Today, Defence Minister Anita Anand announced the deployment of a new Canadian Training Assistance Team (CTAT) to Ghana. The CTAT team consists of a gender balanced task force of four CAF members currently deployed on Operation PRESENCE (Elsie), and will contribute to Ghana’s ongoing efforts to increase the meaningful participation of uniformed women in United Nations Peace Operations.

“By founding the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations, and supporting other nations’ efforts as they pursue the same goals of gender equality in uniformed peacekeeping roles, Canada is making sure that women in uniform’s voices are heard and that their leadership in peace and security is recognized and sought. Canada is also proud to work with Ghana and other countries who understand the importance of women on UN Peace Support Operations.”

- The Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of National Defence

“While Op PRESENCE (Elsie)’s main goal is to assist Ghana in removing barriers to the integration of women in peace operations, it will also play an important role for the CAF. Through collaborative work, the CAF will be able to identify areas where it can take further steps to increase the meaningful participation of women in operations. In fact, the CAF has already started to address barriers directly related to the deployment of women on operations in recent years, and will continue to do so.”

- Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie, Commander Canadian Joint Operations Command

“Our task force is privileged to collaborate with the Ghana Armed Forces to assess the challenges that create barriers to women’s participation in UN operations. This is important work in support of Women, Peace and Security, and in supporting efforts to make the Ghana Armed Forces more inclusive through gender mainstreaming policies and training.”

- Lieutenant-Colonel Hope Carr, Task Force Commander Op PRESENCE (Elsie)

• Operation PRESENCE is a Canadian Armed Forces’ contribution to the Government of Canada’s peace operations strategy. This includes the commitment of high-value military capabilities to various United Nations peacekeeping missions.

• Currently, approximately 25% of Canada’s deployed military peacekeepers are women, who are serving on five UN peace operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Op CROCODILE), Middle East (Op JADE), Mali (Op PRESENCE), South Sudan (Op SOPRANO) and Cyprus (Op SNOWGOOSE).

• The Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations is a Canada-led, time bound project (2017-2027) that aims to increase uniformed women’s meaningful participation in UN peace operations. Initially created as a five-year pilot launched at the UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial in Vancouver, the Initiative was extended for a second five-year period in December 2021, as announced at the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Seoul, South Korea.

• To accomplish the Elsie Initiative’s objectives, Canada, among other things: (i) is building long-term partnerships with three Troop and Police Contributing Countries (Ghana, Senegal, Zambia), (ii) supports the United Nations to foster receptive environments in UN mission settings, and (iii) launched, together with the UN, the multi-donor UN Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations in 2019. The Elsie Initiative is aligned with the United Nations Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy.

• Canada, together with Norway, co-funded the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)’s development and pilot of a barrier assessment methodology, Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations (MOWIP), to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing women in security institutions around the world to deploy to UN peace operations. A growing number of security institutions have, or are undertaking this assessment, including Canada and Ghana which have both completed the study and published their results.

Associated links

• Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations
• Operation PRESENCE
• CAF Initiative Barrier Assessment Identifying Barriers for Women in UN Peace Operations
• GAF Measuring Opportunities for Women in Peace Operations Report
• KAIPTC – Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Accra – Ghana
• Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance – MOWIP Methodology
• Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations

Media Relations
Department of National Defence
Phone: 613-904-3333
Email: mlo-blm@forces.gc.ca