Peacekeeping Operations

Description

The Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) account supports programs that bolster the capacity of partner nations to conduct peacekeeping and counterterrorism operations, support stabilization in countries facing violent conflict, enhance maritime security, and undertake security sector reform.

What does it buy?

The account supports several regional peacekeeping operations and bilateral security initiatives, including the security provisions of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. The PKO account also finances U.S. assessments for the U.N. Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS), which provides critical equipment and logistical support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Why is it important?

• In countries with conflict, PKO helps stabilize areas by disarming combatants, supporting good governance and the rule of law, protecting civilians, and facilitating humanitarian action.
• PKO is essential to improving international security and sustaining and consolidating peace settlements.
• PKO assists the U.S. government’s Global Peace Operations Initiative, which has facilitated the deployment of more than 197,000 personnel from 38 countries to 29 peace operations around the world.
• The Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) actively expands the role of women and enhances gender integration.
  • It encourages women’s participation, integration, and leadership in peace operations; trains female peacekeepers; and integrates gender-related topics, including preventing gender-based violence and sexual exploitation and abuse into training for all peacekeepers.
  • From 2010 to 2019, GPOI partners increased the number of deployed female military peacekeepers by 103%, as compared to a 1% increase among non-GPOI countries.

Why should Americans care?

• Assessed U.S. contributions to UNSOS and voluntary contributions to AMISOM directly advances U.S. counterterrorism priorities in the Horn of Africa.
• AMISOM works to stabilize Somalia and help Somali security forces push back against al-Shabaab, which continues to carry out deadly attacks targeting civilians and security forces in Somalia and countries in the wider Horn of Africa region, particularly Kenya, a U.S. ally.

What more could be done?

• An additional investment would allow the U.S. to pay its assessments for the U.N. Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) in full for FY 2021, as well as fund a full range of other critical activities included in the Peacekeeping Operations account.
• Paying UNSOS dues at the assessed rate, and repaying arrears, will better facilitate UNSOS’s ability to provide support to AMISOM. UNSOS, which is funded as part of the UN’s annual peacekeeping budget, provides AMISOM with rations, fuel, water, and armored personnel carriers, helicopters, and planes. These vehicles are needed to carry out medical evacuation, communication and information technology equipment and services, accommodation, infrastructure, and other types of support. This is critical to allowing AMISOM—whose troops are drawn entirely from U.S. allies in the region, including Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya—to fulfill its mandated tasks.