9 November 2016: The International Peace Institute (IPI) has issued a scorecard on UN efforts to reform peace operations. The publication highlights strategic recommendations to be taken forward by the incoming UN Secretary-General, António Guterres. A surge in “diplomacy for peace” is expected to be a top priority for Guterres, according to an interview with the UN News Center following his appointment as the ninth Secretary-General, in October 2016.

The IPI report, titled ‘The State of UN Peace Operations Reform: An Implementation Scorecard,’ takes stock of peace operations reform using a a visual “scorecard” and accompanying narrative to assess progress to date. The authors, Arthur Boutellis and Lesley Connolly, identify where the UN Secretariat and UN Member States have taken the most concrete action across nine strategic areas: prevention and sustaining peace; the primacy of politics; capabilities and performance; partnerships; leadership and accountability; field support; finances and restructuring; a people-centered approach; and women, peace, and security.

The report finds that significant actions have been taken in some areas, such as committing to prevention and “sustaining peace,” and supporting a push for better capabilities for peacekeeping operations. Less progress is shown on issues such as finances and restructuring. The authors call for effective collaboration and trust among UN Member States with diverging interests and views, and between UN Member States and the UN Secretariat, and for building on emerging consensus to better integrate prevention and sustaining peace into the work of UN peace operations.

Guterres could make bold, game-changing proposals, early in his term, on restructuring the UN peace and security architecture.

In another recommendation, the report calls for incoming UN Secretary-General Guterres to “infuse new momentum” into implementing the recommendations of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations’ (HIPPO). He could do this, the authors argue, by making bold, “game- changing” proposals early in his term, particularly on restructuring the UN peace and security architecture, financing, and improved management of peace operations.

The HIPPO was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in October 2014 to make a comprehensive assessment of the state of UN peace operations and emerging needs of the future. It issued a series of recommendations in 2015.

In Guterres’ interview with the UN News Centre, conducted on 19 October 2016, he noted the “nastiness” of current wars, the terrible suffering of people, and the impact of wars in our collective security. Identifying challenges ahead, he cited the need for: greater effectiveness in relation to diplomacy for peace; effective implementation and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change; assuming human rights as “a common responsibility of mankind and of all UN Member States;” and reforming the UN to make it more effective and more able to deliver.

On refugees, Guterres highlighted a “serious deterioration of refugee protection in the world,” and said he will do everything he can to ensure that refugee protection is assumed as a global responsibility. On migration, he noted high levels of hostility with populist and xenophobic approaches to migration. He stressed the need for countries to: respect international law; assume their full solidarity with those in need of protection; consider migration from a humane point of view, and recognize its part in solving global problems. He called for effective regulation and cooperation among states to prevent deaths due to smuggling and trafficking, while “smugglers and traffickers or criminal gangs are prospering.”

Also in the interview, Guterres commented on gender parity, saying it is “an absolute necessity” that the UN Deputy Secretary-General should be a woman, if the Secretary-General is a man. Guterres will succeed Ban on 1 January 2017, beginning a five-year term. [UN News Centre Interview] [The State of UN Peace Operations: Reform: An Implementation Scorecard]