UNITED NATIONS - Women only account for 5 percent of uniformed personnel in the United Nations' peace operations in 2018 despite slight increase in their participation, according to the UN peacekeeping chief.

At a regular press briefing Monday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric quoted Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix as saying: "Despite efforts which led to a slight increase of deployed women over the last year, currently, the overall number of uniformed women deployed to peace operations stands at a critically low figure of 5 percent."

Dujarric said Lacroix has presented to member states the gender parity strategy for uniformed personnel, which outlined the targets for the deployment of military, police and justice and corrections female personnel for 2019.

"He appealed to member states to continue to strive to meet the targets outlined in the strategy not only through pledges, but more importantly through the sustained recruitment, training and deployment of qualified women within the national services," Dujarric said.

The UN Department of Peace Operations is leading 14 peacekeeping missions across the globe, half of which are stationed in Africa. The top ten troop and police contributing member states are Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Rwanda, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Ghana and China.