ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, we thank the Secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez for their openness, interest, and support throughout this assessment. We emphasize their commitment and willingness to allow and establish an open dialogue in order to detect strengths and weaknesses of current institutional practices for the incorporation of women in UN Peace Operations and within this institution. We witnessed the hard work the SSPC has undertaken in order to be distinguished as an institution of discipline and quality. We also emphasize the serious and institutional commitment to gender equality policies within the Secretary and its responsibility to support the efforts of the United Nations to increase the participation of women in Peace Operations.

Secondly, we thank and highlight the work and collaboration of Red de Seguridad y Defensa de América Latina (RESDAL), with its international implementation team, made up of Marcela Donadio, Felipe Estre, Victoria Gómez, Samanta Kussrow, Elisa Rial, Rosario Rodríguez and Rodrigo Sánchez. Likewise, Major General Luis Crescencio Sandoval, Minister of National Defense (SEDENA), Admiral José Raúl Ojeda Durán, Minister of the Navy (SEMAR), the Undersecretary of Public Security, Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, as well as the Head of the Federal Protection Service (SPF), Mtro. Luis Wertman Zaslav; the Commander of the National Guard (GN), General Luis Rodríguez Bucio; the Commissioner for Prevention and Social Readaptation (PyRS), Mtro. Antonio Ha- zael Ruíz Ortega and the National Anti-Kidnapping Commission (CONASE), Mtro. Marco Antonio Vargas González who commissioned the personnel of enumerators and supported the local work of RESDAL.

Finally, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, who has been a strong promoter of the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda, to the Undersecretary of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, Martha Delgado Peralta, to the Director General for the United Nations, Dr. Eduardo Jaramillo Navarrete, and for his accompaniment to Counselor Roberto de León Huerta, Coordinator for Political Affairs and Peacekeeping and Ifigenia Argueta Martínez, Director of Peacekeeping. We also thank Martha Rebeca Gutiérrez Estrella as Program Assistant for the Implementation of the Elsie Initiative and liaison between the navy of Foreign Affairs, UN Women, UDLAP and RESDAL.

This report was compiled by Dainzú López de Lara Espinosa, Gerardo Rodríguez Sánchez Lara, Naiki Guadalupe Olivas Gaspar and Renata Chabert Bravo from Universidad de las Américas Puebla and received the collaboration of Xchell Celeste Sánchez Cruz, María del Rocío Lozano Solana, Antonio Montes Magaña, María Fernanda de la Cruz Sánchez, Edgar Darién González Vivanco and Jonathan Roberto Maza Vázquez.

This evaluation was funded by the Elsie Initiative, through the UN Women Office (Mexico); in addition, the National Women’s Institute collaborated in the early stages of implementation.