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UN urges peacekeeping member states to pay contributions in full
The UN peacekeeping chief has said it is critical for member-states to pay their assessed contributions in full and in due time.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, said this during a virtual news briefing.
“We are going through pressures on the peacekeeping budget.
“A certain degree of pressure is a healthy thing for peacekeeping because that, of course, incentivizes us to spend cautiously and imprudently,” he said.
Lacroix said it was `critical’ for UN peacekeeping that member-states would pay in full and in due time, their contributions to both UN peacekeeping budget and regular budget.
Otherwise, it will hurt the interests of troops and police of contributing countries, he said.
“When peacekeeping incurs delays in the payment of contribution, those who are affected primarily are troop and police-contributing countries because the UN has to delay reimbursement and we think it is unfair.
“They should be reimbursed in due time, and that requires a full payment of assessed contributions and payment in due time,” the UN peacekeeping chief said.
On major challenges facing UN peacekeeping, Lacroix said that the biggest challenge was division in the international community.
He noted that the ultimate objective of peacekeeping was to support political efforts.
“We cannot be alone in doing this.”
“We need more unity of purpose, and we need a stronger political support from stakeholders,” he said.
The second biggest challenge, according to Lacroix, is the increasingly dangerous and challenging environment in which peacekeeping is deployed.
He said that the COVID-19 pandemic had become “an additional challenge,” noting, however, that missions had been able to continue and must continue.
“We are making a lot of efforts both to protect our people and ensure the level of contamination within our missions remains relatively low.
“We are continuing our efforts to support national and local efforts to help communities contain the spread of the virus,” he said.
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