Delivering during a pandemic: How the UN is maximizing impact in peace operations

By Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations

Last year, I was walking through a makeshift hospital ward in the remote town of Mandima in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Ebola outbreak there was adding to the myriad challenges that our peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, was already facing. Our peacekeepers still had a job to do — a very difficult job to do — but their efforts were now complicated by a public health emergency and a population struggling to cope with yet another challenge. Little did I know back then that all of our peacekeeping missions would be confronting a global pandemic today.

How do we continue delivering on the UN’s mandate when movement restrictions are in place? When UN personnel are as much at risk as the populations they serve? When protecting ourselves becomes a precondition to protecting anyone else?

To address existing and new challenges while improving overall performance, Secretary-General António Guterres launched the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative in March 2018. The new framework, applied across our 13 peacekeeping operations, covers key priorities and includes the introduction of new tools to evaluate performance, minimize risks and maximize impact.