Session 10: Impact of COVID19 on UN Peace Operations: Can Chaos and Crisis be Turned into Purposeful Transformational Change?

This Webinar session will explore the impact of COVID19 on UN peace operations, recognizing the current immediate challenges and actions taken by missions to pull through the crisis, but also and in particular, the focus of the conversation will be on what could and should be done to turn chaos and crisis into purposeful transformational change? Already prior to the onslaught of COVID19, the political and financial support for multilateral cooperation including through UN peace operations had been drastically drawn down, with budgets and personnel for UN missions cut by 25 % since its peak in 2015. COVID19 is already generating profound negative socio, economic and political challenges across the world, with a sharp rise in poverty, inequalities, and with political systems struggling to cope. The need for a collective effective tool to support countries seeking to prevent sliding further into chaos and conflict, to provide the space for political solutions between adversaries to be found, and to support institutional frameworks that can build peace, will be as critical as ever. But, given the limited resources available, what is required to make UN peace operations truly fit for purpose through and in a post-COVID world? What specific innovations and transformations should be pursued to not only mitigate the crisis of today, but to turn the current overtaxing situation into an opportunity for developing a proactive impactful strategy for the future? The Webinar is held in the wake of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.

Speakers

■ Ms Annika Hilding Norberg, Head of Peace Operations and Peacebuilding, GCSP;

■ Mr Luis Carrilho, UN Police Adviser, UN Headquarters, New York;

■ Ms Natascha Hryckow, Coordinator UN Panel of Experts on Somalia, GCSP Global Fellow;

■ Mr Ralph Mamyia, GCSP Executive-in-Residence Fellow / Non-Resident Adviser, International Peace Institute/ former UN DPKO;

■ Ambassador Yvette Stevens, GCSP Executive-in-Residence / former Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations in Geneva;

■ Dr Mike Kelly, President, Palantir Technologies Australia / former Minister of Defence Materiel, Australia.

Moderator

■ Dr Jean-Marc Rickli, Head of Global Risk, GCSP. https://www.gcsp.ch/our-experts/dr-je...

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