UN Assembly’s administrative committee approves $2.17 billion peacekeeping budget

As the fiscal year for United Nations peacekeeping operations heads to a close, the world body’s administrative and budgetary committee has approved some $2.17 billion to finance 11 active peacekeeping missions for the next 12 months.

The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee approved the Organization’s 2003-2004 peacekeeping budget yesterday as it concluded its second resumed session. The $2.17 billion includes some $70.29 million for the maintenance of the peacekeeping support account, and $21.51 million for the UN Logistics Base (UNLB) in Brindisi, Italy, which is the staging area for most operations.

Compared with the appropriation of some $2.6 billion for the current period, the new peacekeeping budget represents a reduction of some $430 million, mostly due to the closing of the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) and downsizing of the Organization’s operations in Kosovo, Timor-Leste, Sierra Leone and Lebanon.

As the financial year of peacekeeping operations runs from 1 July to 30 June, the Committee customarily devotes its late spring session to assessing their budgetary and administrative needs. Most of the 33 draft resolutions and decisions approved yesterday centred on budgets of individual missions, disposition of the assets of missions in liquidation, and strategic deployment stocks.

One of the most important aspects of the UN peacekeeping budget is the financing of the support account, established in order to allow the UN Secretariat to plan and deploy peacekeeping operations in a coordinated manner. The account is financed through assessments on all active missions, according to their size, as is the Logistics Base.

By a draft resolution approved today, the Assembly, recognizing the importance of the Organization’s ability to respond quickly to conflict situations and deploy peacekeeping operations within 30 to 90 days upon their authorization by the Security Council, would approve the support account requirements for the coming year in the amount of some $70.29 million.