Guinea-Bissau has plunged into another cycle of instability since August 2015, when President Vaz dismissed the PAIGC government resulting from the elections which took place the year before. Since then, the country is going through a protracted political crisis which has resulted in the formation of five governments and delayed the disbursement of pledges made by donors in Brussels conference in March 2015 for Terra Ranka national development plan.

The crisis has spilled over to all organs of sovereignty, including the courts and the National Assembly was unable to function properly for almost two years. During a period of three years, the president has appointed six Prime-Ministers. In late 2016, the Bissau roadmap followed by talks in Conakry led by the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) mediator, Alpha Conde, were a good step forward but did not solve the crisis, forcing ECOWAS commission to impose sanctions against those blocking the implementation of the Conakry agreement in February 2018.

The sanctions have been lifted in August 2018, after a new round of talks in Lome which resulted in the appointment of a Prime-Minister Aristides Gomes in April. The new government was tasked with preparing legislative elections in November and give more steps to implement the Conakry Agreement, such as to promote the signature of a stability pact.

In February 2018, the UN Security Council, through resolution 2040, had asked UNIOGBIS to refocus its work to give priority to assistance to the legislative and presidential elections, to the implementation of the Conakry agreement, including priority reforms and to combating drug trafficking and electoral assistance. At the same time it asked the Secretary-General to deploy an independent Strategic review mission to look into reconfiguration and possible transition of UNIOGBIS into a new UN more integrated and efficient UN presence.

During 2018 UNIOGBIS and UNDP are focused on raising funds and providing technical assistance to the electoral process, which was postponed several times due to technical difficulties compounded by the political dispute. At the end of 2018, the President of the republic, finally scheduled the elections to 10 March 2019.