Kristen Cordell

Kristen Cordell is a former Analyst for the RAND Corporation in Washington DC, where she specialized in Gender and Nation Building. She currently works as a consultant on Sexual Violence and Security Sector Reform for MONUC in Kinshasa.

Recent articles

In her second report from Liberia Kristen Cordell looks at the impact of the all female Indian police unit working in Monrovia.

The deployment of female peacekeepers has recently become recognized as not simply "desirable, but an operational imperative." In the words of Rachel Mayanja UN Assistant Secretary-General, "without women's participation in peace efforts there can be no peace and security."

One highly visible step to including women in peacekeeping operations has been the all- women police unit serving as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). 130 Indian policewomen currently make up the Formed Police Unit (FPU) in Liberia, the third such unit to be installed post conflict. The primary function of the group is to provide security within the city during public events with high profile leadership. I spent time with the group during my recent work with the UN in Liberia. I found the experience nothing short of inspirational.

Kristen Cordell reflects on the countrywide effort in Liberia to stop sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers.

Last month the UN Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1888, reaffirming the UNs commitment to ending rape as a tool of war. The UN Mission in Liberia is leading efforts in six countries in Africa to check its own staff on a highly visible and challenging part of the problem: sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers. 

"Issues of gender equality have international attention and even the possibility of resources- but do we (the UN Interagency and NGO community) have the crucial infrastructure and capacity to manage that? And in the case that we are simply creating that capacity as we go along- are we doing so effectively?"

Going into my first CSW I posed the above questions to myself, it was quite auspicious to think that I might be closer to an answer after two weeks of meetings on a wide variety of subjects effecting women all over the world. I will do my best, to give those findings I did gather, as well as some unexpected lessons learned as well.

Much of my work this week focused on the need for greater data collection and analysis at the UN. This universal goal is applicable to all the priority themes: HIV AIDs, Gender Based Violence and Economic Empowerment. We have in fact reached a crucial turning point where our research has furthered the impact of our advocacy work. The only way to continue to benefit from these gains is institutionalize and build continuity and capacity for research as a priority.  One way I suggested doing this is to engage with key external partners to build such capacity (including the results based initiatives projects.)  Sharing resources for continual research and development will strengthen the knowledge community, and allow all programs to grow in influence.

Another innovative solution I addressed is the GEAR project. However, I was surprised as I met with my colleagues within the UN system how few of them are aware of the exact tenants and goals of the project. I believe this originates from the fact that GEAR has done most of its development within the member state community.  The fact that the UN is a conglomeration of member states, this strategy does make sense, however it alone will not suffice. Should the GEAR project gamer success, it will have to align itself with the relevant UN agencies. I think that there is a bit of nervousness about coming together with the very agencies you want to reform (in some cases make obsolete) but it makes perfect sense. These agencies have the knowledge, resources and best practices that are necessary to creating a new gender apparatus. Without unity on this effort, it will fail.

The problems that divide the UN Gender apparatus (and UN writ large) are continually spilling in to the NGO community as well. This is perhaps even more distressful. Regional and thematic NGOs benefit if they address the issue de jour, and are quickly forgotten when the debate moves on to another hot topic. The competition for what are incredibly limited resources is NGO infighting and competition. Collaboration and coordination remain in short supply. For instance, the secretary generals campaign to UNITE against gender based violence may move us together for this goal- prioritizing those communities that work on the topic- while completely forfeiting relationships with NGOS that focus on other vital subjects. And what about that nexus where the NGO and UN community meet? Well my friends, it doesn't really exist- at least in my short experience- UN meetings and NGO meetings remained separated. In choosing future priority themes I look forward to a discussion of unification of efforts, an issue of desperation, not necessitation.

Having studied various women movements from all over the world, including the Balkans, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and Iraq I have found that advocacy is most successful when common bonds are forged which turn the narratives of division on their head. It has been achieved under the most difficult and violent of circumstances- illustrated through women standing hand in hand with their supposed enemy along dividing lines in their community. Shouldn't we expect no less from ourselves- in the calm and relative ease of the developed world to come together across resource and bureaucratic divides? We should expect more, require more, and act in the process of achieving more. Any less will be our downfall.

"Forget China, India and the Internet- economic growth is driven by Women"

The World Bank

In my earlier posts I have discussed my fundamental issues with the amount of data collection and systematic information gathering that goes on at the UN. As a solution, I recommended that the UN work in coordination with varied partners to advance their own capacity for measuring success at gender equality. It turns out one such project is underway right under my nose- and I wanted to bring it to the forefront of your attention as well.

Operating under the proven fact that empowering women through economy brings stability, prosperity and development to a nation, the World Bank Group, the OECD, UNIFEM and the International Center for Research on Women have launched a series of five community-level interventions (termed results-based initiatives or RBIs) in Liberia, Kenya, Egypt, Laos and Afghanistan. They discussed the RBIs and their respective projects in a CSW forum entitled "Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment." There are two primary things that make the RBIs a very novel approach to engendering development projects. The first is that is that the RBIs will focus on including quality measures of gender impact at the outset through incremental documentation and performance and rigorous evaluation of findings. Secondly, under the recognition that gender equity is a multi-level and multi-dimensional issue, RBIs work across sectors on the Micro (individual and household) and Meso (community) levels to make a difference at the Macro (national) level.

In support of the RBIs the aforementioned organizations are also working to effectively facilitate better development funding of gender issues through creative fiscal incentives for such. The case for incentives based programming is that it succeeds where mandates for action have failed. That is, simply requiring gender equity through policy has not proven successful in the long term- however, rewarding gender equality programming through fiscal incentives motivates action. At the Bank such incentives are operationalized in an action plan that includes better institutional collaboration and donor networks, coordination between foreign sector leaders to expand private sector development and ranking that is doing the best business for women. The project is likely to succeed where others have failed, as high profile examples (including the Adolescent Girls Initiative) have garnered both attention and resources (two crucial pieces of the formula for success).

Incentives are key. The program reminded me of a case study I worked on as part of a larger study of women and nation building in Afghanistan: the National Solidarity Project, a World Bank funded program that distributes resources to communities that met the prerequisites of development projects that included the presence of women. With its explicit gender-related goals and the visible presence of foreign implementers, this program could be expected to generate resistance. But the experience of the NGOs who implemented this program shows that while it was not necessarily easy to obtain the participation of women, it was not in any instance a "deal-breaker" or even a major source of discord. Rather, an ongoing interactive process in which obstacles and local concerns were continuously met with discourse and novel solutions garnered local support.

Incentives like those offered in RBI projects can be very useful and powerful in even the most precarious of circumstances. The contribution they could make towards advancing gender equity through reliable data is a very exciting development, especially in moving forward toward the Millennium Development Goals.

I really am honored that an international audience, interested in the global perspective of gender and women's issues, reads this blog. But I would like to set aside a few words for the brave women in my own country, the USA, who face violence on a daily basis.

Last week, I was quite inspired to hear Ban Ki Moon address the plenary on the topic of violence against women. Moon, who is responsible for the UNiTE Campaign to End Violence Against Women told the gathered members of the CSW that "violence against women is an abomination. I'd like to call it a crime against humanity." It is this sort of high-level attention and dedication of resources that are key to moving violence against women to the forefront of international issues.

I left the session enthusiastic and excited to be a part of global change. Over the weekend I was reflecting on my excitement with a good friend who remarked, "yes, but for all of our change abroad, it's much too bad we cannot make a change here in our own country." She referred me to a film she had just seen on sex trafficking in New York entitled Very Young Girls. I knew that the issue of sex trafficking in the States is a serious one, and a bit more research brought me to some shocking statistics. The U.S. Justice Department found that 1,200 alleged incidents of human trafficking were reported in the U.S. over the 21-month period from January 2007 to September 2008, 90 percent of which involved females and 63 percent U.S. citizens.

Of course, trafficking is not the only (nor the most prevalent) way women in the U.S. experience violence- the recent high profile abuse and battery of famous pop star Rhianna has brought the issue of rampant intimate partner abuse to light.  Even more distressful is the rise and tolerance for partner violence in a younger population of women. A recent study by the American Bar Association about the pervasiveness of ‘dating violence' within the teen population revealed that 1 in 5 teenagers in a serious relationship reports having been hit, slapped, or pushed by a partner- the numbers are much higher (3 of 5) for verbal and mental abuse. Uncovering these statistics I suddenly felt a bit silly about my time spent uncovering abuse rates in the DRC- while totally ignoring the plight of my fellow citizens.

Special Rapporteur on Sexual Violence Yakin Erturk commented earlier in the week, that it is not nationalized culture that is responsible for gender-based violence (an excuse she hears regularly) but instead a global patriarchal culture. She is completely right- and we have a large case of that patriarchy here in the states as well.  This must be addressed from a policy standpoint- including through legal statutes, such as the Senate Bill for "Improving Assistance To Domestic And Sexual Violence Victims Act Of 2009". Secondly, civil society must continue to investigate and advocate for the needs of those in our own community in ways that fit that community. I am reminded of a presentation I saw early on in the CSW by UNIFEM Australia, on their very successful White Ribbon Campaign, which involves men in the fight against gender based violence in a very relevant and systematic manner. Advancing the causes of women in our own communities, through like programming will contribute to a greater sense of international equity and dignity for women as a global collective.