To mark International Women’s Day, we are profiling some of the individual members of our Network and the work that they do. Today: Carole Doucet
By Olivia Adams, MA Candidate (NPSIA) and intern with The WPS Group.
Carole Doucet has been working in the field of women’s rights and gender equality for over 20 years. She has had a plethora of experiences, including being an international policy advisor, strategic manager, researcher, trainer, and advocate specializing in women’s rights, gender, peace and security issues. She has advised both governments (especially in Africa) and international organizations, including but not limited to UN Women, NATO, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the UN Department of Political Affairs, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, and multiple civil society and women’s organizations.
While her work initially started in developing countries, she has recently been working in post conflict countries supporting the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Carole has served as the senior gender advisor for the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia (2008-2011), the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in New York (2013-2015), and the Office of the UN Special Envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes region (2016-2017). She has most recently finished a consultancy for NATO, helping the Alliance work on their WPS action plan and their performance indicators. Carole has recently taken on the position of Director of the Conduct and Discipline Team with the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or MONUSCO. Based in Goma, Carole’s mandate will be to advise senior leadership on the application of UN standards of conduct in the Mission including the Zero Tolerance Policy on sexual exploitation and abuse.
For Carole, working in the field of women, peace and security is “always interesting and motivating. You learn every day and hopefully you provide effective support and guidance as well as insights and information to people who are also trying to advance this same agenda.”
Discrimination and gender-based inequalities are, in her words, “everyone’s business, as everyone in a community and in a country, including their well-being, prosperity, peace and security is affected by this – that’s why it’s important to consistently work on these issues.”
She’s learned a lot from women’s rights defenders and activists around the world and their courage. They have different approaches, new ways of seeing things, and effective designs. She is consistently humbled by this, and hopes to continue learning from other inspiring women (and men) in the field.
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