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Indonesia to prioritize quality in peacekeeping contributions as UN funds evaporate
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Members of the National Police’s Garuda Bhayangkara task force are inducted in a ceremony at the police training center in Bogor, West Java, on Dec. 16, 2018. The ceremony marks their deployment to United Nations peacekeeping missions abroad. This year, the police will send 379 personnel, including 43 women, to various UN peacekeeping operations, for instance the UN-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur. (The Jakarta Post/PJ Leo)
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ndonesia looks to focus on quality over quantity in its contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations, as the UN continues to slash funds and close down missions, making the national year-end target of deploying 4,000 peacekeepers overseas unattainable.
In 2015, Indonesia pledged to send 4,000 trained peacekeepers from military, police and civilian ranks by 2019 to serve in international UN peacekeeping forces. While the total number deployed last year barely missed the goal (3,545 personnel), current reserve figures have dropped to 2,920 – just a few hundred more than when Jakarta first made its pledge four years ago.
One of the reasons for the decline in numbers was the dwindling contributions from many UN member states to fund peacekeeping operations, said Febrian Ruddyard, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for multilateral cooperation.
“This has caused the UN to start rationing the number of troops sent to meet budget constraints,” Febri told reporters at a year-end briefing in Jakarta on Monday.
The UN Peacekeeping operations budget has been steadily declining over the past few years.
The approved budget for UN Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) for the 2019/2020 fiscal year is US$6.5 billion. It has been allocated to 12 of the 13 UN peacekeeping missions around the world. For the 2016/2017 fiscal period, the UN approved $7.86 billion for 15 peacekeeping operations, according to UN data.
