United Nations University Centre for Policy Research June 2018 What Works in UN Resident Coordinator-led Conflict Prevention: Lessons from the Field Project Lead: Sebastian von Einsiedel Case Study Researchers: Josie Lianna Kaye, Cale Salih, Wendy A. MacClinchy, Francesco Galtieri © 2018 United Nations University. All Rights Reserved. ISBN: 978-92-808-9082-2 Acknowledgements Cover Image UNU-CPR is deeply grateful to the Permanent Mission of UN Photo/ Evan Schneider. Secretary-General Visits Southern the United Kingdom to the United Nations for its support to Sudan. Children taking part in the welcoming of Secretary- this project. Special thanks go to Craig Patchett and Thomas General Kofi Annan in Rumbek, as he arrived in southern Sudan, Wheeler who served as the successive focal points for this making good on a promise to visit once the comprehensive project. peace agreement was concluded. UNU-CPR implemented this project in close consultation with the UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Development Operations Coordination Office (DOCO), and the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and benefited greatly from the advice, support and substantive inputs of key individuals in those entities, in particular Teresa Whitfield, Eiko Ikegaya, Dirk Druet, and Ilona Lecerf at DPA; Katy Thompson, Lorraine Reuter, and Laura Rutishauser at UNDP; Kanni Wignaraja, Bradley Foerster and Alex Warren-Rodriguez at DOCO; as well as Oscar Fernandez Taranco, Marc-André Franche, Gianluca Rampolla, and Marcus Bouillon at PBSO. Numerous individuals provided helpful input for and feedback on the country case studies that form the empirical foundation for this project. They are acknowledged in the respective case study chapters in this volume. We are deeply grateful for their support. Finally, we are especially grateful to Emma Hutchinson and Basilio Valdehuesa for their invaluable editorial support to this project. 2 Contents What Works in UN Resident Coordinator-led Conflict Prevention: Lessons from the Field 5 by Sebastian von Einsiedel Case Studies Bolivia 2000-09 20 by Cale Salih Colombia 2012-16 40 by Cale Salih Guinea 2009-17 59 by Josie Lianna Kaye Guyana 2003-15 74 by Wendy MacClinchy Kenya 2008-17 90 by Wendy MacClinchy Kyrgyzstan 2010-17 106 by Josie Lianna Kaye Malawi 2011-17 122 by Francesco Galtieri Nepal 2007-15 132 by Sebastian von Einsiedel Tunisia 2011-17 146 by Josie Lianna Kaye 3 About the Authors Sebastian von Einsiedel has been the Director of UN years, Josie works on policy, programmes and research related University’s Centre for Policy Research since its inception to preventing violent extremism (PVE), sustaining peace and in 2014. Prior to joining UNU, Sebastian has worked in and conflict sensitive development for a wide range of UN entities, around the United Nations for close to fifteen years, including at headquarters and in the field. Josie is a DPhil candidate in with the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the International Relations at the University of Oxford, focused on UN Department of Political Affairs, the UN Mission to Nepal the political economy of peacemaking; her research analyses and the International Peace Institute. He has written widely the role that businesses and armed groups play in war to peace on the UN’s role in peace and security and is the co-editor of transitions and the implications for UN mediation efforts, with two books, The UN Security Council in the 21st Century (Lynne a particular focus on the Horn of Africa and Yemen. Formerly, Rienner, 2016) and Nepal in Transition (Cambridge University she worked for five years as the Assistant Director of Columbia Press, 2012). University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR), and a Staff Associate of Research at the School of International Francesco Galtieri is an independent expert on international and Public Affairs (SIPA), also at Columbia University. affairs with over 15 years of experience with the United Nations. He holds a Ph.D. in African Studies from the University Wendy A. MacClinchy is a Senior Consultant in fragility, conflict, of Naples – where he focused on fragile states’ post- and sustainable development based in Tokyo, Japan. Wendy conflict transition in Western Africa. In 2016-2017, he was was a lead author of the OECD 2016 States of Fragility Report Teaching Fellow at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School – Understanding Violence and the Lebanon Crisis Response of Government (HKS), after having held a number of UN Plan. She served as the Head of the Resident Coordinator’s positions, including Chief of the Peace Programming Section Office in Lebanon, coordinating the UN’s response to the (2012-2016) at UN Volunteers (UNV); Senior Portfolio Manager impacts of the Syria conflict and refugee crisis there. She at UNV (2010-2012) for Burundi, Chad, Sudan and South Sudan served as a Senior Advisor to the Governments of Iraq and and policy advisor on fragile states’ capacity development; Afghanistan, as well as several UN Under-Secretary Generals UN Coordination Advisor (2008-2010) for Sub-Saharan Africa and has led UN humanitarian, development and stabilization at UNDOCO; UN Coordination Policy Specialist (2006- programs in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. 2008) for Europe and the CIS at UNDGO; Head of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (2005-2006), UN Burkina Faso; Cale Salih is a Research Officer with the UNU Centre for Policy UNV Programme Officer for local development and citizens’ Research focusing on the changing nature of conflict. Prior to participation (2002-2005), UNDP Burkina Faso; Attaché to the joining UNU, she was a Project Manager at the Institute for Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister, Italian Ministry of Defense. Integrated Transitions in Barcelona, where her work focused With a wide academic experience, Francesco is a Lecturer on post-conflict and post-authoritarian transitions in fragile in Multilateral Negotiations at LUISS School of Government and conflict-affected states. She has also held a number of in Rome and authored several publications on international research positions focused on the Middle East, including affairs. with the International Crisis Group, the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Integrity. In addition, she has worked Josie Lianna Kaye is a researcher-practitioner working on for media outlets including Al-Monitor and The Atlantic, and mediation, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, with a has published op-eds in, among others, The New York Times, particular focus on the political economy of countries in conflict. Foreign Affairs, and The Guardian. She holds a Masters of She is Director and Founder of TrustWorks Global, a London- Studies in International Human Rights Law from Oxford based company focused on preventing and resolving natural University and an undergraduate degree (A.B.) from Princeton resource-related conflicts in complex contexts. At the United University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Nations, where she has served as a consultant for over ten Affairs. 4 United Nations University Centre for Policy Research What Works in UN Resident Coordinator-led Conflict Prevention: Lessons from the Field Sebastian von Einsiedel 5 What Works in UN Resident Coordinator-led Conflict Prevention: Lessons from the Field INTRODUCTION The nine case studies on which this project is based, and which are annexed to this policy paper, include: Bolivia 2000- 09; Colombia 2012-16; Guinea 2009-15; Guyana 2003-15; UN Secretary-General António Guterres has placed conflict Kenya 2008-17; Kyrgyzstan 2010-17; Malawi, 2011-17; Nepal prevention at the top of his agenda. For this agenda to deliver, 2007-15; and Tunisia 2011-17. one of the key challenges is to make Resident Coordinators (RCs) in conflict-prone countries without a peace operation Each case study is based on: an extensive desk review of more effective prevention actors. open source material and internal UN documents; and semi-structured (mostly desk-based) interviews with key While so-called “non-mission settings” are widely recognised UN personnel in the field and at UN headquarters, national as the frontline of preventive action (peace operations tend actors, country experts and other relevant interlocutors. In to get deployed once efforts to avert outbreak of violent total, 171 individuals have been interviewed for this project, conflict have failed), they also tend to be contexts where including 17 RCs. the UN faces some of its most acute challenges in making prevention work. This is because RCs, who head the UN’s In pursuing its research, UNU-CPR benefited from the presence in such places, face significant political, mandate, support and cooperation of relevant RC Offices, UNCTs and and resource constraints. UN headquarters departments. Research constraints on the research resulted from the fact that some of the case studies Against this background, the UNU Centre for Policy Research stretch back a decade or more, with relevant documentation (UNU-CPR), with the generous support of the UK Mission often hard to trace or no longer available, and some relevant to the United Nations, has undertaken a research project to UN personnel difficult to locate. Only one field trip was extract lessons from case studies of RC-supported preventive undertaken for this study (Tunisia). Because of the largely action in nine countries. The project has two central aims: first, desk-based nature of the exercise, we could interview only a to produce analytical narratives detailing how RCs and UN limited number of national stakeholders whose perspectives Country Teams (UNCTs) have engaged preventively across would surely have enriched this study. various settings; and second, to identify good practices of what has worked in RC-supported prevention in the past, and The primary questions guiding the case study researchers were: why, and how those lessons might be relevant to RCs in other where, how and why did RCs manage to play a meaningful settings.