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Gender experts within the United Nations play a pivotal role in driving forward global gender-equality norms and practices. This article analyses the shift within the women, peace and security agenda of the United Nations from Resolution 1325 to the narrow focus on conflict-related sexual violence in Resolution 1820. It argues that United Nations gender experts were pivotal in intentionally driving this shift in focus, although it has since become a contested choice. It highlights the unique challenges that gender experts face when operating within organisations that can be highly resistant to their objectives.

This chapter analyzes how the WPS agenda is addressed within the United Nations. Specifically, I explore the range of factors that have contributed to the current positioning of the WPS agenda within the UN system. To this end, I discuss examples of interagency cooperation around this agenda, highlighting the institutional roles of UN actors and the dynamic relationships between the UN Secretariat and the UN agencies responsible for institutionalizing this agenda, namely UN Women, the UN Development Fund (UNDP), and the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). In particular, this chapter looks at UN Women’s approach to addressing the WPS agenda since its creation in 2010 as the UN entity responsible for gender equality and women’s empowerment globally. In doing so, I suggest that the creation of UN Women and its gender-mainstreaming mandate has increased the profile of the WPS agenda within the UN architecture more broadly.

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