The Integrated Mission Planning Process (IMPP) is a framework adopted by the United Nations to facilitate the planning of multidimensional peacekeeping operations. It aims to ensure that the UN system arrives at a shared understanding of its strategic objectives in a particular country by engaging all relevant parts of the UN system. Key aspects of the IMPP include: * **A Common Understanding:** The IMPP is intended to help the UN system achieve a common understanding of its strategic objectives in a particular country. This involves all relevant parts of the UN system. * **Engaging Relevant Stakeholders:** The IMPP aims to ensure that the right people are at the planning table and that the appropriate authorities and accountabilities are in place to motivate integrated thinking and planning. The UNCT should be involved from the outset and continue to play an active role in planning efforts. * **Realistic Assessment:** The IMPP should be driven by a realistic assessment of existing capacities at the country level, in order to avoid duplication of effort and ensure the most efficient use of the UN's limited resources. Plans based on overly ambitious, unfunded, or aspirational capacities should be carefully scrutinized to avoid unrealistic assumptions. * **Not a Replacement for Other Planning:** The IMPP does not replace all other planning processes. There are many international and national actors involved in post-conflict recovery, and their different roles, decision-making processes, and timelines mean that planning cannot always be fully coherent or integrated. However, the IMPP provides an inclusive framework to engage external partners. * **Linkages with Other Processes:** Peacekeeping planners need to be aware of other assessment and planning processes that may be going on alongside the IMPP and actively seek to create substantive links between them where possible. These processes include the Consolidated Humanitarian Appeal (CHAP), the Common Country Assessment (CCA), and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). The IMPP should draw on and capture any relevant elements from these parallel planning frameworks. * **Dynamic and Continuous:** The IMPP should be seen as a dynamic and continuous process that allows for activities and objectives to be revised as the mission's understanding of its operational environment grows and as that environment changes. * **Flexibility:** Full application of the IMPP may not always be necessary or feasible, as the deployment of an integrated mission is just one option for UN engagement. However, even in more traditional peacekeeping responses, planning should be conducted in close coordination with relevant UN system partners and other key stakeholders. The IMPP is intended to maximize the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of the UN's overall response in countries emerging from conflict by aligning the efforts of different actors in the UN system. An integrated mission is one where there is a shared vision among all UN actors as to the strategic objectives of the UN presence at the country-level. This strategic vision is the result of a deliberate effort by all elements of the UN system to achieve a shared understanding of mandates and functions.