This learning brief is a key deliverable of DCAF’s Elsie Programme – a part of the Elsie Initiative for Women in Peace Operations. A key component of the Elsie Initiative has been investment in action research.

When it comes to equity in the security sector, it is risky to assume that gender representation is the end goal, rather than the starting point. The goal beyond representation is transformation.

The final evaluation of the programme highlighted that action research alongside technical assistance, access and trust are most consistently associated with deeper change. This brief captures a component of the programme.

The insights and reflections of the team behind the Women in Policing Project in South Africa, a multi-year study conducted by the South African Police Service and the Institute for Security Studies  on gender dynamics in operational policing environments, with a particular focus on women.

Discussions not only changed what was said inside the organisation about gender, but who had the right to say it. This is what it means for research to be transformative: generating evidence for change and enacting that change in the very act of producing it.