Why CPAS?
UN Peacekeeping missions are one of the world’s most effective tools in helping countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. The Department of Peace Operations leads 12 missions, comprising nearly 80,000 uniformed and civilian personnel.
As part of the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative launched by the UN Secretary-General in 2018 to strengthen operations, it is critical to improve how peacekeeping missions assess and show their impact on the ground. This is especially necessary as they navigate complex and changing political and security landscapes. Better understanding a mission’s contribution to change and evaluating performance is a priority for the UN Peacekeeping.
The Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System (CPAS) is the first tool to link peacekeeping planning, data, results and reporting, ensuring operations are informed by evidence-based assessments of impact. Now operational in all missions, CPAS is enabling peacekeeping operations to take informed evidence-based decisions so that missions can more effectively implement mandates.
What is CPAS?
CPAS is a platform-backed process to support missions in developing plans with civilian, miliary, and police staff for delivering their mandate and assessing impact over time using data and analysis. CPAS helps missions assess their performance and make recommendations to decision-makers and mission leadership on how to enhance the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping operations, to better achieve peace and security objectives. It also supports more evidence-based reporting and communications to Member States, donors and other partners. In short, it is helping missions to both strengthen and show their impact.
How Do We Work?
The Impact of CPAS
Showing impact:
- Reporting: CPAS helps increase the use of data and analysis in reporting to Member States and others
- Communications: CPAS can strengthen strategic communications, helping missions more clearly to show their impact to partners and stakeholders, and helping them counter mis- and dis-information
Strengthening impact
- Planning and assessment: All peacekeeping operations have integrated civilian-uniformed plans for mandate delivery, which they can update depending on changes in circumstances
- Strengthen operations: CPAS assessments let mission staff work together to develop recommendations for strengthening operations, informed by data and analysis. As a result, missions are also continually capturing lessons learned and adapting activities based on what has the most impact
Harmonizing processes and strengthen accountability for resources:
- RBB: CPAS is helping missions to strengthen the impact-orientation of results-based budgets, improving transparency and accountability to Member States
Stories from the Field
Missions have used CPAS to show their impact and improve their planning in a myriad of ways.
UNFICYP started the process of using CPAS to support Reports of the Secretary General to the UN Security Council through factsheet, showcasing infographics that reinforce the analysis laid out in the text of the report.
Since then, six other missions have followed suit with their own factsheets highlighting their work and the security situation, some examples of which can be seen in 2022’s Taking Stock report.
More recently UNDOF became the first mission to include data visuals in the body of the SG Report itself, using data collected by CPAS to show their work.
Meanwhile, for forward-looking planning, CPAS has enabled operations to formulate an integrated mission plan that bring all components together. MINUSCA was the first mission to fully implement this collective work, followed by the remaining 11 missions who have used the CPAS framework either as the core of the mission plan, or as the monitoring and evaluation strategy for mission plan implementation.
Furthering collaboration, our peacekeeping operations in the Middle East, UNDOF, UNIFIL and UNTSO have joined together to form a CPAS working group to discuss shared items and coordinate information-sharing. Across all the missions, relevant data has been centralized, allowing a single location to view a whole of mission status, and support decision making.