Peace and security reform

The restructuring of the peace and security pillar is one of the three parts of Secretary-General António Guterres's United to Reform agenda.

In January 2017, the Secretary-General took a number of measures to enhance the performance of the peace and security pillar. These included a directive to co-locate the regional divisions of the Department of Political Affairs and Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the establishment of an internal review team to advise on options for further improvements.

In October 2017, the Secretary-General submitted a proposal (A/72/525) for the restructuring of the peace and security architecture of the Secretariat on the basis of recommendations from the internal review team.

The four main goals of the restructuring are to:

1. prioritize prevention and sustaining peace;
2. enhance the effectiveness and coherence of peacekeeping operations and special political missions, ensuring the primacy of politics and flexibility of approach;
3. make the peace and security pillar more coherent, nimble and effective through a “whole-of-pillar” approach to address fragmentation; and
4. align the peace and security pillar more closely with the development and human rights pillars.

Legislative history

SG report	ACABQ report	Resolution	Notes
A/72/525	N/A	72/199	SG report on vision for restructuring the peace and security pillar
A/72/772	A/72/959	72/262C	SG proposal to establish new DPPA and DPO

72nd session

The General Assembly, in its resolution 72/199 of 20 December 2017, requested the Secretary-General "to submit to the General Assembly, as soon as possible, a comprehensive report on his peace and security reform proposal". The requested report (A/72/772) was submitted in March 2018 and was considered by the General Assembly along with the related report of the ACABQ (A/72/859).

The General Assembly, in section III of its resolution 72/262C of 5 July 2018, endorsed the establishment of the new Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and the Department of Peace Operations. These new departments will replace the existing Department of Political Affairs, Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Peacebuilding Support Office on 1 January 2019.

73rd session

Submission of the report on the Police Division requested in resolution 72/262C, which was requested for the 73rd session, was delayed to the 74th session.

74th session

The report on the assessment of the Police Division was issued as A/74/223. No action was taken on this report by the General Assembly.

75th session

The report on progress in the implementation of the peace and security reform was issued as A/75/202 and introduced in the Fifth Committee on 18 November 2020. However, the General Assembly took no action on this report. As such, there are currently no pending requests for further progress reports on the implementation of peace and security reform.

The Board of Auditors included a dedicated section in its report A/75/5 (Vol.I) (section II.G) on the implementation of peace and security reform in DPPA and DPO, which the General Assembly took note of in its resolution 75/242.

Key documents

• A/72/525 Restructuring of the United Nations peace and security pillar
• A/72/772 Revised estimates related to the peace and security reform (and ACABQ report A/72/959)
  • A/74/223 Assessment of the Police Division (and ACABQ report A/74/702)
• A/75/202 Review of the implementation of the peace and security reform (and ACABQ report A/75/596)

See also

• United Nations reform
• Management reform
• High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations
• Peacebuilding