You Cannot Improve What You Do Not Measure – The Gendered Dimensions of UN PKO Data

Abstract

ABSTRACT UN peacekeeping operations have introduced new data-based systems such as the Situational Awareness Geospatial Enterprise (SAGE) and the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System (CPAS). Simultaneously, UN leadership has repeatedly made the case that more women in peacekeeping will make peacekeeping more effective. We argue and show that these initiatives while occurring concurrently have been separate and that there is a lack of gender mainstreaming in the data-based approaches. We contend that this has negative consequences: It produces incomplete data regarding threats and needs of local beneficiaries and peacekeepers, it impedes performance assessment, and it leaves inefficiencies unaddressed.