Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 7, Number 4 – January-February 2012
From Remedial Action to Women’s Empowerment: Implications of the US National Action Plan for PMSCs
Implications of the US National Action Plan for Private Military and Security Companies
On December 19th 2011 the National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security (NAP) was announced as the blueprint for integrating women across all post conflict nation building activities. In 32 other countries, the NAP has come to be the central vehicle for empowering women across the stability and defense communities. The United States Government’s final product reflects a relatively forward leaning approach to contractors, including commitments to improving the collection of sex-disaggregated data, efforts to inform program design with context-relevant gender analysis, and ensuring women‘s equal participation in training, education and program activities.
Within the plan’s development, one core challenge was outlining the role that Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) would play, and what mandates should govern their relationships with the USG when it comes to gender. The problematic aspect, for the civil society organizations informing the effort in particular, was a lack of good information. Discussions about gender equality within the realm of PMSCs has so far been tokenistic, anecdotal, and dominated by a handful of negative stereotypes. Whereas we have a range of new information and tools for gender mainstreaming United Nations Peacekeeping Forces or the US Military, we know very little about gender mainstreaming throughout PMSCs. This outlook has severely limited research and movement forward on policy options for improvement, and therefore demands change. Quality research and analysis, identification of gaps and best practices and practical policy options and novel partnerships for implementation are now necessary.
The premise for inclusion of PMSCs in the NAP is their widespread and consistent use, solidifying that it is vital to ensure gender mainstreaming throughout overall stability operations [1]. This means adopting a rights based approach, wherein PMSCs recognize their responsibility as both contract holders and duty bearers. There are two benefits to this model. The first is that PMSCs will enhance their internal effectiveness by being more representative, open and inclusive from an institutional perspective. For example, both revenue and reputation can be enhanced by greater inclusion of women within staffing, through recruitment and retention policies that are fully gendered. The second benefit is improved operational effectiveness across the local environment, as the increased inclusion of women is proven to contribute to a safe and secure environment. For example, disarmament and demobilization projects – a core PMSC task – are more likely to succeed over time when they include women who were associated with fighting forces, or WAAFs. To achieve these dual benefits, PMSCs must work to build in both remedial and empowering action for women, including specifically reform systems and operations to empower women as actors, both within internal ranks and as beneficiaries of the project plans. And that’s what we have seen in the NAP.
The NAP is extremely forward leaning on training, including contractors as potential trainees, on topics including: inclusive participation in conflict prevention, peace processes, and security initiatives; international human rights law and protection of civilians; prevention of sexual and gender based violence (SGBV); and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) [2]. The fact that both empowering and remedial action are listed at length is significant and laudable. Moving forward, implementation plans must ensure training topics go beyond lip service and address these issues in the depth they deserve.
PMSCs should continue to be involved in the design and implementation of training for stability operations personnel, including specifically programs through the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), U.S. Army War College’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute and the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA). These can be excellent partners in the effort to ensure all parties understand the goals of gender mainstreaming within multidimensional operations.
The NAP also commits the USG to get more women involved with the United Nations, including UN Peacekeeping Operations. PMSCs can be involved through novel systems and thinking more creatively about job descriptions and outreach to potential staff. Rosters, such as those used by CANDEEM and the Norwegian Refugee Council’s PROCap and GENCap rosters are great tools for engaging female talent. PMSCs should continue to diagnose and respond to the challenges that prompt women to opt out of stability careers. What we know about these challenges come largely from research done for other institutions, meaning that as of now, we are guessing for PMSCs. This is a huge opportunity and more research must be done on recruitment and retention if PMSCs want to increase their female staff.
Policy shifts at the company, industry and international level must reflect improved integration of gender and support the NAP’s implementation [3]. The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Providers (ICoC), a tool developed to enhance accountability by those PMSCs who sign on to its terms, is now complete. While its language on gender is currently remedial – focused on avoiding trafficking and exploitation – its inclusion illustrates a step in the right direction [4]. As more companies sign on and expand the scope and scale of the document, it will be important to include additional terms on protection and empowerment for women. Existing standards by the United Nations Human Rights bodies should serve as the backbone of forthcoming addendums.
To support these changes, some remedial action is needed at the company level, through safeguards (that is steps to address the risk of misconduct). The NAP includes a commitment to this for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), who maintains a contractor Code of Conduct. However this does not go far enough, in that it does not implicate the Department of Defense (DOD) [5]. Internal audits and mandates should be developed to reflect a commitment to improved dialogue and training that addresses the root causes and institutional culture of changing the gender norms. ISOA, especially with regards to its member supported Code of Conduct, is particularly poised to support this responsibility, through hosting dialogue and moving the conversation about the advancement of international standards forward in a productive manner.
Over the next 5 months, agencies across the USG will develop implementation plans on the terms of the NAP. In this process, PMSCs must be recognized as one vital and permanent actor in the diverse multi-agency operational environment and integrated into all plans, with an emphasis on the Department of Defense. The humanitarian and stability community must continue to advocate and inform this process. Another crucial partner is civil society, which has traditionally stayed outside of the boundaries of this debate. They must become involved as both a watchdog and an empowering institution.
Finally, academic institutions should aid in this effort as well, overlooking stereotypical or anecdotal language, and looking for meaningful output from women inclusion across operations [6]. Work by groups such as Women in International Security Project at CSIS, the Nation Building Project at the RAND Corporation and the Gender and Peacebuilding Center at the United States Institute of Peace have shown themselves as leaders in this field and should continue to build on their records. Working together across tasks, institutions can create coherence and overall impact in the community – while minimizing risks and adverse impact of international action.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Written Statement submitted by Human Rights Advocates, a special consultative status (E/CN.4/2006/NGO/85),UN Economic and Social Council: New York, 28 Feb.2006.
[2] The NAP states that DOS and DOD must “ensure all relevant U.S. personnel and contractors receive appropriate training on Women, Peace, and Security issues, including instruction on the value of inclusive participation in conflict prevention, peace processes, and security initiatives, international human rights law and international humanitarian law, protection of civilians, prevention of SGBV, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), and combating trafficking in persons (TIP).” The United States National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security, The White House, December 2011.
[3] For more on this topic see an excellent resource from DCAF: Sabrina Schulz and Christina Yeung. “Private Military and Security Companies and Gender.” Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit. Eds. Megan Bastick and Kristin Valasek. Geneva: DCAF, OSCE/ODIHR, UN-INSTRAW, 2008.
[4] Signatory Companies will not, and will require their Personnel not to, engage in trafficking in persons. Signatory Companies will, and will require their Personnel to, remain vigilant for all instances of trafficking in persons and, where discovered, report such instances to Competent Authorities. For the purposes of this Code, human trafficking is the recruitment, harbouring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for (1) a commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or (2) labour or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, debt bondage, or slavery.
[5] The NAP states “Implement the USAID Counter Trafficking Code of Conduct holding personnel, contractors, sub-contractors, and grantees to the highest ethical standards with regard to trafficking, and develop a new Trafficking in Persons Policy with a focus on increasing anti-trafficking initiatives in conflict-affected areas.” The United States National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security, The White House, December 2011.
[6] The Nap calls on increased analysis of gender, including posting staff that are training in such analysis to post conflict environments: “Introductory gender and C-TIP training for all USAID Foreign Service and Civil Service Officers, Personal Service Contractors, and Foreign Service Nationals and specialized training in gender analysis to personnel posting to conflict-affected countries or working on conflict issues.” The United States National Action Plan on Women Peace and Security, The White House, December 2011.
