UN announces new 'on-call' mediation team

A quick-response UN Mediation Standby Team* has been set up by the United Nations to advise peace envoys in the field and is composed of six members, described as the “world’s best people on the topic of mediation"

And I'm very proud to say that the Senior Expert Mediator appointed to the group is a New Zealander - Andrew Ladley is an academic from here in Wellington - and he has regularly been seen flying off to exotic places like Cambodia, East Timor, Jamaica and Gambia to work in the election and constitution-making areas.

The Standby Team will be rapidly deployed to support peace talks around the world and two members have already been dispatched to Kenya this week to assist in the ongoing African-led mediation efforts there.

*The Standby Mediation Team is just one of the initiatives led by the UN's Department of Political Affairs Mediation Support Unit, which was established in 2006. The Unit is providing expertise and funding to a number of active mediation efforts, training staff in mediation skills, de-briefing envoys on lessons learned in the field and maintaining a comprehensive website for practitioners

[read more from the UN press release here]