was 1.083 in 1991, quite above the mean of the variable (see Appendix). Nevertheless, the
secondary education ratio was below the mean (the secondary education ratio was .209 in
1991).
Yet, women played a significant role in the peacebuilding process the value of which
has only been recently appreciated by the UN officials and organizers. Despite the shortage
of educated women, women from Africa created MARWOPNET a group that functions as an
umbrella that includes more than 100 organizations and NGO’s. The women, who
participate, are exceptionally trained and active as professionals, union leaders, and rural
activists. MARWOPNET has addressed issues of displaced individuals and refugees, dealt
with rape victims, and compiled a report on the effects of war on women and children, which
revealed that more than 50,000 women were raped during the civil war in Sierra Leone
(Griswold, 2002). The role of women in Sierra Leone expands in other areas, including
security and policing. Women comprise 13% of the national police force in Sierra Leone.
Their numbers are expected to increase as the UN mission trains more women and encourages
their involvement with sexual crimes, a previously unrecognized crime area for Sierra Leone.
Similar efforts to train and facilitate women’s employment as police officers are under way in
East Timor and Kosovo.
Like Sierra Leone some of the successful stories of UN peacebuilding are dependent
on the success of integration process, where women become valuable partners. A brief look
at the summary statistics (see Appendix) for the cases where peacebuilding was successful 5
years after the end of the conflict compared to the cases where peacebuilding failed shows
that life expectancy and secondary education enrollment ratios are higher in the cases where
peacebuilding was successful. Looking into female life expectancy alone, the minimum value
is significantly higher in the cases where peacebuilding is successful. On the other hand, as it
is expected fertility rates are higher when the peacekeeping operation is a failure, an empirical
result that corroborates the “youth bulge” theory and indicates low domestic capacity. The
19
Convention