
Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping
About the Conference
The Department of Field Support (DFS)-hosted international symposium is at the core of the DFS Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping initiative. The initiative aims to bring more involvement to peacekeeping from the international peace community to empower United Nations global operations, through a comprehensive framework that can support collaboration and the introduction of new technologies and concepts in the field missions.
Traditional support has come primarily from the Members States of the United Nations, which contribute their troops and finances to Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and DFS-supported field operations. The Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping offers Member States, as well as academia, think tanks and other UN partners, an additional opportunity to form a new kind of relationship with DPKO-DFS—one that aligns the technological and innovative capacities of the world with the specific needs of the field missions. Emphasis is put on tangible outcomes, optimizing operational procedures, and knowledge transfer on the use of modern technologies not yet included in the typical peacekeeping portfolio.
Toward this goal, the symposium serves as the impetus behind innovative partnership projects with the potential to quickly impact peace operations through real and effective solutions. Outcomes of the symposium lead to pilot projects and workshops to standardize and implement these technology projects and initiatives across missions.
“Next Tech Peacekeeping”
The 2018 symposium is hosted by Germany and will build upon the momentum and resulting initiatives from the three prior symposia: “Awareness, Protection, Innovation” (hosted by Korea in 2016), “Innovation and Next-Generation Peacekeeping” (hosted by Austria in 2015), and “Exploring New Partnerships” (hosted by Italy in 2014).
The event expects over 200 in attendance: senior-level military and civilian representatives from Member States, delegates from academia, research institutions, and other United Nations partners from the international community interested in collaborating with leaders from the United Nations—from the peacekeeping missions, the Global Service Centre, and Headquarters—to find solutions to the most pressing needs of peacekeeping today.
The theme for this year’s five-day event, “Next Tech Peacekeeping”, centres discussions around innovations at the edge of mainstream adoption, focusing on technological discoveries and new opportunities that have the potential to impact the field.
The symposium programme will feature a panel discussion on Innovative Technologies in Information and Communications and five moderated Working Groups:
» Working Group: Peacekeeping Intelligence
» Working Group: Convoy and Patrol Protection
» Working Group: Improving Security through Situational Awareness
» Working Group: Training and Capacity Building
» Working Group: United Nations Open GIS (Geospatial Information System) Initiative
» Panel Discussion: Innovative Technologies in Information and Communications
Participants will have the opportunity to contribute their expertise, experiences, best practices, and lessons learnt to all topics. Each group will also discuss the capacities, solutions and technologies that might be useful or leveraged to meet the specific needs of the field missions. Additionally, Breakout-Sessions and Power Networking/coffee breaks will provide opportunities to continue the discussions and to drill-down on specific topics of interest.
#IOTA Co-Founder Dominik Schiener Adresses the #UNPeacekeeping Technology for peacekeeping partnership symposium in #Berlin outlining his thoughts on #Blockchain4good and #Blockchain4Peace a very interesting partnership with #IOTAecosystem could develop! pic.twitter.com/kqVVHZdqL7
— IOTA News (@iotatokennews) May 19, 2018
@DomSchiener Adresses the @UNPeacekeeping Technology for peacekeeping partnership symposium in #Berlin outlining his thoughts on #Blockchain4good and #Blockchain4Pea e a very interesting partnership with @IOTAecosystem could develop! pic.twitter.com/UetjNrAXvV
— Mark Polane, BRMP® (@mightydutchman) 19. Mai 2018
With partnerships such as IOTA we will be able to truly innovate certain aspects of @UNPeacekeeping !
— Mark Polane, BRMP® (@mightydutchman) 19. Mai 2018