The UK is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. That means we take our responsibility to support the UN’s efforts to maintain international peace and security very seriously.

We help resolve conflict through an integrated civil-military approach to peacekeeping, stabilisation and sustained post-conflict peace building.

UK and UN peacekeeping

The UK contributes almost 8% of the total cost of United Nations peacekeeping.

The UK’s peacekeeping budget, managed by the FCO, is £374m in 2007/08. This covers:

• our share of UN peacekeeping costs
• contributions to the EU and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) peacekeeping missions
• support to African Union missions
• cost of UK military, police and civilian personnel participating in peacekeeping missions.

We target our resources where they will make the biggest difference to the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping.

We have recently been working in:

• Afghanistan
• Sudan
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Kosovo
• Sierra Leone

Read our latest case study: Rebuilding lives in Afghanistan - the FCO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) is working in Helmand Province to rebuild schools, clinics and government buildings.

In the UN Security Council we have fought for clear, robust and realistic mandates for peacekeeping missions. And we work towards stricter financial management of peacekeeping operations.

The UK is also a strong supporter of the UN’s Standby Forces Arrangements. We are working closely with the UN Secretariat to enhance the UN’s rapid deployment capability.

Stabilisation Unit – what does it do?

The Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Department for International Development (DFID) jointly own the Stabilisation Unit.

The Unit’s role is to support countries emerging from violent conflict through its specialist, targeted and rapid assistance.

By creating a ‘stable’ environment, longer term development can begin.

The Unit’s key tasks are:

Assessment and planning

The Unit helps UK Government departments and the military develop a common understanding of the issues in a country emerging from violent conflict.

This allows departments to plan together to ensure there is a single strategic framework for the UK.

Deployment into conflict areas

The Unit provides experienced civilian personnel to work in insecure countries.

They plan and implement projects that help stabilise a country, such as developing an effective police force, creating jobs, and rebuilding a government’s plans for development.

Learning lessons

The Unit identifies and shares best practice on how to best support countries emerging from conflict. This is shared in the UK and internationally.

The Stabilisation Unit website has more info.

Training civilian police in conflict areas

This is an important stage in maintaining peace in a conflict region.

We help to send British police to recovering conflict regions, such as Kosovo and Sierra Leone, to train local police forces:

We also send British police to other UN member countries to deliver 'Train the Trainer' courses. These courses develop consistent standards of training for police officers deployed to UN Missions in conflict areas.

British police have ‘trained the trainers’ in Botswana, China, Jordan, Argentina, Hungary and Ghana.