Today’s peace operations involve civilian experts to address the host country’s immediate
needs and longer term capacity-development requirements. Member States, regional and subregional organisations are important providers of such capacity. One example of this is the
development of the civilian dimension of the African Standby Force.
A key challenge is to use the civilian capacities of Member States, regional and sub-regional
organisations more effectively. The Review seeks to leverage regional efforts and propose a
framework for Member States, regional organisations and civil society interaction and partnership with the United Nations to enable a faster and more flexible international response. To guide this process the United Nations Secretary-General has appointed a nine-member Senior Advisory Group chaired by the former Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr Jean-Marie Guéhenno.
The one-day event in Addis Ababa, jointly hosted by the United Nations and the African
Union with the support of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), will bring together senior level officials from the United Nations, the African Union Commission, Member States of the African Union, representatives of the Regional Economic Communities as well as regional training centres.
“Norway regards the Review of International Civilian Capacities for Peacebuilding as very important in relation to the cooperation with the UN, Africa Union Commission and Regional Economic Communities. Norway has also contributed to the financing of the review”, says Charge d’affaires a.i, Rolf Ree, who will be present at the consultation, and host a reception for the participants on the night of the 8th.