7 November 2025
Background
Building on the positive synergies generated through interdisciplinary and global collaborations - including initiatives such as the Challenges Forum, the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network, the Global Alliance for Peace Operations, the International Association of Peace Operations Centres and other partners- Peace Operations Review Week 2025 will convene a global community of experts focused on strengthening peace operations and interventions. The primary objective of the inaugural Review Week is to bring together a critical mass of expertise to support and inform the Review on the Future of All Forms of Peace Operations as mandated by the 2024 Pact for the Future. The effort takes into account the broader context of the UN80 process and the prevailing challenge of resource constraints. Building on the deliberations of the IAPTC Annual Conference 2024 in Islamabad, the outcome of the week will also feed into further deliberations at the Annual Conference of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres (IAPTC), focused on “Peace Operations Training in a Dynamic World: Fostering Cooperation, Inclusivity and Efficiency”, which is scheduled for 9-14 November in Vicenza, Italy.
On Friday 7 November, a workshop titled “2025 Peace Operations Review Week Findings: Implications for Future Education and Training” will be convened in the concluding parts of the Review Week. The aim is to bridge the gap between the latest cutting-edge analysis with actionable policy recommendations in the field of education and training. It will draw on insights from over 20 seminars and workshops held during Review Week, focusing on their respective implications for the education and training of civilian, police and military peacekeepers.
Successive reviews, doctrines, and reform processes – from the Brahimi Report (2000), through New Horizons (2009) and HIPPO (2015), to Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) and A4P+ agendas, and the recent independent study on Future of Peacekeeping (2024) – have consistently underscored the importance of training, emphasizing that effectiveness of training and, by extension, mandate delivery depends on approaches that are needs-driven and sustainable. However, concerns persist that training pledges often mirror mandate keywords (e.g., protection of civilians, community policing) without tackling the underlying capacity challenges. Moreover, given that TCCs and PCCs bear primary responsibility for pre-deployment training, ensuring coherence and comparability across training systems remains an ongoing priority. Furthermore, within this landscape, civilian training modalities, including those aimed at building leadership and adaptive decision-making skills, have received comparatively less systematic investment. This gap becomes more pressing as overall resource constraints tighten, further reinforcing the need to maximize coherence, coordination, and sustainability across training efforts.
Against this backdrop, the coming workshop provides an opportunity to pull together the implications for education and training of the Review Week, identify overlaps and gaps, draw on evidence from training needs assessments and mission feedback, and thus help shape a more comprehensive and coherent training framework.
Project Objectives (initiated with the New York Workshop and continuing at the IAPTC)
- Building on IAPTC 2024 findings, extrapolate key implications for education and training from the Review Weeks' individual sessions findings.
- Explore how different actors, TCCs, PCCs, UN entities, and training centers can best align their respective roles and resources in support of effective education and training.
- Explore how to strengthen training modalities for both uniformed and civilian staff, including in leadership and adaptive decision-making.
Guiding Questions
- What implications for education and training arise from the policy recommendations generated during Review Week sessions?
- In what ways are current training programmes aligned with needs identified, and how could this connection be reinforced?
- What structures or partnerships could help overcome fragmentation in training provision and strengthen sustainability and coherence?
- How might uniformed and civilian training modalities be better balanced and integrated into a comprehensive framework?
The event
Key issues discussed
The workshop provided an opportunity to pull together the implications for education and training emerging from the Peace Operations Review Week, to identify overlaps and gaps, draw on evidence from training needs assessments and mission feedback, and thus help shape a more comprehensive and coherent training framework. Key thematic considerations emerged, which have implications for the design and delivery of future training and capacity building for peace operations. These include:
- Leading with integrity through change – strengthening leadership and building partnerships.
- Increasing and strengthening the adaptability of systems and peacekeepers.
- Reflective, learner-centred training mechanisms require broader application.
- Innovation areas with particular potential for development of training include:
- Embracing and operationalising new technologies to the advantage of missions,
- More effectively addressing mis- and disinformation and hate speech,
- Scaling up training for mitigating climate risk and its impact, and
- Strengthening the mental health and resilience of peacekeepers.
What is being done/to do about them
Findings of the workshop were captured in an 8-page report, which was subsequently shared with the UNPOL Community as well as the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres, and the UN DPO, including USG Lacroix, the UN Police Adviser, and the DPO Integrated Training Service. For further details, see the report (“2025 Peace Operations Review Week Findings: Implications for Future Education and Training”).
What implications emerged for the UNSC and UN HQ
The workshop had a slightly different format from the other thematic workshops, focusing on the requirement for education and training for future missions, but with less emphasis on what the UN SC or the UN HQs should do other than support direction below in principle and organise its structure relevant to the proposals identified under point 1 and in the accompanying paper.