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eflect upon different options within their respective field of expertise or by advising theconflicting parties on mediation process design, agendas etc. It is, therefore, of the utmostimportance that they can act as independent experts in certain situations and are perceivedas such and not representing the positions or the interests of the UN. In other situationsand this is the advantage of having a flexible arrangement the linkage to UN missions iscrucial as it provides them with the necessary legitimacy and helps to gain access to theparties. This flexibility and sometimes ambivalence is needed and adds value to thecurrent set-up of the SBT.There is little real experience to date to determine whether or not the work of the SBT couldalso be relevant for preventive action. Some interviewees have raised this issue and this wasalso explicitly requested by the first SBT. As part of the overall MSU effort, we indeed believethat SBT members would add value and contribute to early fact finding, conflict analysis andfacilitation at an early stage in order to prevent crises from breaking out. We cannot elaborateon this further within this evaluation study, however, as there is a lack of practical lessonslearned (one of the few opportunities was a conflict analysis mission to Kyrgyzstan).Relevance of the SBT for the UNDPA/MSUThe SBT is of high relevance for the positioning and profiling of the MSU within the DPA aswell as for the DPA to concretely implement its new operational remit. As already stated andunderlined by many interviewees, the SBT is the most important instrument to which theMSU can refer for offering support services.With the SBT, the MSU possesses a powerful resource to prove to the DPA s regionaldivisions that it can deliver mediation support and that its services are complementary to theDPA s work. UNDPA senior officials provided very positive feedback regarding the SBT. Onesenior official stated, for example: The services of the SBT are amongst the most usefulservices within the UN. Another senior official said: The SBT belongs to us. Although thisenthusiasm might probably not be shared by everyone within the DPA, the SBT has certainlyfound its way into the UN and helped to build up a joint mediation support profile.Relevance of the SBT for the Development of a Conceptual Approach to MediationSupportThe SBT s work for developing a conceptual approach to mediation support is relevantalthough the potential of the experts has hitherto not been tapped sufficiently. Although theMSU has grown in its number of staff, it still seems to be under heavy human resourcesconstraints. MSU staff members informed us about heavy workloads and a multitude oftasks. Rather than viewing the SBT team as an additional burden, it is our view that the MSUcould take advantage of its privileged access to the senior experts in mediation support andthe related thematic expertise which they have in the SBT. This will help to strategise theirapproach for mediation support and will further develop the MSU s institutional learningsystem (we will cover this point in more detail in chapter 4.5).The MSU has tried, in the past, to build upon the knowledge of the SBT by asking them tocontribute to the production of guidance notes for mediators. The first team, in particular,contributed to quite a number of operational guidance notes. This experience, however, fellvictim to the lack of human resources of the MSU to work with the SBT team to produce suchnotes and, finally, a consequent decision not to publish them. In the meantime, the increasingsystematic usage of the SBT within the MSU, on the one hand, and more realisticexpectations within the SBT, on the other, might offer better opportunities to use the SBTresources for the further conceptual development of the UN s mediation support.On a related but not so much UN-focused level, the SBT (especially the first team)participated as experts in a number of seminars and assisted regional and UN organisations(e.g., AU, SADC, UNOWA, OHCHR) in developing their mediation capacity. Again, however,16