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to human rights, child protection adequately prepared for them. nism” whereby DPO facilitates co-
and the prevention of conflict-re- Since the launch of the report, both operation between Member State
lated sexual violence. Another Member States and the Secreta- training providers and troop and
recent training needs assessment riat have been working to address police contributing countries requi-
conducted by ITS and focusing on shortcomings and to strengthen ring training in a particular area,
the protection of civilians found collaboration. 151 Member States should also expand. Many contri-
that for all categories of peaceke- have supported the Secretary-Ge- buting countries have a vast expe-
eping personnel—military, police neral's initiative on “Action for Pe- rience and specialized knowledge
and civilians—there is need for acekeeping” (A4P), emphasizing and skills; this could be shared
scenario-based training exercises among other issues the shared re- with others through deployment
to practice in-mission coordination or use of mobile training teams.
and rapid response to real situa- Mobile training teams consume
tions peacekeepers face in serving scarce training resources, but act
to protect civilians. as force-multipliers by sharing and
So how can we improve pre-de- standardizing knowledge between
ployment training? One obvious countries.
solution is to pool resources betwe- Peacekeeping pre-deployment
en the UN Secretariat, police and training is a shared responsibility
troop contributing countries and and commitment. All stakehol-
other Member States. A system ders need to contribute fully to
of collaboration and shared re- ensure the successful implemen-
sponsibility was recognized alre- tation of UN Security Council
ady in 1995, when UN Member sponsibility for peacekeeping per- mandates and most importantly,
States passed General Assembly formance and stating their com- save lives.
resolution 49/37. This resolution mitment to providing well-trained 1. “Improving Security of United Nations
confirms that Member States are uniformed personnel3. DPO has Peacekeepers: We need to change the way
we are doing business” (2017) also ter-
responsible for training unifor- developed more specialized trai- med the “Cruz Report”;
med peacekeeping personnel, ning materials in a host of areas 2. Forthcoming. Peacekeeping Resource
while the Secretary-General as- including specific training for spe- Hub https://research.un.org/en/peaceke-
sist Member States by develo- cialized units and thematic training eping-community/training;
ping, establishing and providing in child protection and prevention 3. “Declaration of Shared Commitments on
UN Peacekeeping Operations” https://
training standards and materials. of sexual violence, while main- peacekeeping.un.org/en/action-for-pea-
The Secretariat, on behalf of the streaming gender considerations cekeeping-a4p;
Secretary-General, is also respon- throughout all training materials. 4. Peacekeeping Resource Hub https://rese-
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sible for training civilian person- The Secretariat is also strengthe- arch.un.org/en/peacekeeping-communi-
ty/training.
nel. While largely effective, this sy- ning leadership training. Examples
stem of shared responsibilities has include the development of a UN
been hampered by a constant lack Police Commander Course and
of resources. Funding alone is not the delivery of scenario-based trai-
the solution. Maintaining UN stan- ning in areas such as conduct and
dards requires sufficient qualified discipline and the protection of ci-
personnel (in both the Secretariat vilians.
and in Member States) and a de- Moving forward, it is critical to
liberate, systematic approach. This continue to build on the notion of
includes prioritization by senior performance as a shared responsi-
leadership to ensure that pre-de- bility. Partnership initiatives such as
ployment training is given adequa- the triangular cooperation betwe-
te time and attention. en Member States and the Depart-
The 2017 Cruz report served as ment of Operational Support (DOS) Lotta Hagman
a wake-up call—both to the new in engineering could be expanded Integrated Training Service, UN
realities of peacekeeping and to to include other areas. An initiative Department of Peace Operations.
the fact that peacekeepers are not termed “light coordination mecha-

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