A Senior Advisory Group designated by the Secretary-General in March 2010 proposed a brand-new vision of the UN support to the strengthening of civilian capacities in conflict affected countries entitled OPEN, or “a United Nations that enables national Ownership, works in global Partnership, delivers with Expertise and is Nimble in the face of change”. The group chaired by Jean-Marie Guéhenno, former Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations, and supported by a review team, was composed of nine senior experts with diverse expertise ranging from extensive operational experience, understanding of the UN system and its Member States and capacity building expertise, and included Carlos Lopes, Executive Director of the UN’s training arm - UNITAR.

The 2009 Secretary-General’s report on “Peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict” prepared further to the Security Council’s earlier invitation to provide advice in the area recommended a review of the international community’s and UN support of civilian capacity development needs in conflict affected countries. It is in this context that the Secretary-General appointed in March 2010 a Senior Advisory Group tasked with reviewing current state of the art and proposing concrete measures on how to improve it. A year-long undertaking comprised mutual exchange of expertise and ideas among the members of the Group, field visits, consultations at a regional level, with UN staff, Member States, and representatives of civil society and academia, and led to the production of a final report. The report’s launch was celebrated at a reception organized by the Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations, Ambassador John McNee, on 7 March 2011, with the participation of the representatives of other Member Countries.

The Civilian Capacities report presented a series of concrete, field-oriented, recommendations issued with a view to responding to the need of broadening and deepening of the pool of civilian experts in conflict affected countries through strengthening national ownership and local expertise, promoting civilian partnerships, delivering the right expertise, being more responsive and making better use of the existing resources in line with the Secretary-General’s drive to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Organization. The study included a mapping exercise illustrative of the existing international civilian capacities as per the five priority peacebuilding areas identified in the 2009 Secretary-General’s report including basic safety and security, inclusive political processes, basic services, core government functionality and economic revitalization, as well as the cross-cutting areas of capacity development, gender and human rights. The report, its annexes and capacity mapping can be found at www.civcapreview.org .

Other members of the Senior Advisory Group included Rubem César Fernandes (Brazil), Executive Director of Viva Rio; Ameerah Haq (Bangladesh), Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste; Bruce Jones (USA), Director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation and of the Managing Global Order Program at the Brookings Institution; Ambassador Marjon V. Kamara (Liberia), Permanent Representative of Liberia to the United Nations; Catherine Pollard (Guyana), Assistant Secretary-General for the Office of Human Resources Management; Michael von der Schulenburg (Germany), Executive Representative of the Secretary-General in Sierra Leone; Ambassador Mitra Vasisht (India), former Secretary (External Affairs) of the Government of India.

Under-Secretary-General for field support Susana Malcorra was designated by the Secretary-General to oversee the follow-up to the report to promote early implementation of its recommendations.