The present paper investigates the static behaviour of doubly-curved laminated composite shells and panels. A two dimensional Higher-order Equivalent Single Layer approach, based on the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF), is proposed. The differential geometry is used for the geometric description of shells and panels. The numerical solution is calculated using the generalized differential quadrature method. The through-the-thickness strains and stresses are computed using a three dimensional stress recovery procedure based on the shell equilibrium equations. Sandwich panels are considered with soft cores. The numerical results are compared with the ones obtained with a finite element code. The proposed higher-order formulations can be used for solving elastic problems involved in the first stage of any scientific procedure of analysis and design of masonry structures.