Innovations in addressing African conflicts A number of innovations that the Secretary-General has introduced in the strategic management of the United Nations have already helped improve the manner in which it has dealt with conflict and instability in Africa. Innovations that are mentioned in the report include: The appointment of a joint UN and Organization of African Unity (OAU) Envoy for the Great Lakes in 1997 marked a significant innovation which may also prove useful in other circumstances. The appointment of a UN Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict during the same year also institutionalized the international community's focus on the subject. The UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA), the first preventive peacekeeping deployment in Africa, and only the second in the world (after the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). Establishment of UN Executive Committees on Peace and Security and Humanitarian Affairs to prepare and coordinate complex operations. Establishment of contact groups of interested countries to mobilize international support for peace efforts, as was done in Liberia. Co-deploying with regional, sub-regional, or multinational forces. A small unarmed force of UN military observers was deployed alongside ECOMOG, its mandate being to work with the West African force in the implementation of the peace agreement in Liberia. Annual meetings between officials from the UN and OAU Secretariats chaired by the two Secretaries-General and the establishment of a UN liaison office at the headquarters of the OAU in Addis Ababa to consolidate cooperation and facilitate the coordinated deployment of political efforts to prevent, contain and resolve conflicts in Africa. The UN, in the interests of coordination, also has supported Togo's mediation efforts over the Bakassi Peninsula, and the mediation efforts of former President Julius Nyerere with respect to Burundi.