PeaceLab Podcast Part 1: Transitions from Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding: Lessons Learned & the Importance of International Coordination

"The podcast discusses the challenges and opportunities of planning for a transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding in general and more specifically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."

This episode looks at what transitions... view more

Topics: Fragility, Conflict and Violence, Fragility
Regions:
Africa, East Africa, MENA, West Africa, East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia
Keywords:
Fragility Forum, Fragility Forum 2020, Fragility Forum 2020 Virtual Series, FF2020, conflict-affected situations, FCV, Fragile Situations, Peacebuilding, Transitions, Stabilization, The DRC Sub-Saharan Africa, Fragile State, EU, UN, MINUSCO, multilateralism
Language:
English
Learning Mode:
Podcast
Date Added: August 14, 2020

About the Presenters

Rüdiger König

Director General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilisation, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Assistance, Federal Foreign Office Berlin

Rüdiger König is the Director-General for Crisis Prevention, Stabilisation, Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Assistance at the German Foreign Office in Berlin. Mr. Koenig is leading this department since its creation within the Foreign Office in March 2015. The creation of this Directorate-General is one of the results of a broad public consultation and review process to strengthen the instruments of the German Government in fragile contexts. Prior to this post, Mr. König was the Crisis Management Commissioner at the Foreign Office. Since his entry into the Foreign Service in 1986, his postings included the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in New York, the Directorate-General for the United Nations at the Foreign Office in Berlin, and Head of former Federal President Rau’s Office. Especially during his time at the Permanent Mission of Germany at NATO and as Head of the Special Task Force on Afghanistan and Pakistan he focused on international security policy and supported the peacebuilding process in Afghanistan, where he served as German Ambassador from 2010 to 2013.

Roselyn Akombe

Deputy Director, Policy and Mediation Division, United Nations

Roselyn Akombe (@DrRoselynAkombe) is a Deputy Director at the Policy and Mediation Division. Prior to joining PMD (2018), she served as a Commissioner with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya. Between 2006 and 2016, Ms. Akombe worked at the Office of the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs in various capacities including on Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East and management issues. She also served as a Senior Electoral Affairs Officer in Burundi in 2015. Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Akombe worked as an Economist with the African Union (2003-2006), WomenRising Inc. (2001-2003) and the Collaborative Center for Gender and Development (Nairobi: 1999-2000). Ms. Akombe holds a Doctorate and Master’s degree in Global Affairs (Political Economy specialization) from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Nairobi. She is Kenyan and speaks Swahili, Ekegusii and English.

Hilde Hardeman

Director/Head of Service, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, European Commission

Dr. Hilde Hardeman (@HardemanHildeML), Head of the European Commission's Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) since 2017, has spent over 25 years working for the European Commission, covering external relations and economic and competitiveness issues. From 2014 to 2017, she served as Deputy Head of Cabinet to the Commission’s Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness. Previously, she headed the Units for Relations with Russia and with Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, and was in charge of briefing the Commission President for meetings with EU Heads of State or Government. Dr. Hardeman Hilde holds a PhD in Slavic Philology and History of the University of Leuven after studies at Leuven, Stanford University, and Paris, and was visiting professor at the College of Europe. She taught and published on the history of Russia and Eastern Europe and on minority rights. Her current focus is on conflict prevention, crisis management and peace-building, and on leveraging the EU’s influence abroad.

Franck Bousquet

Senior Director, Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Group, World Bank

Franck Bousquet is the Senior Director of the World Bank’s Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) Group (@WBG_Dev4Peace). He assumed this position on July 1, 2017 and led the development of the World Bank Group’s first Strategy for Fragility, Conflict and Violence. As Senior Director, Mr. Bousquet is mobilizing expertise and supporting operational teams across the World Bank to deliver on the ground in close collaboration with humanitarian-development-peace partners. Mr. Bousquet brings several years of leadership experience on resilience and reconstruction issues., including as Director in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where he led the Bank’s engagement with partners to create the Global Concessional Financing Facility to address the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis and bridge the gap in humanitarian and development assistance by providing concessional financing to middle-income countries facing refugee crises. Mr. Bousquet holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a graduate diploma from the National Engineering School of Public Works in Lyon.

Daniel Forti

Senior Policy Analyst, International Peace Institute

Daniel Forti (@FortiD) a Senior Policy Analyst at International Peace Institute's (API) Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations. His current work focuses on issues related to peace operations and partnerships between the United Nations and the African Union. Mr. Forti joined IPI in June 2018. He previously worked for the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), serving as a Researcher in the Office of the Executive Director from 2012-2016. Mr. Forti holds a Masters of International Affairs degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Marie Wagner, Moderator

Research Associate, Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi)

Marie Wagner (@MarieWgn) is a research associate at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, where she contributes to the institute’s work on humanitarian action and peace and security. Ms. Wagner is an editor of the PeaceLab Blog (@PeaceLabBlog). The PeaceLab project is run by GPPi to foster debate on conflict prevention, stabilization and peacebuilding, and is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

Join the Discussion

Mariam

- Oct 15, 2020

From Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding - interesting topic, thank you

BIBASWAN

- Aug 20, 2020

These discussions on peacekeeping transitions are also taking place in achanging geopolitical environment and at a time of global financial crisis. Onone side, some host-country governments have become increasingly cognizantof the limits of large UN peacekeeping forces when it comes to supporting their own objectives, while continuing to expect a lot from peacekeeping missions. On the other side, major financial contributors to UN peacekeeping and the Security Council itself are starting to tighten the purse strings. These two elements are partly responsible for the increasingly ambitious timelines for drawing down large peacekeeping missions and a tendency toward lighter UN footprints for new missions.

BIBASWAN

- Aug 20, 2020

Although the challenges posed by peacekeeping transitions are not new, the topic has recently re-emerged in member states’ discussions, as several UN missions are currently undergoing or planning for transitions. Meanwhile, the UN is seeking to improve the way it plans for and manages these transitions,and it has been developing a common UN policy, in order to ensure that a changing UN presence does not destabilize the host country.

BIBASWAN

- Aug 20, 2020

Peacekeeping transitions are inherent in the temporary nature of peaceoperations and inevitable as the UN presence adapts to broader nationalpolitical and socioeconomic transition processes at play in host countries.Broadly defined as significant changes in a United Nations SecurityCouncil–mandated peacekeeping presence, such transitions include the start-up, reconfiguration, drawdown, or withdrawal of missions, which can beplanned as part of the normal lifetime of a UN mission or induced by a hostgovernment. But the nature and timing of these transitions can, in someinstances, destabilize the situation on the ground and unwittingly jeopardizeefforts by host governments and societies to sustain peacekeeping andpeacebuilding gains.

Joy Mildred Adhiambo

- Aug 19, 2020

Peacelab