51³Ô¹Ï

Objectives

The project aims to maintain effective and flexible systems for rapidly deploying DPA staff or selected experts to the field in support of DPA¡¯s mandate to ¡°maintaining international peace and security by assisting Member States, at their request, and other international and regional organizations to resolve potentially violent disputes or conflict peacefully¡±.

Components

Since 2010, the Rapid Response mechanism has been providing timely and flexible resources to respond to emerging crises and to situations or events that due to their nature, cannot be anticipated; and meet the short-term needs of Special Envoys, Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSGs), Special Political Missions and regional and sub-regional organizations in crises. In addition, it provides surge support in political analysis and expertise to UN actors, i.e. Resident Coordinators, UN Country Teams, Peacekeeping Operations, Special Political Missions, Member States, regional and sub-regional organizations, and beyond.

Main achievements

The project responded to 22 Rapid Response requests under the Crisis Response System. The main achievements were as follows:

• Support to good offices efforts by the 51³Ô¹Ï Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA):

  The project facilitated the participation of SRSG Fall in the 47th ministerial meeting of the UN Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa (UNSAC), organized in N'Djamena, Chad, from 3 to 7 December 2018. The meeting tackled various peace and security issues, including tensions surrounding elections in several sub-region countries and the issue of farmer-herder conflicts. On the margins of the meeting, SRSG Fall signed a memorandum of understanding with the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the UN Regional Centre on Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) on a project concerning the implementation of the Kinshasa Convention on small arms and light weapons in Central Africa. The signing of the MoU is a notable step to help Central African States deliver on commitments made through the Convention. It marks the launch of the $431,638 project entitled ¡°Supporting African States Towards the Vision of ¡®Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020¡¯: Capacity-building in Central Africa¡±.

• Support to the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM):

  The project provided support to UNSOM SRSG Haysom¡¯s activities and engagement with regional partners and Troop Contributing Countries to discuss political progress and security transition in Somalia, including the implementation of Somalia¡¯s Transition Plan and AMISOM¡¯s reconfiguration therein. The Rapid Response funding facilitated the participation of the SRSG in the UN-IGAD High-Level Dialogue held in Addis Ababa on 5-8 November 2018. This forum provided the opportunity to review the fundamental shifts in the Horn of Africa region, explore mechanisms for enhancing coordination and complementarity between the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the UN, and evaluate preventive and early warning options for the region in the framework.

• Support to Cameroon in preparation for the 2019 electoral cycle:

  The project allowed for the deployment of a Senior Electoral Adviser to provide support to Cameroon's Election Commission (ELECAM) and to bring strategic support to UNDP. The Advisor made strategic recommendations to restore ELECAM¡¯s credibility in elections and coordination of assistance to the electoral process. He also provided support to the drafting of a strategic plan for the preparation of the legislative elections in 2019; the elaboration of an awareness campaign for voter registration and information and the setting up of a call centre.

• Electoral support as per Member States¡¯ requests:

  The Electoral Assistance Division (EAD) conducted over 90 electoral missions in response to requests from Member States, through the deployment of key technical electoral missions to Haiti, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Paraguay, Ghana, Malaysia and Niger. The project enabled EAD to continue to promote women¡¯s political participation through electoral assistance and supported EAD in enhancing partnerships with, and capacity development support to, several regional organizations in the Global South. In this regard, the Division in partnership with the SADC Secretariat, ECOWAS Commission and CARICOM Secretariat organized five training events and roundtable discussions on gender and elections, election observation and prevention of violence around elections for Member States in these regions.? Approximately 110 participants from around 40 Member States and regional organizations in the above regions benefitted from these trainings.

Impact

The project has allowed a response to the increased demands for its services with the flexibility that preventive diplomacy and crisis response endeavours require. This is particularly important in the context of the reform of the peace and security pillar, in which the whole-of-pillar approach has widened the breadth and scope of DPPA¡¯s activities and strategic partnerships to include conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding.