Women’s role in promoting good governance in the defence and security sector
Experts on gender and building integrity met to discuss women’s role in reducing the risk of corruption and promoting good practices in the defence and security sector at NATO Headquarters on 7 and 8 March 2013. This was the first ever seminar on this subject, organised to coincide with International Women’s Day.
“When we are developing strategies and tools to combat corruption we have to do this with our gender glasses on and analyse how corruption is affecting men and women,” said the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security Mari Skåre.
Since 2007, NATO and its partners have been working together to strengthen good governance in the defence and security sector through the Building Integrity Programme, as well as to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
“Just as UNSCR 1325 links women’s experiences to the maintenance of peace and security and asserts women’s leadership, women’s experiences and leadership have to come to the fore also in combating corruption,” added Skåre.
Some 70 experts from 31 NATO member and partner countries discussed how to better incorporate gender perspective into the Building Integrity Programme. As a result of their recommendations, the programme’s education and training activities will be enhanced by a Building Integrity curriculum for female staff officers, a train-the-trainer programme and a Building Integrity mobile female expert team, which will be able to give classes to mixed and segregated audiences.
Participants recognised the general lack of female leaders in key strategic positions, including in the armed forces and in the broader defence establishment. “Women have a strong role to play in fighting corruption and promoting good practices notably by raising awareness on the impact of corruption in the defence and security sectors,” recommended the Latvian representative Ms Inese Voika, from Transparency International.