The humanitarian operations of the Swedish battalion in Kosovo - an evaluation
Publish date: 2002-01-01
Report number: FOI-R--0546--SE
Pages: 28
Written in: English
Abstract
The first Swedish battalion (SWEBAT) arrived in Kosovo in October 1999. lts tasks have included guaranteeing the security of the local inhabitants and Mso implernenting humanitarjan operations as support to the civilian population. An frame agreement of MSEK 1.5 was concluded between Sida and SWEDINT in February 2000 which provided a financial contribution for the Swedish battalion to use in the impiementation of small scale humanitarian operations. These operations are evaluated in this report. The representatives of the recipient country (village council members, etc) report that they are very satisfled with the humanitarian operations carried out by SWEBAT. Coordinating organisations such as UNMIK, Medicos del Mundo and Scandinavian House a)so express satisfaction with these inputs. Consequently we have conciuded that the competence and resources of the battalion have been well used and should continue to be available for this type of operation in the future. The report also contains recommendations concerning the design of a prolongation of the frame agreement between Sida and the military authorities in order to clarify their respective roles and facilitate the administration of the funding. In addition, this evaluation raises issues conceming the development of future civil-military cooperation (CMIC - CIVIO) between the parties. It is important that Sida and the military authorities create forms for a continuous dialogue. One important move in this direction would be the establishment of a joint policy document describing how these organisations are to act in concert during the implementation of operations abroad.