Nations peacekeeping operations, in part using United States funding shortfalls as a pretext to downsize peacekeeping missions. (12) United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 called for women to take on a greater role in preventing and resolving conflicts, including by serving in United Nations peacekeeping missions. Studies conducted by the United Nations in support of the resolution based on the organization’s past experiences in Cambodia, Kosovo, Timor-Leste, Afghanistan, Liberia, and Democratic Republic of the Congo show that female peacekeepers can be better positioned to gain the trust of women within the local population, something that is critical to the success of any peacekeeping effort. (13) Nevertheless, in 2020, women constituted only 4.8 percent of military contingents and 10.9 percent of formed police units deployed on United Nations peacekeeping missions. While the United Nations continues to call for member states to contribute more women peacekeepers, resource and budget constraints have made troop-contributors less willing to provide women peacekeepers, and missions themselves lack adequate resources to retrofit bases to accommodate women. (14) Prior to fiscal year 2017, when the United States was paying its peacekeeping dues at the full assessed rate, the United States and the United Nations worked together to institute a number of cost-saving and efficiency reforms, including reducing the cost per peacekeeper by 18 percent, reducing the number of support staff, and shortening the timeline between when a mission is mandated and when personnel, equipment, and services are fully deployed. (15) Beginning in 2015 and with the support of the United States, the United Nations strengthened measures to combat sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers, including strict timelines for completing investigations, immediate response teams inside peacekeeping missions to handle allegations, suspending payments to countries whose troops face credible allegations of misconduct