United Nations: Ahead of the crucial UN peacekeeping event in South Korea, Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support Atul Khare has expressed hope that India will take the lead in addressing “our environmental concerns” by pledging to deploy units with renewable energy and announce concrete contributions in areas such as aviation assets and formed police units.
The UN Peacekeeping Ministerial will be hosted by South Korea on December 7-8, bringing together foreign and defence ministers and heads of international organisations.
It “will be the most significant in-person event for UN peacekeeping and we have great expectations that it will result in concrete pledges from Member States to meet critical requirements for UN peacekeeping,” Khare told PTI.
“I have high hopes for countries like India which is not only a major troop contributor but also a champion for UN peacekeepers to come to Seoul to announce concrete contributions whether it be much needed aviation assets such as armed or attack helicopters or units in high demand such as formed police units,” he said.
Khare said he hopes to see Member States make concrete pledges related to technology and medical capacity, two key themes of the Ministerial, which will have a significant positive impact in improving the safety and security of UN peacekeepers.
“I would also hope to see India take the lead in addressing our environmental concerns by pledging to deploy units with renewable energy and pledging to fully meet UN’s gender targets for uniformed personnel,” he said.
Khare further said he hopes Troop/Police Contributing Countries, financial contributors, UN Secretariat and other UN peacekeeping stakeholders will use the Ministerial as an opportunity to hold constructive discussions at the highest level related to peacekeeping policy, training performance, women, peace and security, and partnerships.
As of September, India is contributing 5,481 troops to UN missions across the world.
The UN Security Council, under India’s Presidency in August, had unanimously adopted two significant outcome documents on the issue of peacekeeping.
The Resolution on ‘Accountability of Crimes against UN Peacekeepers’ as well as Presidential Statement on ‘Technology for Peacekeeping’, the first such UN Security Council document on this topic, was adopted.
UN Peacekeeping said that the Ministerial will “focus on achieving concrete and tangible outcomes to improve peacekeeping operations, in line with ongoing peacekeeping reform efforts, specifically Action for Peacekeeping+ (A4P+).
The Ministerial will “highlight medical capacity building and technology in peacekeeping as important cross-cutting issues.”
It will draw on the Strategy for the Digital Transformation of UN Peacekeeping and specifically articulated UN requirements for medical support, as well as discuss opportunities to improve the environmental footprint of peacekeeping, UN Peacekeeping said.
Khare noted that the UN received two batches of the COVISHIELD-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
One lot of 100,000 doses was purchased and a second lot of 200,000 doses was donated by the Indian government.
“All 300,000 doses of vaccine were distributed to 67 locations in 66 countries for local administration,” he said.
“We also remain grateful to the Indian Army for strengthening their level 2 hospital in Juba and level three hospital in Goma to bolster capacity for treatment of covid at the beginning of the outbreak. We also thank them for the recent generous contribution to strengthen operational planning in missions through the mapping of medical facilities,” he said.
Highlighting how his department supported UN peacekeeping missions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Khare said the Department of Operational Support took a leading role in the COVID-19 response, developing over 50 medical and public health guidelines in order to ensure the health and safety of its staff and facilitate continuity of operations.
Khare said that following the World Health Organisation’s emergency authorisation for the COVID-19 vaccines, “we worked closely with Member States to agree on a common vaccination plan for uniformed personnel, aiming to offer access to the vaccine as quickly as possible and based on informed consent.”
The department also continues to manage the MEDEVAC Mechanism – originated to ensure timely access to life-saving medical support and allow staff to stay and deliver in the most difficult duty stations in the world.
“We have now carried out 152 MEDEVACs from peacekeeping settings, which is 45 per cent of the 337 total carried out system-wide. We have also developed a COVID-19 case reporting and surveillance system that provides live data to various medical teams on all UN system personnel and dependents worldwide,” he said.
The department also launched a new pilot Telemedicine Project with the aim of improving overall access to healthcare in United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic, United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali, United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
PTI