The prestigious Global Peace Operations Review has issued its 2016 annual compilation, featuring a policy brief by CCCPA.

CCCPA’s contribution (pages 292-297), entitled “Key Messages from Civil Society on the UN’s Role in Peace and Security”, is co-authored by CCCPA Director, Counselor Ashraf Swelam, and CCCPA Researcher, Karim Hafez, with Adriana Erthal Abdenur, Fellow at Instituto Igarapé, and Cedric de Coning, Senior Researcher at NUPI and Senior Advisor at ACCORD. The essay was originally prepared as a policy brief for the UNGA’s High-Level Thematic Debate (HLTD) on UN, Peace and Security, to reflect on key messages from a series of regional meetings. 

The brief identifies recurrent recommendations put forward during the regional consultations held to operationalize major topics in the UN global review process. It delivers seven key messages that target a bottom-up approach in dealing with UN contributions to peace and security namely (1) the political primacy of UN interventions, with an emphasis on “preventing” conflicts instead of “reacting” to them; (2) the need for a more representative UNSC and UNGA; (3) the importance of partnerships with regional organizations to reform the global peace and security architecture; (4) a people-centered approach as a pillar of UN work; (5) the importance of women’s inclusivity in peace processes; (6) reform of UN institutions to empower it to escape the silos in which it appears to be trapped; and (7) the sustainable and predictable financing that allows for a more integrated and coherent UN system. 

CCCPA played an important role in the global review processes of 2015. The Cairo Center organized two major preparatory meetings for the HLTD: (i) the High-Level Arab Workshop, from 1-2 March 2016 in Cairo, on the future of the UN Peace and Security Architecture; and (ii) the African Consultation held on 4 March 2016 in Addis Ababa. The second meeting was jointly organized with ACCORD, NUPI and the African Union. CCCPA also held an informal Ministerial Breakfast (as a side-event to Egypt’s presidency of the Security Council) around the same review process. The breakfast coincided with the HLTD session in New York. These events are part of CCCPA’s continuous engagement in global policy debates on the future of the UN’s role in global peace and security. The Center topped these events with two major meetings: the International Workshop on Identifying Gaps, Challenges and Opportunities of Regional Aspects of Peacebuilding, in November 2014; and the MENA Consultations of the High Level Independent Panel of UN Peace Operations held in March 2015.

During the next few months, CCCPA will continue its engagement on the doctrinal and policy level, with a series of events that will focus on issues of conflict prevention, sustaining peace, and achieving a continuum of peace interventions.