilization work to achieve a
generalised sense of personal and
communal security. While women may also
value long term investments in
stabilization, they see SSU efforts more
beneficial as they add greater value to the
fact that gender issues are taken into
consideration. This indicates the
importance of accounting for the
specificities of women’s and men’s needs,
experiences and insecurities as part of a
gender analysis and gender responsive
stabilization strategy. SSU will continue to
collect perception data in a sex-
39
disaggregated fashion, as to ensure gender
analysis of interventions and projects.
Gender Analysis of Office Management:
Internally, the SSU team has a strong
gender capacity which requires continued
follow-up and monitoring to ensure that
it remains a key element of the team. As
its baseline indicator, SSU seeks 40%
female staff in the Unit. SSU reached
46% female personnel in mid-July 2018.
While two female staff left, one was
replaced by a woman. In addition, SSU
strives to ensure that 90% of staff have at
least one gender goal in their individual
workplans. In 2017, this was achieved for
12 out of the 18 staff members (67%).
New personnel joining the team did not
yet have a gender result in their
workplan. To promote a higher
achievement of this indicator, the gender
focal point created a guidance document
with examples of gender goals and
results.
The Way Forward:
SSU will continue to closely monitor its
gender sensitivity and responsiveness
throughout its project design,
implementation and evaluation to ensure
that the Unit’s implementing partners
systematically promote gender equality and
ensure that the distinct needs of women,
men, boys and girls are addressed in its
stabilization activities. SSU will continue to
incorporate the strategies outlined above
across its projects and programmes in its
priority zones. In addition to collecting sex-
disaggregating data, this will include
ensuring that a gender strategy and goal is
incorporated in all project proposals,
individual and annual workplans, and
budget allocation.
Strategic Communication of Public
Information Department
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Strategic Communication of Public
Information Department (SCPID) is
responsible for informing the Mission’s
mandate, raise awareness about the work of
MONUSCO, develop media outlets for
specific audiences, facilitate relations with
the Congolese media and build the capacity
of local journalists. SCPID has as target
audiences the national government,
women, the youth, civil society
organizations, political parties, local media,
development partners and other UN
agencies.
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions
of the Office:
The vast differences between men and
women in the access of resources, choices
and opportunities in DRC have important
implications in the services provided by
SCPID. The effectiveness of the services by
SCPID is measured by the capacity of the
Division to reach the Congolese population,
women and men, with its messages and
activities.
Cultural barriers and social structures in the
DRC impede the full participation of
women in public discussions and the media
in general. Traditionally, Congolese
women are constrained to the private sphere
in communities, responsible for most of the
household chores and often with large
families to take care. Speaking in public or
taking part of public debates is therefore
rare to many Congolese women. This is
reflected in the lower experience that
women have in participating in public
discussions and the media when compared
with men in the DRC.
The impact that SCPID can have with its
outreach activities, including radio Okapi,
is also hindered by factors such as unequal
levels of education between men and
women in the DRC. Uneducated population
need specific communication approaches
so that the messages from SCPID can
actually reach them. According to the HDI
in 2018, female Congolese population with
at least some secondary education is only
36.7 percent, compared to almost double in
male populations or 65.8 percent. Lower
40
levels of education impact access to
information among female population,
particularly information that is in French
and in written formats. Often those with
higher levels of education are French
speakers in the DRC, those with less
education speak local languages only. Most
of the information services provided by
SCPID are in French, like videos, social
media outlets, the MONUSCO magazine
and even most of the radio Okapi
programmes.
Assumptions of lack of interest or weak
confidence of women can discourage staff
to involve women in their activities. Having
effective participation of women in
outreach and communication activities can
require identifying female stakeholders—
which are rare due to the current low levels
of participation-, additional preparation and
follow-up efforts. As a result, outreach
activities from SCPID have been revamped
in order to increase female participation in
activities. Fishbowl meeting with specific
populations, such as students and young
people have been put in place.
Additionally, the level of women political
participation in the DRC is low, compared
to the participation of men. For example, in
the elections of 2018, women represented
only 12 percent of the candidates to the
National Assembly. This lower
participation of women in politics can be
explained by the factors mentioned above,
such as lower levels of education, less
access to information, lower experience in
public debating and exposure to media. In
addition, there is an important gap in terms
of levels of income. According to the
Human Development Index (HDI) of 2018,
the estimated gross national income per
capita of Congolese women is $703,
compared to men which is $889 (2011 PPP
$). Even if having their own salary, there is
a common practice in the DRC of women
to give the salary to their male partners and
to have the goods and properties of the
family under the husband’s name. Under
these circumstances, women politicians
have less resources to access the media,
which at times requests payment for
politicians to participate and of course to air
political campaign adds. These
circumstances show the relevance for the
Mission to take corrective measures so that
those who do not have a voice, in this case
women politicians and opinion makers, can
participate in the public debate, as per the
mandate of MONUSCO to ensure inclusive
and representative political institutions.
SCPID also notes that peak listening time
of radio in general, across the world and
particularly in Africa, is during the morning
where the general public tune in for news
and general information. Therefore,
programmes during this time of the day
target the general public. Educated women
tend to listen as well to news from morning
shows. Less educated people, both men and
women, tend to listen to the radio between
09:00 to 12:00. As such, more entertaining,
live talk shows and thematic programmes
are in place in Radio Okapi, the radio
station of MONUSCO. During these times
the UN radio also facilitates phone-in
programme or live talk shows, where young
men and women call to share their views on
the theme of the day being debated. Except
special dedicated programmes on women,
all the other radio programmes target the
public in general in Radio Okapi. Political
and security news are for all people and not
only for male audiences. But efforts should
be made to attract more women to these
programmes.
Women have important contributions to the
current media and public debate in the
DRC. When given the opportunity to
participate in debates and the media,
women are skilled speakers that deliver
their ideas well to communities,
particularly to sectors such as youth,
children, religious groups and other
women. This is reflected in their capacity to
mobilize communities and their high sense
of persuasion. Women that participate in
local conflicts are also recognized to be
good mediators, which can enrich the
41
public debate often polarized in the DRC.
Women strongly advocate the cause of their
communities and prioritize social agendas
in political debates. The latter is a topic
often overlooked in the political debate in
the DRC which focuses on political parties’
grievances instead.
The Way Forward:
Given the specific needs and contributions
of women in the DRC in relation to the
services provided by SCPID, the following
approach is considered.
All audience research surveys done, show
that the morning slot on radio is a peak
listening time for all public, men and
women including. However, there is a trend
of less women joining radio Okapi
programmes, due to lower levels of
education in Congolese women. The
Division will encourage women’s
participation in radio programmes,
particularly public debates and panel
discussion dealing with security and
politics in the DRC. This will be done in
parallel with capacity building sessions and
publicity on the importance of women’s
participation in media and public
discussions. In addition, UN journalists and
media in the DRC will be trained on gender
unbiased public media. Beyond the
traditional news delivery in national
languages (Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and
Tshiluba), efforts will be made to use these
languages in other magazines and
presentations from radio Okapi. This will
be part of an effort to increase slightly the
use of national languages to reach women.
Consideration will also be given to using
audio formats in social communication
activities, in combination to SMS, in order
to reach uneducated population.
Strategic Planning Cell
Principal Functions of the Office:
The Strategic Planning Cell (SPC) has a
lead role in key aspects related to Strategic
Planning and Coordination, under the
supervision of the Mission Chief of Staff
(MCOS). SPC contributes to the Office of
the Chief of Staff (O/COS) work plan goals,
in particular to ensure that a comprehensive
policy framework is in place and that
inclusive strategic planning processes are
managed effectively. SPC also aligns the
Mission’s strategic priorities with its
resources and oversees the results-based
monitoring process in the Mission towards
this end.
Gender Analysis of the Principal Functions
of the Office:
One of the primary ways SPC ensures and
monitors gender integration across the
Mission’s work is through the Results
Based Budget Process (RBB). As the
annual results and resources framework of
a peacekeeping mission, the RBB log frame
outlines the strategic objectives, expected
accomplishments, indicators of
achievements and outputs. Providing a
global platform on the progress and
challenges of mandate implementation, the
RBB is key to assessing gender
mainstreaming across the Mission.
Given the strategic importance of the RBB,
the SPC created opportunities for the
Gender Affairs Section to include specific
guidance in the overall management of the
development of annual Work Plans and
Assessment Reports, as well as in the
allocation of budgetary resources. For
example, for the cycle 2018-2019 the Cell
liaised with Gender Affairs to ensure that
resources were allocated for three Women
Situation Rooms for the elections. The Cell
also ensured that the 10 gender sensitive
indicators of achievements and outputs
proposed by the Gender Affairs Section
were included in the RBB log frame.
Examples of the latter included
strengthening the role of women in political
processes and ensuring sex-disaggregated
data is systematically reported across the
Mission and transmitted to HQ in New
York. Moreover, the draft 2018/2019 log
42
frame was also shared with Gender Affairs
to allow review and comments. Data
availability, for gender responsive RBB
concept planning and monitoring, depends
on information provided by various teams
in the Mission, which remains a challenge.
SPC can also advocate so that Gender
Affairs is adequately resourced to conduct
its work. For example, during the fiscal year
2018/2019, SPC supported the Section in
advocating for the return of one UNV post
for Gender Affairs, from three UNV
positions loaned for protective functions in
the Mission. Similarly, SPC helped to
rectify the allocation of an outreach budget
for Gender Affairs, which had been omitted
until mid-cycle.
As mentioned, SPC aligns the Mission’s
strategic priorities with its resources. In this
respect, SPC can support the Gender
Affairs Section in the assessment of the
gender balance across the Mission and
make recommendations where relevant.
The Mission Gender Parity Directive
highlights the strategic importance of
gender parity across its work and mandate.
Its achievement requires that each
department knows about the gender targets
it needs to achieve and the measures it can
take to achieve them. Targets endorsed by
Mission Leadership are not optional. Yet,
challenge persist vis-à-vis the adherence to
these goals. These results, in part, from a
lack of understanding of the important
rationale behind gender parity to the
achievement of the Mission’s mandate as
well as practical and political challenges,
for instance, in recruiting women to
MONUSCO military and police forces at
the level of HQ and TCCs.
In the beginning of 2018, the monthly
report on staffing produced by the Office of
the Director of Mission Support did not
include sex-disaggregated break-down of
personnel. This presented a challenge to
efforts to monitor staff recruitment in
general, and vis-à-vis the Missions Gender
Parity Directive in particular. Noting the
progress made in this respect, SPC worked
with Gender Affairs to advocate for more to
be done by Human Resources to
systematically include a gender analysis as
part of its work force planning.
Accordingly, and as an example of the
concrete suggestions SPC can make in this
respect, the Cell requested the provision of
a complementary monthly report of the
gender breakdown of all staff categories
and grades; requested the provision of
recruitment statistics; and encouraged
MONUSCO Offices to use the selection
process as a strategic opportunity to
influence gender parity.
At the field level, SPC can also advocate for
gender responsive planning. For example,
SPC achieved buy-in to include gender
analysis in Mission support. The quarterly
report on Contingent-owned equipment and
the compliance with accommodation in
military bases will outline the possibility of
accommodating male and female
personnel.
The Way Forward:
SPC will continue to ensure that the gender
dimensions of the Mission’s mandate are
integrated in its substantive and managerial
work. To do so, it will continue to advocate
for gender sensitive reporting and
monitoring of the implementation of
indicators of achievements and outputs.
SPC will continue to support Gender
Affairs in the availability and allocation of
funds. In addition, it will monitor the
specific gender parity targets in field offices
as part of the Head of the Mission Senior
Manager Compact, including in
MONUSCO’s uniformed component. As
part of its advocacy efforts, it will continue
43
work towards rolling out the gender
markers project in field offices through the
development of
annual Office Gender Analysis of Office Management:
Work Plans and UNPOL remains attentive to the gender
for the integration balance across its personnel and across its
of gender sensitive ranks. This is important as UNPOL
strategic works to promote the democratisation of
the security forces in DRC and in its
objectives and implementation of the Gender Parity
results in the Directive.
UNDAF 2020-
As of beginning of 2018, the UNPOL
2014. counts 311 personnel, 58 of whom are
women. Between the 1 January 2017 and
UN Police the 14 November 2017, 58 new IPOs
Principal were deployed to DRC. Encouragingly,
32% (or, 19) of the new recruits are
Functions of the women. In terms of female participation
Office: in UNPOL’s work, 222 of the 1077 IPOs
who participated in the 576 task force
UN Police missions completed were female (20%);
(UNPOL) 840 of the 4868 IPOs who participated in
supports PNC simple patrols were female (17%); and
reform and 608 of the 3390 IPOS who participated in
operational joint patrols were female (18%). UNPOL
should ensure that the female personnel
capacity building. deployed to MONUSCO are distributed
UNPOL assists across territories so that they are
and advises PNC represented in every UNPOL unit and
units across can participate in, inter alia, prison visits
provinces and and mixed brigade patrols.
territories in which Looking at the gender balance within
UNPOL is present, leadership positions, UNPOL saw some
working through variation. In the period 1 July 2017–15
November 2017, of the 58 female
focal points and in personnel in the UNPOL, 16 held
collaboration with leadership posts (15%). During the first
other MONUSCO quarter of 2018, the proportion of women
Offices, notably, in UNPOL leadership decreased to
the Joint Human 13.8%. As it continues to promote the
representation of women across PNC
Rights Office, ranks, UNPOL is committed to achieving
Gender Affairs, gender balance among its own personnel,
Women Protection notably in its leadership roles.
Advisors, Child
Protection and the
Electoral Division. In addition, Formed
Police Units (FPUs), specially trained in
maintaining public order, support the PNC
through training and operational support. In
supporting the Mission’s Protection of
Civilians mandate, the FPUs lead patrols
and ensure the protection of UN personnel.
Gender Analysis of Principal Functions of
the Office:
Police personnel are deployed to UNPOL
through TCCs. This impacts the nature and
levels of officers’ training and experience,
perceptions of gender, including on how
they relate to the UNPOL mandate, as well
as on the deployment of female personnel.
To ensure a shared comprehension on
gender issues, all individual police officers
(IPO) induction training includes basic
notions of gender and guidelines on how to
combat sexual and gender-based violence.
This is key given the role of UNPOL in
providing technical assistance to the PNC.
To ensure that gender issues are part of this
technical assistance to the PNC, UNPOL
conducts gender specific trainings and
collocates focal points across PNC units to
address questions of gender and the
protection of vulnerable persons. At
present, the UNPOL has 51 focal points
stationed across the country, 25 of whom
were trained in March 2018, for example.
To better understand and orient its work,
UNPOL is moving towards systematically
recording sex-disaggregated data in its
reports on training, operations, and incident
reports. These data are evidence of the
different needs, beyond sexual and gender-
based violence, of the population UNPOL
is mandated to protect.
To democratise the security forces and
community policing, UNPOL encourages
greater women’s representation throughout
the different ranks of the PNC. UNPOL
observes that among the challenges of
mainstreaming gender in the PNC, are the
different perceptions within the national
forces vis-à-vis the roles that men and
women should play in communities. During
an event organised by PNC, with the
support of UNPOL, on responding to
SGBV, over 70% of male officers
perceived the concept of gender as
superfluous to their work. This
demonstrated the need for continued
training and sensitisation with PNC
44
personnel across the country and across
ranks, particularly to show the relevance of
gender responsive actions for improving the
effectiveness of the work of the PNC. One
strategy towards this end is leading by
example. This is, ensuring that all
operational activities of UNPOL are
conducted in mixed brigades, with female
personnel participating in patrols, prison
visits and trainings. In addition to
normalising the presence of women in
police forces, UNPOL shows how female
personnel in uniform are better able to talk
to women in detention centers and collect
information about the conditions they are,
while in conflict-affected communities
female officers can promote that women
feel more secure in reaching out to the
police.
The Way Forward:
Remaining attentive to the gender balance
of its personnel, UNPOL will continue to
conduct training and sensitisations
activities with PNC and local populations
on preventing and addressing sexual and
gender-based violence in communities.
UNPOL will also continue its strategy of
embedding staff within the PNC to
strengthen their professional capacities in
the drafting of case files. UNPOL will also
ensure that data collected and recorded by
personnel are consistently and
systematically sex-disaggregated to ensure
the work of UNPOL is appropriately gender
responsive.

CONCLUSIONS
To enhance gender responsiveness within
MONUSCO, in December 2016 the
Mission Leadership Team adopted a
Gender Strategy for the organisation based
on a gender markers methodology. This
Gender Analysis document is one element
of this new approach. It brings together
analyses produced by GFPs in Offices
across the Mission. This analysis
exemplifies concrete ways how
MONUSCO Offices can integrate gender
within the parameters of their work, making
‘gender’ more tangible as a strategy beyond
protection.
Over the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 cycles,
most GFPs provided analyses of how
gender relates to their work. Various offices
also informed about the internal
management of their Office, including of its
gender balance. While there was a range of
depth in the analyses presented, the
document provides an important step in the
implementation of the new gender markers
strategy. In particular, the document
underscores the importance
systematically collecting sex-disaggregated
data, combined with a contextually-
grounded gender narrative that goes beyond
the numbers. This permits a thorough
understanding of the dynamics that lie
beneath the numbers and in identifying the
perceptions, experiences and needs of
different conflict-affected populations in
MONUSCO areas of operation. The value
of such an approach was especially clear,
for example, in the work of CPS and
DDR/RR and to ensuring that in the
implementation of its mandate, the Mission
works to alleviate, rather than reinforce,
gendered vulnerabilities.
The systematic and substantive integration
of the gender strategy depends on the
deliberate will, commitment and planning
of leadership and management across
MONUSCO. Measures to ensure gender
remains integral to the everyday work of the
Mission, include for example,
incorporating gender related outcomes in
budget allocations; ensuring gender is on
multi-lateral, bilateral, regional and
national meeting agendas. It is also
important to ensure that Office and
individual staff workplans identify gender
entry-points of action, and that these are
established as success criteria in
performance evaluations of the Mission
staff.
Looking further within the organization, the
good offices of the Mission leadership on
women’s participation in politics and peace
building will be considered more legitimate
when MONUSCO leads by example by
improving its gender parity rates. This
requires a proactive commitment to
recruiting female personnel to a diversity of
roles, including to senior management and
to field posts. As underscored by the Force
and UNPOL, female uniformed personnel
are key to promoting civilian engagement
in conflict-affected communities as often,
female communities feel more secure
interacting with them.
By providing these examples of gender
of
integration strategies, the Gender Affairs
Section hopes that this document will
inspire peers to substantively tailor gender
responsiveness to their own work and
management strategies. Overall, however,
the above analyses encouragingly
demonstrate the extent to which
MONUSCO integrates gender sensitivity as
a cross-cutting issue. As it considers its own
way forward, Gender Affairs looks forward
to continuing to work with MONUSCO
Offices in the implementation and
evolution of the Mission Gender Strategy to
best respond to the gendered needs,
experiences, and capabilities of conflict-
affected populations in DRC.
Gender Affairs would like to thank the
contributions from the network of gender
focal points in the Mission to this
document. Each and every chapter of this
document is owned to them.
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