The primary objectives of the workshop were:

• Take stock of UN and Member States’ current guidance, policy, reports, capacity- building, pre-deployment preparations and exercises, and evaluations tools, for mission leadership in UN peace operations;
• Initiate a paper on The Impact of Leadership on UN Peace Operations aimed for Member States, Secretariat, Mission Leadership Teams, and Middle Management on what is required to better select, prepare, support and evaluate Senior Leaders, Mission Leadership Teams and Middle Management pre-deployment and in-mission;
• Assess, adjust and detail the work plan for the Challenges Forum Work Strand 2017–2018, confirming desired outcomes, outputs, division of labour, including hosting organizations, resources and deadlines.

ISS’ participation in these events is important to ensure that the African and AU perspectives are included in the research and findings.