While we share the Secretary-General's assessment that more needs to be done ...

While we share the Secretary-General's assessment that more needs to be done to meet the five core challenges, we are also encouraged by the progress made over the past year in implementing resolution 1894 (2009). I would like to thank the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations for their consistent work and support. We particularly welcome the draft operational concept on the protection of civilians, as well as the envisaged strategic framework. We also strongly support the Secretariat in its endeavour to further improve predeployment and in-mission training on the protection of civilians. That initiative needs to be accompanied by national and international efforts. Host countries and the Council should come to a common understanding that our decisions to draw down missions or adapt mandates are conditioned on the achievement of clear benchmarks, including in relation to the protection of civilians. The establishment of a mechanism to measure and report on progress against such benchmarks would be very important, and we think that the experience gained in that context in the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad is useful and should be followed up.