Contingent Owned Equipment
Equipping the Frontlines of Peacekeeping Missions around the World
The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Field Support (DFS), leads 20 peace operations on four continents. As of January 2008, 117 United Nations member states contributed over 80,000 military personnel in formed units and approximately 11,000 individual and formed unit police to serve in these missions. Troops and police arrive in the mission area with their own equipment and self sustainment capabilities, ready to operate in challenging conditions.
As extensive as current peacekeeping missions are -- the largest in the history of UN peacekeeping – they are scheduled to continue to increase. The 2008-09 budget for peacekeeping is projected to reach $7 billion, an all-time high.
General Assembly Resolution 50/222
In 1996, the General Assembly authorized the implementation of new procedures for determining reimbursement to Member States for their contributions to peacekeeping missions. The GA directed that the major equipment, services, and personnel contributing countries provide to peacekeeping missions should be determined between DPKO/DFS and the contributing country's Permanent Mission to the UN prior to deployment. This contract -- the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – details the major equipment, self sustainment services, and personnel costs for which the contributing country will be financially reimbursed. Currently there are almost 300 MOU covering deployed formed units, with more under negotiation. Current MOU represent almost $2 billion dollars (U.S.) in equipment, services, and troop reimbursement costs annually.