CiR2P Option 38 | Peacekeeping in support of peacebuilding

DISCUSSION:

Peacebuilding in support of national building involves a sustained effort to consolidate peace by tackling the root causes of a potential or past conflict. The root causes can relate to human rights, ethnic discriminations, justice and law and order, economic policy, the distribution of wealth, and environmental factors including climate change.

To achieve a peace that lasts, different actors and approaches can be prioritised. Research suggests that UN-led ‘post-conflict peacebuilding missions’, carried out by blue helmets, have had greater successes at lower financial cost compared to state-led (ie US) missions.

The key tasks for peacekeeping forces to preform occur over three phases.

Phase 1: support and consolidate a peacemaking process with the aim of achieving a peace agreement.

Phase 2: provide support to stabilise a country to the immediate post conflict transition.

Phase 3: help provide a general safe and stable environment for the longer-term restoration of good governance, the rule of law, and economic recovery.

Climate-informed UN peacekeeping specialists should seek to involve themselves in the first phase with the intention of being involved in and mapping out and implementing climate-informed plans throughout the entire three phases – all of which should aim to address the root causes of the conflict, which for these specialists will focus in some way on addressing the risks and opportunities posed by climate change.

As the impacts of climate change become more severe this century, it may become increasingly important to integrate climate-informed personnel into traditional post-conflict peacekeeping forces and their three mission phases.

A range of climate security organisations have published toolboxes that seek to equip practitioners with climate-informed approaches to assist in peacebuilding processes.

These toolboxes provide a range of field-relevant integrated risk assessment tools, analytical models, scenarios and mapping techniques for climate specialists, as well as a multitude of sophisticated climate-related questions for practitioners to consider when engaging with peacebuilding processes and actors.