The Ministry of National Defense, together with UN Women and the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI), with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, presented the Uruguay 2022 Project financed by the Elsie Fund, which aims to increase the number of women participating in United Nations peacekeeping operations. Currently, the Uruguayan State deploys 1,057 soldiers, of which 6.1% are women. The goal is to reach 2024 with 11%.
Uruguay was one of the seven countries that implemented the Methodology for the Evaluation of Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations (MOWIP) in 2020 and the only one in the world to have completed their studies under this modality both through level of the Armed Forces and the National Police.
The application of this methodology will focus on breaking down four fundamental barriers: lack of information on the deployment criteria, sociocultural restrictions that limit the deployment capacity of women, transmission of perception of negative experiences of other people in operational peace missions and Roles. of gender and the low representation of women in operational roles.
To promote the interest of women to participate in Operational Peace Missions (MOP), within the framework of the project, the following actions will be implemented: provide information on deployment criteria and opportunities and requirements for training in operational roles, through meetings with a team of duly trained instructors who will tour the country to inform and promote participation, offer additional family support for women and men from single-parent households to facilitate their deployment, carry out a dissemination and communication campaign on deployment opportunities and criteria within of the Armed Forces, make visible and share experiences of women who have operational roles in military contingents in MOP and evaluate the voluntariness and verify the preparation of women for deployment in operational roles.
