Lone Jessen

Thematic Expertise: Gender-sensitive advice in political contexts, including process design and thematic advice for peace processes globally.

Lone Jessen serves as the UN’s Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs’ (DPPA) Senior Gender and Political Adviser, heading up the Department’s Gender Peace and Security Unit, in DPPA’s Policy and Mediation Division.

Lone has worked for the UN since 1996, dealing with peacemaking, peacekeeping, and the cross-cutting issue of promoting inter-agency cooperation in the area of early warning and preventive action. In 1998-1999, she was engaged in on-island peace talks in Cyprus.  In 2009, she finalized a sabbatical project on how to strengthen and gender mainstream the UN’s peacemaking work and gender capacity. Lone has since then pioneered DPPA's work on gender, WPS, including establishing and conducting the annual UN High-level Seminar series on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies in partnership with CMI and PRIO. She is currently undertaking a second sabbatical project, (Fall 2022) looking at the power of Behavioral Science in conflict mediation; “How to shift men’s attitudes and behaviors towards women’s inclusion in conflict mediation and peace processes”. Lone holds a BA in Political Science from Aarhus University Denmark, and a Master’s degree from Columbia University, NY, in International Relations.