By Hannah Dadzie
Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has announced a U.S. pledge of $3 million to support a women’s body armor pilot project at the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Accra, Ghana.
The Ambassador joined partners from Ghana, the Netherlands, and Zambia to support this first-of-its-kind project intended to address inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) provided for women peacekeepers and increase their ability to meaningfully participate in peacekeeping missions.
“One major barrier for entry? The ‘unisex’ personal protective equipment that simply doesn’t fit women peacekeepers, that is why we are thrilled to commit $3 million to a joint partnership with the Netherlands to help Ghana and Zambia pilot women-specific body armor in peacekeeping,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said.
Women-specific body armor features a tailored cut, rounded chest, shortened torso, and adjustable back that tightens to fit, allowing the vest to conform to a woman’s torso, providing better coverage of vital organs. The purpose of this pilot project is to evaluate the degree to which the equipment enhances operations and safety during training and deployment. This project aims to reduce barriers to women’s full, equal, and meaningful participation in UN peace operations.
During the pledging ceremony, the Ambassador noted that women peacekeepers are more approachable to women and girls, especially survivors of gender-based violence. She said they offer valuable perspectives on conflict, reconciliation, and peacebuilding and serve as powerful role models for the next generation of peacekeepers, inspiring women and girls to imagine a future after conflicts end.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said an investment in this armor is an investment in women and the communities they serve.
“It’s long past time that we empower and protect these peacekeepers, as they dedicate their lives to empowering and protecting civilians in conflict,” the Ambassador emphasised.
On improving Environmental Management in Peacekeeping at the UN Peacekeeping, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said that by adopting new practices to switch to clean energy, peacekeepers can reduce strain on the fragile countries in which they operate and strengthen relationships with local communities. And improving environmental management can even help deliver peace dividends to those very communities by leaving behind infrastructure to support a greener future.
She added that cleaner and greener missions can help protect peacekeepers and promote peace around the world. She said the United States is committed to this work, including through a trilateral solar power project with Nepal and the United Nations, which will replace traditional diesel generation with cleaner alternatives.
“We are proud to support this initiative. Friends, conflict and environmental exploitation are inextricably linked. But if there’s hope, it’s that the opposite is also true: that peacekeeping and preservation are mutually reinforcing. Together, we can create both a peace and a planet that are sustainable in the same sense of the word,” the Ambassador said.
“Preserving peace and protecting our planet go hand in hand, that climate change exacerbates armed conflict, and that war wreaks havoc on the environment. But there’s another factor at play here. And that’s the environmental impact of peacekeeping itself,” she indicated.
She said there is the need to create new partnerships and strengthen existing ones, whether it’s working together to prioritise clean energy, better manage waste and wastewater, or build greener infrastructure.
