"The question we must address now is not why; it is how", the Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Støre said to a conference audience of both UN officials, people from the World Bank, the civil society and other relevant actors who deals with peace operations. The participants are gathered in Oslo to discuss the findings in a new Norwegian project on how peace operations can be more integrated.
"To succeed the UN need to link up with other stakeholders", the Foreign Minister said.
Declining security
In 2005 the first Human Security Report documented there has been a dramatic decline in the number of armed conflicts over the past decade. There is a steady move towards increased prosperity and democratic rule in a growing number of countries. A majority of the world’s population live safer lives.
For about a sixth of the world’s population living in some 50 countries, the situation is the total opposite. The trend is towards greater instability, declining security and dwindling prospects for the future. They are the victims of crumbling state institutions, asymmetric warfare, terrorism and violence.
"We need to envisage a way forward. Such a way include strengthening our capacity to meet the immediate humanitarian needs, securing a political process that can identity legitimate political leaders, address our collective ability to urgent security issues, and to help secure functioning government institutions", Store asserted.
Crucial support
Time is decisive. Engagement must be long -term, well planned, properly coordinated and must have sufficient and reliable resources.
"The fact is that the challenges facing peace operations today can only be met with a coherent, multidimensional approach, clear guidelines and institutional flexibility", said the Foreign Minister.
Nevertheless, according to the minister, a new and stable government will fail without active involvement of local participation.
"The role of international actors is to support national efforts and actors, not substitute them."
This is the last of a total of seven conferences on integrated peace operations. Seminars have been held in Beijing, jointly with China, in Johannesburg, jointly with South Africa, and in Addis Ababa, Geneva, New York and Brussels.