Action for Peacekeeping

Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) is a flagship reform initiative launched by UN Secretary-General António Guterres on 28 March 2018 to renew collective engagement with United Nations peacekeeping. It responds to long-standing concerns about mandate overload, troop fatalities, mission underperformance, and weakening political consensus around the blue helmets.

At its core, A4P is built around a Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations, endorsed in 2018 by over 150 member states and organisations including the African Union and European Union. The Declaration organises commitments around several priority areas, typically grouped as:

• Politics — prioritising political solutions over indefinite stabilisation
• Women, peace and security — increasing women's participation, in line with Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000)
• Protection — strengthening the protection of civilians
• Safety and security — reducing peacekeeper fatalities, building on the 2017 Cruz Report (Improving Security of United Nations Peacekeepers)
• Performance and accountability — including the Comprehensive Performance Assessment System (CPAS)
• Peacebuilding and sustaining peace — linking peacekeeping to longer-term political and development work
• Partnerships — especially with regional bodies like the AU
• Conduct — addressing sexual exploitation and abuse

In March 2021, Guterres launched A4P+, a follow-on strategy for 2021–2023 that distilled the agenda into seven priorities, including strategic direction, integrated approaches, and partnerships with host states. A4P+ also gives sharper emphasis to digital transformation and strategic communications.

A4P is not a treaty or Security Council resolution; it is a political compact coordinated by the Department of Peace Operations (DPO). Its implementation is tracked through annual reports and member-state working groups. For delegates, A4P is the principal contemporary framework for debating how the UN's roughly twelve active peace operations are mandated, resourced, and evaluated.