HIPPO Report

The HIPPO Report is the common name for the report of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in October 2014 and chaired by former Timor-Leste President José Ramos-Horta. The panel of 16 members delivered its findings on 16 June 2015 under the title "Uniting Our Strengths for Peace: Politics, Partnership and People."

The report responded to a perceived mismatch between the rapidly expanding scope of UN peace operations and the tools, mandates, and resources available to them. It was the first comprehensive review of UN peace operations since the Brahimi Report of 2000, and it deliberately examined peacekeeping and special political missions together as a single continuum.

Four core shifts were proposed:

• Primacy of politics: lasting peace is achieved through political solutions, not military or technical engagement alone, and mandates should be designed around a political strategy.
• Full spectrum of responses: missions should be tailored to context rather than drawn from a rigid template, blending prevention, mediation, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding.
• Stronger global-regional partnerships, especially with the African Union, including more predictable financing for AU-led peace support operations.
• People-centred approach: better engagement with host populations, stronger protection of civilians, and accountability for sexual exploitation and abuse.

The report also urged caution about using UN peacekeepers in counter-terrorism or enforcement roles, warning that blue helmets are ill-suited to such tasks.

Secretary-General Ban responded with an implementation report (A/70/357–S/2015/682) in September 2015, and many HIPPO themes were carried forward into the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative launched by Secretary-General António Guterres in 2018 and its 2021 successor, A4P+. The HIPPO Report remains a central reference point in debates over mandate design, troop generation, and the future of UN field missions.