Washington, DC – The Compton Foundation, Inc. has awarded Women In International Security (WIIS) with a $25,000 grant for a research project entitled “Women in Peace Operations: Increasing Leadership Opportunities.” The project aims to improve the capacity of international and regional organizations to engage in peace operations by expanding the opportunities available to women with relevant expertise.

The major objectives of the Women in Peace Operations project are to facilitate the development of more transparent procedures for identifying and selecting leaders and personnel in peace operations; improve understanding of the qualities, experiences, and skills that are needed in peace operations; encourage reform of bureaucratic and institutional structures to provide expanded opportunities for women; and facilitate the establishment of mechanisms to increase the visibility of existing qualified female candidates.

In January 2007, Women In International Security also launched a report entitled “United Nations Reform: Improving Peace Operations by Advancing the Role of Women,” which was based on two expert consultations convened in partnership with the Stanley Foundation.

WIIS proposes to research and prepare a report that will provide data on women's representation in field operations and identify obstacles to women's recruitment, retention, and promotion. It has a broad global network of members and a track record of successful collaborative projects with many organizations and institutions. In carrying out this project WIIS will be able to draw on its partnerships with other organizations in the United States and abroad. Representatives from UN agencies and departments, non-governmental organizations, and think tanks who participated in the November 2006 consultations fully supported and encouraged further study on this issue.

The Compton Foundation seeks to foster human and ecological security by addressing contemporary threats to these inalienable rights. To realize this vision, the Compton Foundation focuses most of its grantmaking in the areas of Peace & Security, Environment & Sustainability, and Population & Reproductive Health, with a special emphasis on projects that explore the interconnections between these categories. The Foundation seeks to foster positive and sustainable models of change in each of our three program areas. We believe that research and activism should inform each other, and that both perspectives are necessary for productive public debate and effective policy change. For more info, visit http://www.comptonfoundation.org/index.html.

WIIS is the premier non-profit, non-partisan membership organization dedicated to increasing the influence of women in foreign and defense affairs by raising their numbers and visibility, while enhancing dialogue on international security issues. WIIS offers a comprehensive set of programs designed to foster and promote women in all fields related to international security, and in a variety of sectors. WIIS is a part of the Center for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS), in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. For more info, visit http://wiis.georgetown.edu/.

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