Gender equality – a focus in peacekeeping evaluation programme: officer

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and Japan gave a focus to gender equality while mapping out plan for the Competency Evaluation Programme for Prospective United Nations Peacekeepers (CEPPP), according to Matsuzawa Tomoko, Director for Defence Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region at the Defence Ministry of Japan.

Women have an increasingly important role to play in peacekeeping activities, she said, highlighting Vietnam and Japan, co-chairs of the CEPPP, arranged an array of scenarios within the framework of the programme to promote women’s participation.

She added that the female blue-berets have engaged in the theoretical classes as well as field exercises in which they cast in the role of conflict victims or military observers.

The CEPPP, an activity under the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations (PKO-EWG) Cycle 4, is taking place in Vietnam on September 13-21.

The event, drawing nearly 300 experts, trainees and observers from ADMM-Plus member countries, is the last activity of PKO-EWG Cycle 4 within the framework of the ADMM-Plus.

The co-hosting of the CEPPP has shown Vietnam’s role and responsibility in multilateral and bilateral cooperation mechanisms in the field of UN peacekeeping operations within the ADMM-Plus framework. Through the activity, Vietnam hopes to make contributions to enhancing the efficiency of UN peacekeeping operations by ADMM-Plus member states./.