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Framing Peace Operations in a Changing Global Landscape

The opening and closing sessions of the forum will be live streamed. Please register here to watch. 

Challenges Annual Forum (VCAF20) aims to discuss how to sustain effective peace operations in a changing global landscape and to reflect on the opportunities for strengthening collective engagement and political support to improve peace operations. Through the lens of the overarching theme, the VCAF20 will zoom in on three dialogue strands: 1) AU-UN Partnership in Peace Operations, 2) Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace in Peace Operations and 3) Performance and effectiveness of Peace Operations.

NUPI is responsible for the third dialogue strand of the forum, focusing on the performance and effectiveness of peace operations. The dialogue strand will bring together practitioners and scholars to reflect on the current status of peace operations’ performance; the role of different actors and processes in assessing and improving performance; and future options for increasing and maintaining high-levels of performance in peace operations. During the annual forum, all published EPON reports will be presented and discussed. You can watch the video presentations of the reports here.

Presentation of background paper and dialogue strand 3 “Performance in Peace Operations” for the Challenges Annual Forum 2020. By Cedric de Coning and Jenny Nortvedt, moderated by Anab Ovidie Grand.

Read the background paper for the third dialogue strand here.

Agenda for the opening and closing sessions

Opening session 7 December 

13:00-13:30 CET Official Welcome and Opening Session: Live stream armchair discussion on framing peace operations in a changing global landscape

  • H.E. Ms. Ine Eriksen Søreide, Minister of Foreign Affairs Norway
  • H.E. Ms. Retno L. P. Marsudi, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia
  • Dr Jakkie Cilliers, Chairman of the ISS Board of Trustees, South Africa 
  • Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General, UN Department of Peace Operations
  • Mr. Sven-Eric Söder, Chair of the Challenges Forum International Steering Committee, Director-General of the Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden
  • Dr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat

13.45-14.45 CET: High-Level Conversation: Improving the Delivery of Peace Operations through using their Full Spectrum and Advancing the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda

  • Mr. Volker Türk, Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination, Executive Office of the Secretary-General
  • Ms. Marie Louise Baricako, chair of the INAMAHORO Movement, Women & Girls for Peace & Security. Member of FEMWISE Africa and African Women Leaders Network (AWLN)
  • Ms. Victoria Holt, Vice President at the Henry L. Stimson Center 
  • Mr Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Colombia and Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia
  • Moderator Dr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat

Closing session 11 December 

13.00-14.15 CET: High-Level Discussion: how to ensure the primacy of politics in a changing global landscape?

  • Ambassador Said Djinnit, Special Advisor ACCORD, former UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, former UN Special Representative for West Africa,
  • Ms. Karin Landgren, Executive Director Security Council Report, former special representative of the UN Secretary-General in Liberia, Burundi and Nepal– TBC
  • Mr. Ian Martin, former special representative of the UN Secretary-General in East Timor, Nepal, and Libya, and a member of the HIPPO review panel

Moderator: Mr. Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Challenges Forum Patron, member of the UN High-level Advisory Board on Mediation, former USG for UN Peacekeeping and president of the International Crisis Group.

14:30-15:30 CET: Key takeaways and reflections from previous days regarding the AU-UN Partnership in Peace Operations, Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace in Peace Operations and Performance and effectiveness of Peace Operations

  • Mr. Rolliansyah Soemirat, Director for International Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia
  • Dr. Cedric de Coning, Research Professor, Research Group on Peace, Conflict and Development, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
  • Ms. Annette Leijenaar, Head Peace Operations and Peacebuilding, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Pretoria, South Africa (ISS)
  • Dr. Björn Holmberg, Director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat