The UN Development Program has donated 500 bicycles to women in northern Uganda. UN News Centre explains why this could substantially help efforts to aid those affected by the region’s long-standing violence.
The bicycleprogramme is part of UNDP’s larger sexual and gender-based violence programme which has trained over 700 women in peacebuilding, negotiation and conflict resolution skills. It is hoped that the bikes will help these women reach remote and inaccessible communities sheltering the displaced who are returning to northern Uganda.
Meanwhile, in Liberia, a country where female peacekeepers have played a leading role in combating gender violence, the UN’s strategies seem to be working.
Allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) against personnel serving with the United Nations Missionin Liberia (UNMIL) have fallen, according to a new report from the mission.
No word on whether bicycles have played a part in the success, but this report is a welcome bit of positive news on the UN’s concentrated campaign to eliminate sexual abuse among peacekeepers — work that often gets lost in the reporting of cases of peacekeeper misconduct.