20.4.3.

Behavioral Dimension
“In psychology, behavior consists of an organism's external reactions to its
environment. Other aspects of psychology, such as emotions, thoughts, and other
internal mental processes, don't usually fall under the category of behavior.

Objective:
• Learners act effectively and responsibly at local, national and global levels for a more
peaceful and sustainable world;
• Learners develop motivation and willingness to take necessary actions

Peacekeeping is one of the most effective tools available to the United Nations in the
promotion and maintenance of international peace and security.

Yet peacekeeping faces several challenges that undermine its ability to deliver on its
mandates. Political solutions are often absent, and missions seem to have mandates that
lack focus and clear priorities. Complex threats in several environments are causing a
rise in fatalities and injuries of peacekeepers, and missions have sometimes lacked the
personnel and equipment to meet these threats.

Peacekeeping operations have also faced challenges in delivering on protection

mandates and in contributing to long-term, sustainable peace, and in achieving
coherence with other actors operating in the same contexts.

To respond to these challenges, the Secretary-General launched Action for

Peacekeeping (A4P) to renew mutual political commitment to peacekeeping operations.
The Secretary-General has called on Member States to join him in developing a set of
mutually-agreed principles and commitments to create peacekeeping operations fit for
the future, with the goal of reaching a formal agreement by the end of 2018. On 25
September, the Secretary-General hosted a GA73 High-level meeting on Action for
Peacekeeping (A4P).

Declaration of Shared Commitments

The Secretary-General shared the Declaration of Shared Commitments on 16 August
and invited Member States and relevant international and regional organizations to
endorse it. The Declaration reflects the commitments that Member States, the Secretariat
and international and regional organizations have indicated they could make during
extensive consultations held in June and July 2018 in New York. The commitments
represent collective action to strengthen peacekeeping.

Implementation of Shared Commitments

The Declaration of Shared Commitments has reached over 150 endorsements and
provides a shared roadmap for strengthening peacekeeping. Success depends on
Member States and the UN Secretariat working actively to implement their commitments.
We, in the Secretariat, are implementing our Declaration commitments by focusing on a
set of key priorities that build on both new commitments and existing workstreams.
Implementation goals are centered on eight priority commitment areas:
• politics
• women, peace and security
• protection
• safety and security
 • performance and accountability
• peacebuilding and sustaining peace
• partnerships
• conduct of peacekeepers and peacekeeping operations

These eight priority commitment areas are anchored in ongoing areas of work, including
the Gender Parity Strategy; the Women, Peace and Security Agenda; Santos Cruz Action
Plan; Management Reform; Police Strategic Guidance Framework; Strategic Force
Generation; the United Nations/African Union Joint Framework and Declaration; the
Triangular Partnership Project; the Voluntary Compact on the commitment to eliminate
sexual exploitation and abuse; the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and the
Environment Strategy. A tracking system is in development so that progress can be
systematically monitored and reviewed.

See A4P Highlights of Key Achievements

See A4P Key Achievements on Performance
See A4P Implementation in HQ and Field Missions

In August 2019, the UN Department of Peace Operations carried out a survey to gather
perceptions of progress in A4P implementation, and register concrete actions taken by
UN Peacekeeping stakeholders to implement the 45 commitments in the A4P
Declaration. To see the survey results, click here.

High-level Meeting on Action for Peacekeeping

The Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) High-level Meeting on 25 September was chaired
by the Secretary-General. Over 100 Member States and several regional and
international organizations were in attendance, including many at the highest levels.
This High-level Meeting brought all partners together to demonstrate peacekeeping’s
successes, acknowledge our challenges, and spur the action needed by all
peacekeeping stakeholders to enable our missions to bring lasting peace to the
countries in which we are mandated to serve. We are heartened by the enthusiastic
support of the majority of Member States, as well as four international and regional
organizations, to the Declaration of Shared Commitments.

Opening remarks by the Secretary-General were followed by statements

from 48 Member States and three supporting organisations. The event served as a critical
stepping-stone towards implementation by all the Secretariat, Security Council members,
financial-, troop-, and police-contributors, host countries and regional organizations. The
public was able to watch live via UN webcast.
Thematic Consultations
Five thematic consultations took place in June, at which Member States and Regional
Organizations put forward proposals for mutual commitments that could strengthen
peacekeeping. The following brief summaries are non-exhaustive and non-official.

Peacebuilding
Member States raised the need for coherence in relation to peacebuilding, among the
Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission as well as between the UN and
external actors such as regional and sub-regional organizations, host countries, and
international financial institutions. They stressed the need to ensure continuity of
peacebuilding tasks during peacekeeping transitions and drawdown; the role of women
and youth in peacebuilding; the importance of institution-building particularly the role of
police, justice and corrections.

Performance
Member States emphasized that performance had to be discussed in relation to all
mission components, and also in relation to all peacekeeping stakeholders, from
personnel on the ground and Headquarters, to the Security Council and troop-contributing
countries. They emphasized that performance included support, equipment, training,
mindset, clarity of political vision and mandate, and more, and should be viewed in terms
of impact on protection of civilians, safety and security of peacekeepers, and
implementation of all mandated tasks. The Importance of developing a comprehensive
performance framework, and of accountability was a key theme in the discussion.
Member states also discussed caveats and how to address shortfalls in equipment and
training, and stressed the need for partnerships and capacity building initiatives.
See A4P Key Achievements on Performance

People
States brought forth various perspectives on the protection of civilians, including the
importance of a whole-of-mission approach; the development of tailored responses to
threat profiles; and the need to match mandates with adequate resources. Several
speakers underscored that State bears the primary responsibility for the protection of
civilians and highlighted the importance of their accountability, and the role of national
level institutions playing their role in this regard. Member States underscored the need
for specific gender, women protection and child protection expertise in peacekeeping
operations; gender-sensitive analysis and strategies to inform decision-making; and the
implementation of the Women and Peace and Security agenda by peacekeeping
operations and host governments. There was a call for fact-based public human rights
reporting in peacekeeping operations and positive feedback on the work of human rights
and justice components. Member States encouraged more extensive environmental
management within operations as an integral part of mission planning from the outset.
They supported the UN’s victim-centered approach on sexual exploitation and abuse;
called for implementation of the Secretary-General's zero tolerance policy; and stressed
the need for accountability for acts of SEA committed by both uniformed and civilian
personnel.

Partnerships
Member States had specified commitments at the strategic level to include enhanced
cooperation between the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Architecture.
At the operational level, commitment to funding for regional and sub-regional peace
operations was raised by many Member States, with other parameters such as
transparency, human rights and accountability to be taken into account. There was
discussion of the question of financing of AU-led peace support operations. On policy
development, Member States raised the need to share lessons learnt and to enhance
complementarity. Strategic force generation, capacity building and training were crucial,
including the implementation of the light coordination mechanism and language training.
On information sharing, he noted that there was a call for commitment to share early
warning and analysis between the UN, regional and sub-regional organizations, as well
as to recognize the comparative advantages of partners. Partnerships should also be
expanded to cooperation with other organizations.

Politics
Several Members States called for a more strategic and coherent role for the Security
Council; for the Council to make better use of the tools at its disposal for supporting
political processes; and for Security Council members to support Security Council actions
through their individual actions, including development, trade and military policies.
Member States called for better sequenced, streamlined and prioritized mandates that
nevertheless preserve protection and human rights responsibilities, with an enhanced
linkage between mandate preparation and resourcing decisions. Member States called
for SRSGs be empowered to as a key political player in mission settings. They called for
stronger linkages between the political and peacebuilding aspects of mandates, in
particular during transition and drawdown periods as well as stronger linkages between
the PBC and the Security Council, including regarding the formulation of mission
mandates. Regarding the role of host governments, Member States recognized the
primacy of this role, but also the need for host governments to commit to support
peacekeeping operations with their consent and cooperation – while also including host
nations in occasional closed consultations and more systematic work by the Council and
the Secretariat with host states to address host state responsibility for mandate
implementation. Member States called for further improvement in triangular consultations
involving the Security Council, T/PCCs and the Secretariat, and for for the Secretariat to
provide better early warning, improve coherence of political efforts, support the Secretary-
General’s surge in mediation efforts, improve linkages across the pillars of the UN, and
provide frank options, advice and analysis and honest assessments of country situations
to the Security Council. There were several calls for the Secretariat to be more honest
and clear in its reports to the Council in providing an assessment when mandated
activities were not sufficiently resourced. Member States encouraged greater cooperation
between the Security Council, Secretariat and regional and sub-regional organizations to
ensure consistent and effective horizon scanning and early warning efforts.
ACTIVITY FOR BEHAVIORAL DIMENSION