The findings will also help improve infrastructure and facilities to ensure safe and inclusive working conditions. [Photo: PRANEETA PRAKASH]

The new findings from the Measuring Opportunities for Women in

Peace Operations assessments have found that female soldiers and policewomen remain underrepresented in deployments to peacekeeping missions.

The assessment done on Fiji’s police and military highlights how inclusive reforms can strengthen the country’s peacekeeping contribution.

The assessments provide a comprehensive analysis of the barriers and opportunities for women’s meaningful participation in peacekeeping in uniformed services.

With the support of Cornell University’s Gender and Security Sector Lab and Ethos CRS, the methodology focused on ten categories that affect women’s participation in peacekeeping, with the findings providing a practical, data-driven roadmap to build on institutional good practice and tailor reforms.

The findings highlight structural and social barriers to women’s participation, including childcare constraints, infrastructure gaps, and unequal access to training and advancement, and entrenched gender norms.

MoDVA and national partners will use these findings to expand the eligible pool of women through targeted recruitment, training, and career progression.

It will also look at addressing household and family-related constraints, including childcare support.

The findings will also help improve infrastructure and facilities to ensure safe and inclusive working conditions.

It will also look at strengthening transparency and fairness in deployment selection processes

Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs, Pio Tikoduadua, has welcomed the findings of both assessments.

He says Fiji has a proud legacy in peacekeeping, and these reports confirm its commitment to strengthening that legacy through greater and more meaningful inclusion.

Tikoduadua adds that by addressing the barriers identified, they will ensure that all members of the RFMF and the Police Force and contribute fully to international peace and security efforts.

Fiji is the first Troop- and Police-Contributing Country from the South Pacific to complete and publish MOWIP findings, and the ninth worldwide to produce the assessments with EIF support.