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Mediation in action: UN Political Affairs Standby Team of Mediation Advisers
Open any major globally-minded website or newspaper today and chances are you’ll see a story about Syria, Libya, Yemen or Burundi. You’ll also often read about the UN’s engagement in trying to resolve the crises in these and other countries. You will read less frequently about the different forms of UN engagement, and of the people behind the scenes. And this is often by design, for one of the most effective tools in enhancing UN preventive diplomacy and peace-making efforts operates quietly, and away from the spotlight. That tool is the Standby Team of Mediation Advisers (SBT) of the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA), which has just unveiled its new line-up of experts for the coming year.
The Standby Team is a rapid response support mechanism established in 2008 to enhance DPA’s ability to quietly provide expert mediation advice to senior UN envoys and mediators, and partners in regional and sub-regional organizations. Operating in some of the most difficult environments for the United Nations and its partners, the team’s eight members are skilled in the design and facilitation of mediation and dialogue processes, and contribute specialised expertise in the fields of cease-fire and security arrangements, power-sharing, constitution-making, gender and inclusion, and natural resources. Today, mediation experts can be deployed at a moment’s notice wherever they are most needed, for example to help design a process to bring parties to the negotiating table, to help troubleshoot stalled negotiations, or to constructively address disagreements that might arise in the implementation of a peace agreement.
Elizabeth Spehar, Director of the Policy and Mediation Division of DPA, which manages the Standby Team, said the demand for Standby Team support was evidence of its effectiveness. “The 2015-16 Team has been the busiest so far, and we expect the coming year to be equally busy,” she said. “The Team has deployed or provided remote support to its DPA colleagues and the various UN peace operations and representatives all around the world. Work has been undertaken in relations to Syria, Yemen, Mali, Libya, Burundi, Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Georgia, South Sudan, Ukraine, Honduras, Lesotho, Colombia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kyrgyzstan.”
Ms. Spehar said the Team has also worked to build mediation capacities of UN staff, regional organizations and member states.
In fielding the 2016 team, DPA has looked for a diverse group of highly qualified experts with a wide range of technical skills, regional experience, knowledge of the UN and its partners, and language proficiency. “We have sought to select a team bearing in mind the type of requests for support that we have most received as well as the likely needs in the year ahead,” Ms. Spehar said. “I am confident that the eight experts selected will provide an optimal combination of experience and abilities to the many clients engaged in mediation and facilitation processes that seek the support of DPA.”
The Standby Team was established in 2008 with the support of Norway, and has since then been funded exclusively through generous voluntary contributions to the DPA Multi-Year Appeal from several countries and the European Union. Since its inception, it has been effectively deployed to the field in close partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council – a responsibility now being assumed by the United Nations Office for Project Services.
