U.S. Peacekeeping Capacity Building Assistance 

The Department of State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs manages the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), the premier U.S. security assistance program focused on building international peacekeeping capacity.  GPOI is implemented in close partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense.

Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI)

The vision for GPOI is to promote international peace and security by reinforcing the global commitment to achieve and sustain effectiveness in UN and regional peace operations.  In support of this vision, the GPOI mission is to strengthen the effectiveness of UN and regional peace operations by enhancing partner countries’ capacities to prepare, deploy, and sustain peacekeepers and reinforcing UN and regional organizations’ performance and accountability frameworks.

GPOI was launched in 2005 as the U.S. contribution to the G8 Action Plan for Expanding Global Capability for Peace Support Operations, adopted at the 2004 G8 Sea Island Summit. With a total budget of more than $1.4 billion from Fiscal Years (FY) 2005-2022, GPOI funding is applied to accomplish the following objectives:

• Support Partner Countries’ Development of Critical Mission Capabilities:  Help address shortfalls in peace operations by expanding the availability and operational effectiveness of partner countries’ unit capabilities to fill mission requirements.  GPOI is currently working with 48 partner countries to help them develop 120 peacekeeping capabilities.
• Enhance Partner Countries’ Peace Operations Planning, Training, and Readiness Competencies: Assist partner countries to enhance their capabilities to effectively plan, train, and prepare operationally ready units for peace operations and incorporate best practices to help attain or sustain partner self-sufficiency.  So far 63 percent of countries have achieved self-sufficiency in core peace operations training while active GPOI partners.  
• Enable Partner Countries’ Capacity to Conduct Effective Operations and Sustainment:  Assist partner countries to improve the effective execution of operations and better sustain their forces and equipment while deployed.  While active GPOI partners represent 38 percent of troop contributing countries (TCCs), they deploy 61 percent of the UN’s military peacekeepers.
• Build UN and Regional Organizations’ Performance and Accountability Frameworks:  Reinforce UN and, as relevant, regional organizations’ performance and accountability frameworks by enhancing doctrinal, training, and assessment capabilities and promoting consistent integration of lessons learned from peace operations.  For example, GPOI has funded 22 projects to help the UN develop doctrine, guidance documents, military unit manuals, and training materials, as well as to enhance military performance evaluation, execute UN training events, and provide advisory and technical assistance. 

GPOI Priorities

The following cross-cutting priorities apply across all program objectives and underlie the purpose of GPOI’s assistance activities:

• Performance and Accountability: Commit to the highest level of peacekeeping performance by recognizing outstanding performance while holding partners accountable for underperformance and helping them to address shortfalls.

• Safety and Security: Improve the safety and security of peacekeepers and take active and concrete measures to enhance military skills, situational awareness, camp and patrol protection, and medical response capabilities.

• Civilian Protection: Deepen the capability of peacekeepers to support and promote the protection of civilians, which the U.S. government views as a fundamental purpose of peace operations.

• Women, Peace, and Security: Propmote the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women in peace operations, systematically integrating a gender perspective into our work, and taking concrete measures to increase uniformed women in peacekeeping.

• Conduct and Discipline: Engage with partners to uphold UN standards of conduct, including an emphasis on prevention of misconduct by their personnel and accountability of perpetrators if misconduct does occur.

For further information, please contact the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at PM-CPA@state.gov, and follow the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs on Twitter, @StateDeptPM .