Three Ways to Improve Multilateral Peacekeeping in Africa (and Beyond)

While United Nations peacekeepers mostly have been an effective multilateral instrument for fostering war-to-peace transitions, peace operations continue to suffer from many problems. This is especially so in Africa, where the majority of missions are deployed. These shortcomings severely restrict missions from fully realizing their peacebuilding potential.
“UN peacekeeping missions are better able to protect civilians when well-trained and well-equipped troops participate in blue-helmet missions,” write NADINE ANSORG and FELIX HAASS in a paper for the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). “But it is particularly those countries with highly qualified troops, such as European or North American countries, which are reluctant to participate.”
African peacekeepers are increasingly filling the rising demand for peacekeeping contributions, but they often lack the training and the capacity to help missions fully achieve their goals effectively, the authors state in their paper ‘Three Ways to Improve Multilateral Peacekeeping in Africa (and Beyond)’, published as part of the GIGA Focus series.
“Peacekeepers themselves often perpetrate crimes – for instance, sexual abuse. High-profile cases have been reported from UN missions in Liberia or the Central African Republic. These crimes undermine peacekeepers’ legitimacy and obstruct their peacebuilding potential,” ANSORG and HAASS stress.
The authors suggest three ways to address the challenges linked to troop quality and training, regional peacekeeping, and peacekeeping misconduct. First, European countries, including Germany, should continue to participate in UN peace operations.
Second, Germany and its allies should keep strengthening Africa’s peacekeeping infrastructure, including the African Union and other regional security initiatives.
Third, to credibly push for a rules-based international order, Germany should use its position on the United Nations Security Council to press for reforms to the council and to improve the legal accountability of peacekeepers.
“These measures to strengthen troop quality, regional peacekeeping, and accountability against peacekeeper misconduct are neither a panacea nor the only measures available to improve peacekeeping effectiveness,” the authors stress. For instance, member states must also strengthen the UN in general, first and foremost by paying their budget contributions – a constant issue plaguing the institution and greatly inhibiting its proper functioning, ANSORG and HAASS state.
“But by specifically improving troop quality, regional security architectures, and accountability measures, the international community can help peace operations achieve their full potential as an effective multilateral instrument with which to contain violence and promote peace.”