UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's UN envoy on Monday called for more efforts to enhance capacity building in peacekeeping so as to improve its effectiveness.
At a Security Council debate on peacekeeping operations (PKOs), China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun said the international community should lend greater support to the troop contributing countries (TCCs) that are developing country in their peacekeeping capacity building, and that the TCCs should ensure that peacekeepers are adequately trained, equipped and resourced.
He went on to say that the UN Secretariat should attach great importance to the safety and security of peacekeepers, strengthen early warning and provide efficient and high quality support and guarantee for the performance of peacekeeping forces.
"Improving the effectiveness of PKOs requires integrated measures," he said "the Secretariat, the military, police and civilian components of the PKOs are all responsible for improving peacekeeping performance."
He added "we should regularly take stock of and improve the performance evaluation system and invite TCCs to fully participate in the relevant work."
Before Zhang spoke, Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told the Security Council that UN peacekeeping efforts aim to strengthen its missions' capacity to ensure a more mobile and robust operational approach.
The UN peacekeeping chief said the volatile political and security environment, where the missions are deployed, requires well-equipped and capable military, police and civilian components, with the right mindset and posture to undertake flexible and rapid deployments.
For this reason, he said the missions are changing their approach to peacekeeping. "Our efforts are focused on adapting mission footprints and strengthening capacity to ensure a more mobile, robust, aware and integrated operational approach."
Meanwhile, the undersecretary-general noted achievement made in peacekeeping fatalities reduction, saying the number of fatalities as a result of violent attacks stood at 27 in 2018, down from 58 in 2017.
He attributed this in particular to the enhanced effectiveness in countering the threat of improvised explosive devices in Mali, which has the most challenging environment for the security of peacekeepers.
