Accra,– The 2021 United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping Ministerial is slated for December 7-8 in Seoul, Korea, to bring members together to discuss ways to strengthen peacekeeping efforts and share renewed commitments.

Madam Martha Pobee, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, made this known in a virtual interview with the Ghana News Agency.

She said the Seoul UN Peacekeeping conference, the first to be held in Asia, would be the latest in a series of meetings of heads of state and governments since 2014 on peacekeeping.

The summit/ministerial process is co-chaired by 12 member states and the UN Secretariat.

Past meetings have focused primarily on generating and enhancing uniformed capabilities while also considering broader peacekeeping reform priorities, with an emphasis on concrete deliverables and targets such as increasing the deployment of women peacekeepers.

Madam Pobee said the conference would also focus on achieving concrete and tangible outcomes to improve peacekeeping operations, in line with ongoing reform efforts, specifically the Action for Peacekeeping Plus (A4P ), which reinforces integration of UN peacekeeping operations with partners.

For 70 years UN peacekeeping had been an important tool to help countries transit to peace and

maintain global security, she said.

Complex challenges had evolved with time in peacekeeping, hence the need to take stock and evaluate the impact of those challenges and tailor their responses to strengthen the work on the ground, Madam Pobee said.

“And so, this coming ministerial meeting would be a crucial opportunity to get the political support for peacekeeping operations from the international community.”

Touching on the impact of medical support and technology on peacekeeping, she said the conference would highlight medical capacity building and technology and draw on the strategy for digital transformation to improve the environmental footprint of peacekeeping.

Source: Ghana News Agency