Chair, Norway welcomes this opportunity to discuss the status of UN's Special Political Missions. Preventing and resolving armed conflict and sustaining peace should be the United Nations' top priority.
The Special Political Missions are the most operational end of the UN's political efforts in the field, and they need our full support. The Special Political Missions in Syria, Colombia and Afghanistan are among the clearest examples of how indispensable these missions are.
The need for such missions has been increasing over the last decade because they are effective in the field at a low cost. If we fail to support them properly, the alternative will often be large scale peace operations and large scale humanitarian responses. Regrettably, the membership has not yet managed to agree on a solid framework for adequately funding and backstopping these missions, even though we are convinced that such a solution would only save, not increase UN spending.
Chair, We welcome the recent proposal of the Secretary General on the restructuring of the United Nations peace and security pillar and share the objective of a “whole of pillar” approach to the UN’s entire range of peace and security engagements. In order to take a more holistic approach, we need to look at the Special Political Missions as part of a spectrum of peace operations.
Norway is encouraged by the Secretary-General’s commitment to reform, not only in the area of peace and security, but also with regard to management and development.
We look forward to listen to other Member States and their views on how we can enhance the effectiveness and coherence of Special Political Missions and to working with fellow member states from all regions in support of continued reforms.
Thank you.