Gender Mainstreaming In Peacekeeping Operations ... - Resdal

to community members, NGOs created sustainable results for
participatory and diverse civil society networks to enhance the
role of women and girls.
Another key to success was reliance on multi-stakeholder
relationships to monitor and respond to problems in the
process. Relying on NGO networks, UNMIL could be extremely
responsive to problems as they arose, creating innovative and
creative solutions and implementing through partners on the
ground. For example, OGA staff highlighted a scenario in which
women were not able to leave work at the market to register to
vote. In response, OGA worked with the MoGD and local NGOs
to carry out a market-level campaign, which meant providing
assistance in the form of staffing for their stalls, thereby freeing
them to go register or to vote. The plan was an innovative and
creative result of partnering on local-level issues.
“They [women] benefited more than other elections
because it was their own methodology, and it was one
that had a great impact for the dissemination of the
information we wanted to get across.” NEC Chairwoman
Elizabeth Nelson
A third key to the success was the recognition of critical entry
points within the system, including main electoral structures.
This process promoted greater sustainability for the overall
mission and made the effects visible even after the election. All
work could not take place in the NGO sector, as connecting NGOs
with the larger legislative machinery at work in the elections was
extremely important to their success. At the policy level, the OGA
worked to influence those bodies responsible for the elections,
actively attending and advocating within institutional bodies,
including the National Elections Commission, UNMIL’s Elections
Committee, and the National Transitional Legislative Assembly.
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