Where are the civilians when we need them?

Our friends at the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (thank you David Harland!) have taken a hard look at a long list of limits to international civilian capacity in an e-discussion conducted by the International Stabilization and Peacebuilding Initiative over the past month (Summary of Responses – e-Discussion – UN Review of Intl Civ Cap):

  • difficulties recruiting civilians,
  • competition with the private sector,
  • slow recruitment times, links among training,
  • rostering and recruitment,
  • vague work descriptions,
  • generalized competencies,
  • diversity of organizational cultures, values and visions,
  • lagging national (host country) capacity development,
  • differences between international and national strategies,
  • getting the right people for the right jobs,
  • expertise gaps, relevance of training
  • and gender balance.

They’ve also looked, less successfully, at planning processes for development of civilian capacities and at bottlenecks that impede deployment:  bureaucratic obstacles, insecurity in conflict zones, lengthy recruitment times and civilian logistics limitations.

Perhaps the most innovative part is on interoperability from the UN perspective, where it is clear that despite the obstacles there is sometimes real benefit to the UN drawing on others’ capacities.  The natural outcome of this discussion is a series of recommendations for more coordination and coordination bodies, a subject that I confess leaves me cold.  I think what all of us need are agreed strategic endstates and frameworks rather than undirected coordination meetings.

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

No free country without free women

Al Sharaa won't be able to decide, but his decisions will influence the outcome. Let's…

16 hours ago

Iran’s predicament incentivizes nukes

Transparently assembling all the material and technology needed for nuclear weapons might serve Iran well…

17 hours ago

Getting to Syria’s next regime

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria was swift. Now comes the hard part:…

4 days ago

Grenell’s special missions

Good luck and timing are important factors in diplomacy. It's possible Grenell will not fail…

1 week ago

What the US should do in Syria

There are big opportunities in Syria to make a better life for Syrians. Not to…

1 week ago

More remains to be done, but credit is due

HTS-led forces have done a remarkable job in a short time. The risks of fragmentation…

2 weeks ago