Project profile — Applying Gender Considerations to UN Camp Accommodations

This project aims to implement gender-sensitive designs by the UN Department of Operational Support for infrastructure and accommodations in UN peace operations. This project improves the safety and well-being of women peacekeepers by enhancing environmental factors in the camps, contributing to safer workplaces and more receptive conditions. Improvement to camps will benefit men and women peacekeepers and contribute to their deployment and retention. Also, this will allow uniformed women to participate meaningfully in UN peace operations. Projects activities include: (1) conducting gender-specific assessments of accommodations for selected field missions, based on minimum gender standards; (2) providing technical support to missions on their construction designs, implementation plans, and contracts to improve accommodations to reflect gender needs; (3) refurbishing and/or installing camp accommodations following minimum gender standards; (4) conducting assessments of accommodation in missions and perceptions of women in peace operations before and after camp improvements; and (5) incorporating UN Women’s guide to gender-responsive procurement into all purchases of materials for camp accommodation improvements.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) improved security and accommodation facilities for uniformed women in UN peace operations; (2) enhanced UN peace operations’ capacity to provide secured and adequate accommodation facilities for uniformed women in UN peace operations; and (3) increased body of knowledge on receptive environments in UN peace operations.

Results achieved as of May 2025 include: (1) developed and systematized gender-sensitive designs for ablutions and accommodations in UN peace operations, creating enabling environments for uniformed female personnel; (2) developed an improved reporting tool for measuring progress and providing more detailed insights into gender-sensitive, mission-specific camp accommodations’ implementation; (3) field missions established contracts that include the latest gender-responsive design elements, including the latest women body armour and ablutions solutions, to help create an enabling environment; (4) continued positioning gender-responsive infrastructure, equipment and welfare to influence systemic change and strengthen the conditions that make women’s participation in uniformed roles possible and sustainable; (5) supported including essential gender-responsive design recommendations in the Contingent Owned Equipment Manual as best practices for Member States to adopt; (6) strengthened capacity to anticipate future operational needs and deliver innovative, field-adaptable solutions through emerging technologies and design practices; and (7) increased priority of gender-responsive infrastructure and enabling conditions at senior levels of decision-making, contributing to sustained institutional commitment and cross-departmental alignment.