Peacekeeping budget

For the last six decades, Pakistan has been among the world’s top contributors to UN peacekeeping missions. On account of that status, it is important for other UN members to sit up and take notice of what the country’s ambassador to the UN, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, has said about the impact of recent funding cuts to peacekeeping operations during a debate at the Security Council on Tuesday. This summer the UN General Assembly slashed $600 million from the annual peacekeeping budget of $8 billion. The move — described by Pakistan’s top diplomat at the UN — as defeating the mission’s objective of saving human lives, restoring order and maintaining international peace and security. Notwithstanding their inefficiency and their limited mandate to change the ground situation, the UN blue helmets have at least been fairly successful in their basic task.

It is true, as observed by Dr Lodhi, that ground realities and not political expediency ought to guide the Security Council’s decisions on peacekeeping. If we accept the argument that peacekeeping can make a huge difference in containing a conflict and keeping armed rivals apart, especially if adequate resources and equipment is provided, then the funding cuts do not make much sense at all. But the US government, the largest single donor to the UN, appears to be in no mood to drop its budget cuts. If anything it would be happy to slash it further. Pakistan has denounced the decision to endorse narrow cost considerations at the expense of actual requirements for peacekeeping. The resource cuts could prevent peacekeepers from carrying out their mandated task. Pakistan and other countries that form the bulk of the UN peacekeeping forces would ideally like to see a full implementation of mandates, flexibility to adapt to changes on the ground and a clear exit strategy. The effectiveness of the blue helmets depends on critical dialogue and effective partnership between troop contributors and the Security Council on deployment and operational aspects of peacekeeping missions. Should the funding cuts remain, a strategy will have to be evolved for better management of resources. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2017.

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