Report on integrated missions: Practical perspectives and recommendations
This study, commissioned by the UN Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA) in October 2004, examines the performance of "integrated missions", an instrument with which the UN seeks to help countries in the transition from war to lasting peace, or to address a similarly complex situation that requires a system-wide UN response, through subsuming actors and approaches within an overall political-strategic crisis management framework.
Chapter 1: Defining Integrated Missions explores the concept of integrated missions by placing it into its historical context, presenting the reasons for which the concept is promoted as well as the debate surrounding it, and concludes by presenting the Study Team’s working definition of an integrated mission.
Chapter 2: Integrated Missions – Theory into Practice discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of the ways in which integrated missions are designed and implemented, with a particular focus on the issues of strategic and operational planning, mission design, leadership, and relates these structural considerations to the crucial issues of humanitarian space, human rights and development. These perspectives reflect the results of the Study Team’s research at UN headquarters in New York, Geneva and Rome and its visits to six field operations, namely, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Sudan.
In Chapter 3: Recommendations the Study Team presents its specific proposals, organised along the four broad issue areas discussed in the preceding chapter. These recommendations reflect what the Study Team feels are essential for achieving the objectives of integrated missions in peacebuilding situations.
