Government, Peace and Security Action Plan a. What your topic is Our chosen topic is peacekeeping.

Peacekeeping is an active maintenance of a truce between nations or communities, especially with the aid of international military forces. A strong example of peacekeeping is the United Nations peacekeeping forces in various conflict zones around the world. Peacekeeping is one of the most important tools available to the UN that assist host countries to navigate the path from conflict to peace. Peacekeeping has several unique benefits, including lawfulness, burden sharing, and the ability to deploy and sustain troops and police from around the globe. These peacekeepers integrate with civilians to advance multidimensional mandates. There are currently 16 UN peace operations deployed on four continents. b. Why your topic is important Peacekeeping is important because it prevents conflict from starting, spreading or escalating in either the conflict or the truce zones. The peacekeeping forces provide humanitarian support such as medical aid and shelter. UN peacekeepers also provide security, political and peace building support to help countries make the difficult transition from conflict to peace. Today's peacekeeping operations main purpose is to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate the political process, protect civilians and assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former soldiers. Peacekeeping are also an important factor in supporting the organization of elections, protecting and promoting human rights and assisting in restoring the law systems in conflict zones. c. What are the issues surrounding your topic According to the UN peacekeepers, success is never guaranteed because UN peacekeeping is known for its presence in the most physically and politically difficult environments. An issue that has occurred recently was brought by the demand for UN peacekeepers being asked to deploy to very remote and volatile environments. Peacekeeping itself faces a variety of challenges, including the deployment of its largest, most expensive and increasingly complex operations. This would make it extremely difficult for the UN peacekeeping budget. Another challenge the UN peacekeeping forces face is designing and executing transition strategies before and after conflicts arise. This is a difficult task because the forces have to stay neutral to keep peace between both groups. Finally, it is also a challenge to equip communities with the capacity to ensure long-term peace and stability between the groups. Finding the right solution that compromises both sides and keeps them in a truce is a key element, though it is very problematic.

d. How are differing countries reacting to the issues your topic containsprovide examples from current case studies Bangladesh UN peacekeeping Bangladesh has been dedicated and committed to the peaceful settlement of international disputes and to the maintenance of global peace and security since 1988. Bangladesh peacekeepers have been present and evident in almost all conflicted areas in the world, including Haiti, East Timor, Lebanon and DR Congo. The peacekeepers of Bangladesh have been almost everywhere and are committed to remain so. Today, Bangladeshi peacekeepers have earned the credentials of a 'Role Model' in global peacekeeping due to their professionalism, commitment, neutrality, integrity and humanitarian attitude. The Armed Forces of Bangladesh consists of three uniformed military services of Bangladesh - Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force. Till now Bangladesh has contributed in 51 missions, where 1,21,407 Bangladeshi peacekeepers have participated. At present with strength of 7,979 peacekeepers, Bangladesh is one of the highest peacekeepers contributing countries in the world. Issues with MONUSCO peacekeeping missions in DR Congo The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been described as the first Africa World War as 5.4 million people have died and 45,000 people continue to die each month. There have been a number of complex reasons for this war, including conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals and other resources as well as various political agendas. This has been fueled and supported by various national and international corporations and other regimes, which have an interest in the monetary outcome of the conflict. The MONUSCO mission has taken over the 2001 mission as a new phase reached the country. The new mission has been authorized to use all necessary means to carry out its mandate relating, to the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel and human rights defenders under imminent threat of physical violence. Finally, the mission is also to support the Government of the DRC in its stabilization and peace alliance efforts. e. Key events that have happened, which relate to your topic/issue The key events that have occurred in relation to peacekeeping is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a plan for the partition of Palestine, providing for the creation of an Arab State and a Jewish State, with Jerusalem to be placed under international status. The Israelis did not accept the plan, although the Palestinians were ready to live in harmony with them. On the following day, the Israelis opened hostilities against the Palestinian Arabs. A group of observers remains in Sinai to maintain a United Nations presence in that peninsula. Currently, UNTSO maintains its headquarters in Jerusalem with its

association offices in Beirut (Lebanon), Ismailia (Egypt) and Damascus (Syria).

1. What type of game do you want to create? The game we created was a board game that the players have to reach home. The main objective of the game is proceed on the board and answer the questions correctly in order to reach home. The questions are categorized from one to five and each category has several questions based on different aspects of peacekeeping. Some of the questions will ask questions about specific dates and locations and others will be creative tasks like acting out the word to the other members in your group. 2. What materials do you need? We used poster paper, pens, coloring markers, permanent markers, scissors and glue. All of our elements of the game have been created by hand like the players and the die, which have been customized to our own peacekeeping game. 3. Who will do what? Myself: I contributed to the creation of the game by making the general idea of the board game, as well as implementing my groups ideas and opinions. It is important to allow others to contribute because as a team member, we must all contribute our strengths together for a better outcome. I also helped in making the several elements of the board game like the board design and I drew parts of the world map and the die with only one to two choices, which is according to our game only. Hamizah: Hamizah had an important job of making the questions of the different cards along with the help of Haya. She made 40 questions about the aspects of peacekeeping and made very excellent and simple questions for our class level and knowledge. She also included the answers to the questions so we would know if the teams answers were right in the game situation.

Samara and Yara: They both had a fair and equal share of the physical workload of the board game. They made all the cards and wrote all the questions and also color-coded the cards according to their categories. They also helped me in designing the board and making sure where all the place cards would go on the board. Haya and Layal: While they were both absent a few times during the process of the board, they still helped in creating ideas in the beginning and were actively participating in making different ideas using their previous knowledge of games. 4. Have you typed up a Rules sheet? The players will move according to dice numbers and they will land on a category. A question will be given to the group based on the category their piece lands on. If they get the question right, they will move forward 2 steps and they will answer the next question based on the category they land on. If they get an answer wrong, they will have to move back one-step and let the other team roll the dice. If they get a Act it out question, the group must work together to hint out the word to one player in their group, without using words from the phrase. The first group that reaches home wins the game. Wars & Conflicts (Color code: Red) Humanitarian Aid (Color code: Light blue) Peacekeeping History (Color code: Purple) Questions on UN (Color code: Pink) Random Facts about Peacekeeping (Color code: Orange) 5. Have you clearly incorporated aspects of your topic and action plan into the game? Is it clearly relevant to your topic? The board design itself reflects the connection of our topic peacekeeping. We have drawn a world map and created blue helmets as the players. In the game situation itself, we have 5 categories with 8 questions each that have a variety of questions about peacekeeping and its several aspects.

6. How many people can play at one time? Since the game involves two teams, there is no limit to the number of players as long as there are equal numbers of members per group. It is preferable to have a maximum of 8 to 10 players.

Bibliography "What Is Peacekeeping? United Nations Peacekeeping." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. <http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/peacekeeping.shtml>. "Reform of Peacekeeping. United Nations Peacekeeping." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. <http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/reform.shtml>. "ARMED FORCES DIVISION." Armed Forces Division. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. <http://www.afd.gov.bd/>. "Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force." Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. <http://www.bdhcdelhi.org/index.php/Bangladesh-un-peacekeeping-force>. "The Democratic Republic of Congo." - Global Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/87/the-democratic-republic-ofcongo>.