On 27 March 2001, representatives from the Human Security Network governments, UN Secretariat and Specialized Agencies, and NGOs, as well as other peace and security experts, met at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations to develop recommendations on Peace Support Operations for consideration at the Third Human Security Network Ministerial Meeting in Petra, Jordan in May. The workshop was convened by the Permanent Representatives of Canada, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Norway to the United Nations. This report aims to reflect the discussion that took place, however, it is not a document of agreed upon conclusions.

• The Human Security Network is unique in that it is a multi-regional network of governments and others with vast experience in peace-building and Peace Support Operations. It is well placed to promote the humanitarian aspects of security while supporting and strengthening the work of the United Nations.

Priority Issues for Consideration by Ministers

• While the specifics of the Brahimi Report are still under consideration in New York (where a comprehensive review of DPKO's capacities and requirements is being undertaken), Ministers may wish to:
• encourage this process; and
• emphasize the need to move ahead with strengthening the UN's capacity for peace-keeping as soon as possible.
• With an eye on the Secretary-General's report on conflict prevention due in late May, Ministers may wish to highlight the need for all UN programs and agencies to consider urgently, under the Secretary-General's leadership, how they can contribute to conflict prevention, both in its early "structural" phase and nearer to the trigger-points of violence.
• Bearing in mind work underway within the Secretariat on enhanced peace-building strategies, Ministers may want to emphasize that both pre-conflict and post-conflict peace-building activities by the UN system can and should be strengthened, with particular emphasis on local capacity building. They might also note that peace-building is a long-term process requiring long-term strategies.
• Ministers may wish to welcome moves both within the UN and the World Bank to address more effectively and faster early warning signals in potential conflicts. A growing trend towards early identification and analysis of such warning signs represents important progress.

Peace Support Operations

• In making Peace Support Operations more robust, participants concurred that specific practical recommendations were vital. The Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations (the Brahimi Report) was a step in the right direction.

• In the spirit of concreteness, the workshop advocated "coming to terms" with debilitating competition between existing organizations and agencies; this can be achieved by promoting results-oriented mechanisms that both facilitate task coordination and favor comparative advantage and more comprehensive approaches to peace-building and conflict prevention.
• The Strategic Recovery Facility under development by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University was highlighted as a specific initiative to help pool the efforts of disparate agencies and organizations for rapid start-up of peace-building efforts. This small facility will be set up as a pro-active but institutionally neutral arrangement to coordinate needs assessments and program planning and to ensure timely funding for essential conflict recovery activities. Another positive development welcomed was the current strengthening of the UNDP Emergency Response Division.
• One recurring theme throughout the workshop was the specificity of the situation on the ground for each Peace Support Operation. In carrying out successful operations, it is essential to draw upon local expertise and existing structures, with note being taken of the important role women can play in peace-building. In most cases, there are operational agencies on the ground prior to the deployment of a larger peace operation. These organizations, whether they are UN agencies or NGOs (both international and local), are already sensitized to local capacities and realities.
• Practitioners in Peace Support Operations should also be aware of the potential of cross-cutting human security issues (such as the welfare of children) in bridging divisions between parties at all stages of an intervention.
• Some participants suggested that the UN has a serious problem with uneven quality of international field staff, i.e. with putting the "wrong people in the wrong places". It thus needs to be more effective in hiring and deploying high quality staff.
• The UN is involved in around 30 Peace Support Operations around the world but only a third have a military component. Humanitarian deployment and small peace-building units are more common. Hence it is important to regard the civilian component as the starting point, then evaluate whether a military deployment is actually needed.

Regional Organizations in Peace Support Organizations

• In regards to the role of regional organizations in Peace Support Operations, it was argued that the UN Security Council has no "rules of engagement" with regional organizations and that this deficit discourages concrete productive relations among these actors. This can be damaging, as illustrated in the case of recent Security Council relations with ECOWAS in West Africa.
• While regional organizations in Asia and Latin America have the capacity to engage in peace support activities, especially in conflict prevention, African regional organizations do not have the required resources. UN and donor commitment to African capacities in this sphere therefore needs to be augmented significantly.

Peace-building

• Participants argued that the UN is weak at managing peace-building efforts and suggested several potential areas for improvement, including the importance of identifying internal and external partners which one participant referred to as the need to develop a "professional unity of effort".
• In performing peace-building activities, such as the demobilization of combatants, the UN is often preferred over regional organizations because it is inter alia, perceived as less partial by the parties to the conflict. However, demobilization activities could more directly support peace-building in the future.
• Greater focus is required on the specific mechanisms needed to help war-torn societies build frameworks that inculcate self-perpetuating peaceful and productive behavior. Instead of emphasizing exit strategies, the terminus of UN operations should depend on appropriate local frameworks first taking root.
• In building these frameworks, it was posited that peace-building should be seen as a process taking place within a particular country and under specific circumstances unique to that country. In each peace-building mission, the challenge for the UN is to locate the specific niche(s) where it can be the most productive. There is also a strong need for regional and local capacity building; the UN needs to do more to identify local partners and to catalyze their specific strengths.