The Department of Political Affairs manages special political missions and peace-building support offices engaged in conflict prevention, peacemaking and post-conflict peacebuilding in West and Central Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. These include:

• BONUCA, United Nations Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic
• UNAMI, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq
• UNOGBIS, United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau
• UNOWA, United Nations Office for West Africa
• UNPOS, United Nations Political Office for Somalia
• UNSCO, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
• UNSCOL, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon
• UNMIN, United Nations Mission in Nepal

These DPA-led field operations, established by the U.N. Security Council, provide political analysis and a forward platform for preventive diplomacy and other activities across a range of disciplines, to help prevent and resolve conflict or to build lasting peace in nations emerging from civil wars.

Missions and U.N. envoys are active during 2006 on multiple fronts, including: the search for peace in the Middle East, support for Iraq’s political transition and reconstruction; efforts to shore up the national reconciliation process in Somalia; the carrying out of Security Council resolutions on Lebanon; preventive diplomacy and regional strategies to support political transitions and peacebuilding in West Africa; efforts to resolve the dispute over Western Sahara, and continuing support to the peaceful resolution of border disputes in Africa.

The peace-building support offices, currently active in Tajikistan, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic, are an illustration of DPA’s role since 1997 as the United Nations focal point for post-conflict peace-building. Their presence aims to help nations consolidate peace through comprehensive peace-building strategies developed and carried out in coordination with national actors and U.N. development and humanitarian entities on the ground.

In several cases, most recently in the Sudan, political missions overseen by the Department of Political Affairs during the stage of peace negotiations have -- following the signing of peace agreements -- been replaced by peacekeeping missions supervised by the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. In yet other instances, U.N. peacekeeping operations have given way to special political missions overseeing peace-building activities.

Two longstanding DPA-led political missions concluded successfully in 2004 and 2005 as peace processes were consolidated: the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) and the United Nations Observer Mission in Bougainville (UNOMB).