Pérola Abreu Pereira and Giovanna Kuele

Pérola Abreu Pereira is a Brazilian expert on women in peacekeeping, having consulted for the Igarapé Institute (in Rio de Janeiro), UN Women and other organizations. Previously, she was an adviser to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense. She has a master's degree in international relations and affairs from the University of Brazil.

Giovanna Kuele is a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and a nonresident research fellow at the Igarapé Institute.

TOPIC: WOMEN

My Year in Africa: Why This Brazilian Woman Peacekeeper Wants to Return

September 10, 2019

by Pérola Abreu Pereira and Giovanna Kuele

In one of the world’s most fragile and violent settings, Lieut. Comdr. Marcia Braga, a 45-year-old Brazilian naval officer, arrived in April 2018 as the third military gender adviser for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic. She ended her yearlong stint there bestowed with the UN’s annual Military Gender Advocate …