Pact for the Future in focus at the Partners’ Meeting
The role of the UN is a recurrent question permeating the discussions on future peace operations. What are the organisations’ comparative advantages, what tools and models for peace operations will be needed and how to revive the multilateralism needed for the tools to work?
When the Challenges Forum held its annual Partners’ meeting the 5th of March, the discussions were very focused on the future of peace operations, its place in the upcoming Pact for the Future and our opportunity as a partnership to influence the process. (Read the highlights from our conversation on X.)
In addition to the partners’ discussions, the meeting offered some interesting perspectives represented by: Tarek Mahfouz at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt; Richard Gowan, UN Director at International Crisis Group; Flaminia Minelli, Chief of Policy and Best Practices at the UN Department of Peace Operations; and Thomas Zahneisen, Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany to the UN in New York, who talked about the Pact of the Future as representative for one of the two penholders.
New strategy
Another important item on the agenda was the partnership’s future priorities, with the adoption of a new Challenges Forum Strategy 2024-2028. The secretariat’s yearly priorities were presented in the Operational plan, which includes activities such as dialogue platforms for mission leadership, the new mission leadership digital tool, research policy briefs launch, the Challenges Annual Forum 2024 and other events.
The well-attended virtual meeting managed to gather partners from all over the world, including those participating in early morning hours, like in the USA and Canada, as well as those attending late at night, in Japan and Australia.
About the Challenges Forum Partners’ meeting
The annual Partners’ Meeting represents the Steering Committee of the Challenges Forum, determining the priorities and main initiatives of the partnership. In accordance with the Challenges Forum framework, the meeting was chaired by the Director-General of the Folke Bernadotte Academy, Per Olsson Fridh.