Strengthening Regional Operational Analysis for UN peace operations across the Horn of Africa, Sudan and South Sudan
Synopsis
Objectives
The project aims to improve shared situational awareness of regional dynamics in the Horn of Africa as relevant for UN’s peacemaking and peacekeeping efforts in Sudan and South Sudan by complementing the regional analysis produced at Headquarters with a field perspective and helping the Headquarters’ efforts to ensure coherent and complementary UN activities and messaging in response to evolving peace and security challenges.
Components
- Maintain a dedicated capacity for joint regional analysis in OSESSS to analyse trends and identify good practices.
- Expand UN capacities for regional analysis and enhancing shared operational analysis as they affect missions in the region.
- Assess the impact of intra-state conflict and the agendas of non-state actors on peacekeeping operations in Sudan and South Sudan.
- Regularly engage with and facilitate networks of experts involving DPA, DPKO, DPA Horn of Africa Liaison Team, UNMISS, UNISFA, UNAMID and other United Nations stakeholders involved in operational and political activities, to develop shared assessments of regional trends on peace and security and strengthen networks, operational connections and collective knowledge
- Hold an information-sharing and analytical workshop to deepen regional analysis and enhance shared operational analysis
Main achievements
The Senior Consultant, recruited to support the Office of the Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan (OSESSS) to maintain a dedicated capacity for joint regional analysis in OSESSS, served as a key resource for the peacekeeping operations deployed in Sudan and South Sudan, especially UNMISS, but also OSESSS, as well as DPA and DPKO in HQ. He provided updates on key political developments in the region, and notably the South Sudan peace process. The work and the resulting exchanges among experts in DPA, DPKO, UNMISS, UNISFA, and UNAMID have resulted in the development of shared assessments and a common knowledge base at critical junctures.
The consultant completed four quarterly analytical reports on the regional geopolitical dynamics across the Horn of Africa as related to and relevant to UN peacemaking and peacekeeping work in Sudan and South Sudan. The first paper analysed the internal developments in Ethiopia through the prism of the expected impact on the situation in Sudan and South Sudan. The second quarterly report addressed the question of the struggle for the control of the Nile. Subsequently, the consultant prepared an analysis of the regional dynamics behind the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). Lastly, the consultant analysed key trends and political dynamics in South Sudan affecting the implementation of the R-ARCSS.
The Senior Consultant also led efforts of OSESSS to convene an information-sharing and analytical workshop of UN Missions and Offices in Sudan, South Sudan, and the wider region, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya on 31 May 2018. The objective of the meeting was to collectively get a better understanding of the political and security challenges that UN missions and offices face as they strive to implement their different mandates to build UN coherence through enhanced coordination. The meeting provided a fertile ground for discussions on the regional dynamics, thereby sharpening the participating peacekeeping missions’ operational analysis.
Impact
The project has developed regional analysis which goes beyond the capacity of any of the three peacekeeping missions to generate, while supplementing DPA’s core and ongoing regional analytical work with a field perspective.