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Thu, February 24, 2022

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The UN makes available datasets on peace operations

The United Nations’ Department of Peace Operations has collated operational data on peace and security missions into a new repository, simply called ‘The Data Hub’. This free public library of datasets on peace and security has been published by the UN with the aim of empowering ‘data consumers’ across the world.

The Data Hub has been made freely accessible to all, but the UN anticipates that among its main users will be UN analysts, UN Member States, journalists, training partners, academics and think tanks.

The initiative was a direct outcome of the Secretary General’s Data Strategy, which called for “ensuring everyone, everywhere can discover, access, integrate and share the data they need.”

The hub’s vast array of data has been collected into the following 11 themes: conflict prevention; electoral assistance; environment; gender [or, more accurately, sex]; logistics; mediation; peacebuilding; peacekeeping; safety and security; security council affairs; and sustaining peace.

These data subsets or themes are also exemplified in a number of ‘stories’ which put faces to the numbers or provide some local context. Behind the Numbers: Data and Stories on Women in Peacemaking is once such ‘data storytelling’ project, commemorating the UN Security Council’s landmark resolution 1325 (2000) that emphasised “the differential impacts of conflict on women, the importance of their meaningful participation in peace and security processes and the need for women’s increased role in preventing and resolving conflict”.

This project was one of the initiatives run by the Innovation Cell of the United Nations’ Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs’ (UN DPPA); the author was Min Ji Song. It comprises data and interactive visualisations which include:

  • A timeline of women in senior appointments of active DPPA field presences (1964 – August 2020) and DPPA Under-Secretaries-General.
  • New visualisation of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) implementation at the national level taking original data and personal stories.
  • Original interviews with key figures related to the WPS agenda, especially in the peace-making field.

If you can’t find the data you’re looking for, the Data Hub website provides links to 38 other substantial data repositories from internationally-recognised organisations, such as the Harvard Dataverse, the Fragile States Index and the OCHA Humanitarian Data Exchange.

Explore the data storytelling and full datasets at psdata.un.org