72 Security Council consideration (January). On 23 January [meeting 6075], the Council held a debate on peacekeeping operations, following an informal seminar on 22 January organized by France and the United Kingdom. The two countries also issued a non-paper on peacekeeping. The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, said that peacekeeping operations were more numerous and widely spread than at any time in UN history, with mandates that were both more complex and more robust than ever. UN peacekeeping was clearly overstretched, both operationally and politically. With 18 operations deployed in five continents and with 78,000 military, 11,500 police and 23,500 civilians deployed, the operational challenge of maintaining full support to all missions and mounting new ones was far beyond what the Brahimi reforms had envisaged. At the same time, many missions carried out mandates that represented much more than the deployment of uniformed personnel, being fundamentally political operations supporting complex transitions to peace within deeply divided countries. To ensure that UN peacekeeping remained a viable and indeed a stronger instrument, it was necessary to begin finding new potential contributors to peacekeeping. To deploy at high pace into remote territories, innovative ways should be found to draw on support which only Member States could provide. On-hand capacities were needed to reinforce missions if a crisis erupted. In missions where the United Nations had stabilized the peace process but where lack of peacebuilding investment was threatening gains, critical resources needed to flow to shore up peacekeeping. There was a need for a “political surge”—for intensifying political efforts to support peace processes or to help realize peace where it had not been realized. The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support, Susana Malcorra, said that her Department was supporting 16 peacekeeping missions and 18 special political missions, and administered more than 22,000 staff members. It operated and maintained more than 250 medical facilities, 300 aircraft, 18,000 vehicles and 40,000 computers. The creation of the Department of Field Support (dfs) had led to greater clarity of purpose and improved focus on service delivery in the field, becoming “field-centric”. Among the challenges, she listed finding a more strategic approach to doing its business; exploring new, more efficient ways of working; doing it “right and fast”; partnering with Member States, UN entities, regional organizations and civil society in meeting the support challenge; and finding a regulatory framework that was strong yet agile, prudent yet reasonable. To address those concerns, her Department was developing a support strategy that would include regional support
Part One: Political and security questions hubs rather than attempting to recreate a full support structure in each and every mission. Other speakers included the Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, Hédi Annabi; representatives of major troop contributors (India, Pakistan, Jordan, Uruguay); and representatives of the European Union (eu), the African Union (au) and the Non-Aligned Movement (nam). Participants welcomed the Franco-British initiative to address the challenges of peacekeeping, and stressed the need to reinforce dialogue among the main actors, particularly with troop-contributing countries, at all stages of the preparation, conduct and evaluation of operations. Communication. On 23 February [S/2009/112], France and the United Kingdom transmitted to the Security Council an updated version of the United Kingdom-France non-paper on peacekeeping, which was revised to take account of the discussion at the informal seminar on 22 January and the Council debate on 23 January. Security Council consideration (June). On 29 June [meeting 6153], the Council held a day-long debate on the reform of peacekeeping operations, with the participation of major troop- and police-contributing countries and including the eu, the au and nam. The Under-Secretaries-General for Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support briefed the Council on their joint review of the UN peacekeeping system and its expected outcome, in the form of a non-paper entitled “A new partnership agenda: charting a new horizon for United Nations peacekeeping”. The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations said that the theme of the meeting—the relationship between the Council and the policeand troop-contributing countries—reflected the fact that UN peacekeeping was a global partnership that brought together the Council, with its legal and political authority, with the Member States. In the current global environment, financial constraints required a review of the basic models of peacekeeping. The costs, troop numbers and capability requirements could not all continue to rise indefinitely. Dpko and dfs were working jointly on New Horizon, an initiative to help form a new partnership agenda for peacekeeping. The initiative focused on critical peacekeeping tasks and functions requiring a renewed consensus on issues such as the role of peacekeepers in civilian protection; measures to improve mission design, resourcing and deployment; proposals on assessing and building the capacities needed for future peacekeeping; and a strategy to create a stronger, more flexible support system. The Under-Secretary-General for Field Support noted that the past decade had seen several useful innovations, including the creation of the Strategic Deployment Stocks that allowed the United Nations