The UN’s Political and Peacebuilding Affairs chief, Rosemary DiCarlo, concluded a three-day visit to Afghanistan on Thursday in which she met with senior Taliban representatives, urging them not to “erase” gains made by women and girls across the country in recent years.
Environmental degradation enables armed groups to extend their influence and manipulate resources to their advantage, the UN chief told the Security Council on Thursday, highlighting that conflict-prevention initiatives need to factor in climate risks.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Wednesday expressed outrage over an attack on a convoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in which one of its vehicles was hit, wounding three staff members
A meeting to boost support for UN Peacekeeping ended on Wednesday with 62 countries making new pledges, and advancing existing commitments, to help enhance the performance and impact of these operations worldwide.
The 55th round of the Geneva International Discussions (GID) took place in the Palais des Nations on 7 and 8 December 2021, with requisite COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures in place. As mandated by the six-point agreement of 2008, the GID process continues to serve as the primary venue in which the consequences of conflict are addressed and other important issues are discussed.
The 55th round began with meetings to address issues of importance to conflict affected populations, including freedom of movement and related issues, as well as an expert exchange between medical professionals focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the course of two days, participants met in the GID’s two parallel working groups focused on security and humanitarian issues, respectively. The overall security situation on the ground was assessed as relatively stable. Discussions once again addressed the GID’s core agenda item of non-use of force and international security arrangements. Participants engaged in frank exchanges on outstanding issues such as freedom of movement, documentation, and travel abroad, detentions, unresolved missing persons cases, and specific security concerns in localised areas.
However, despite constructive engagement on a variety of humanitarian issues, a discussion on the core issue of internally displaced persons and refugees could not take place due to a walkout by some participants.
The Co-Chairs welcomed the continued function of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) in Ergneti, and took note of positive signals on the potential resumption of the Gali IPRM.
The Co-Chairs again called on all participants to increase efforts to build trust and confidence and to address all elements of comprehensive and human security, including by engaging constructively in technical-level discussions, as well as with international humanitarian and human rights organisations.
The participants agreed to hold their next meeting in Geneva on 29 and 30 March 2022.
With the world now facing the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945, Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday urged countries to step up support for UN peacekeeping operations across the globe, and the thousands who serve within them.
New York, 07 December 2021
On International Civil Aviation Day, we recognize the many contributions of air travel to our world – from connecting societies and delivering vital goods to supporting millions of livelihoods and contributing billions to the global economy.
COVID-19 continues to put deep stresses on international aviation, even as...
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo told the Security Council on Monday that “a lasting solution” to the violence “requires a broader political commitment to address the root causes of conflict.”
Millions of people in Ethiopia could be pushed deeper into hunger as the World Food Programme (WFP) faces a major funding shortfall that threatens its operations there over the coming six months, the UN agency warned on Monday.
Out now! Season 2 | Episode 17 | She Stands For Peace | Click here: https://unoau.unmissions.org/podcast-series-she-stands-peace
New York, 05 December 2021
On International Volunteer Day, we recognize the contribution of volunteers to peace and development worldwide.
This year’s theme – ‘Volunteer now for our common future’ – highlights the myriad ways in which volunteers are helping to get us back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals....
|
|
|
The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to combat the continuing threat of piracy off the coast of Somalia, as shipping and protection measures to keep vessels safe, have returned to levels not seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
New York, 03 December 2021
Realizing the rights, agency, and leadership of persons with disabilities will advance our common future.
We need everyone, including persons with disabilities, on board to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Around the world, persons with disabilities and their representative organizations are taking action to realize the call: ‘Nothing about us...
The international community has reached a “turning point” in pursuing justice for atrocities committed by the ISIL terrorist group in Iraq, the new head of a special UN investigative team told the Security Council in New York on Thursday.
A total of 274 million people worldwide will need emergency aid and protection in 2022, a 17 per cent increase compared with this year, UN humanitarians said on Thursday.
With millions in Afghanistan facing starvation as winter arrives, the World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday urged countries to put politics aside and step up support to avert a potential catastrophe.
Concluding a four-day to visit Burkina Faso, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that the country faces “a multitude of challenges with severe impacts on a wide range of human rights of its people”.
For two decades, the African Union (AU) has been “a gold standard of regional co-operation”, Secretary-General António Guterres told the fifth UN-AU Annual Conference on Wednesday in New York.
With violence continuing daily throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process urged the Security Council on Tuesday to adopt a more coordinated approach to the region.
The UN refugee Agency, UNHCR, is “appalled by a series of deadly attacks” on displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the agency’s spokesperson told journalists on Tuesday in Geneva.
The UN Secretary-General on Monday called on all Middle East States to transform the vision of a region with no nuclear weapons, or other weapons of mass destruction, into a working reality.
Out now! Season 2 | Episode 16 | She Stands For Peace | Click here: https://unoau.unmissions.org/podcast-series-she-stands-peace
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is a pleasure to participate in the annual session of the Peacebuilding Commission. Today’s debate on financing for peacebuilding is of crucial importance.
A month ago, the Secretary-General presented to the PBC his report Our Common Agenda, his vision for the future of global cooperation through an inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism. Our Common Agenda. That vision includes a new agenda for peace calling for investment in prevention and peacebuilding, including through the Peacebuilding Commission.
Smart, preventive investments to tackle the underlying drivers that sustain conflict have never been as important. The COVID-19 pandemic is stretching our resources and capacities, disproportionately affecting people and places hit by conflict. And the climate crisis not only compounds the challenges we face in peace and security, it poses an existential threat to humanity.
As ambitious as Our Common Agenda is, we really have no choice but to put substantial resources – financial, political and human – to work to build a more peaceful, environmentally sound, stable and sustainable future.
We need to build on the current momentum and ensure adequate, predictable, and sustained financing for peacebuilding.
This idea is at the core of the twin General Assembly and Security Council resolutions adopted at the conclusion of the 2015 and 2020 Peacebuilding Architecture Reviews. The Peacebuilding Commission plays a key role in our concerted effort to help achieve this important objective ahead of the High-Level Meeting on Financing for Peacebuilding.
I would like to point to four key areas that are particularly relevant to consider in this context.
First, sustained financing for peacebuilding is instrumental for our ongoing work on strengthening coherence across the peace and security continuum, including the work conducted by special political missions in close cooperation with development actors, regional partners and civil society organizations.
Special political missions play a critical role, supporting Member States to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts. Our regional office for West Africa, for example, continues to respond to high demand for preventive diplomacy in the region. Working side-by-side with ECOWAS and the African Union, UNOWAS has engaged with authorities and other actors to help build consensus regarding the way forward in political and security processes.
If we are to effectively support Member States on trust, inclusion, social cohesion, and human rights – elements that are at the heart of Our Common Agenda and our collective work on peacebuilding – we need to continue to insist on improving coherence. Adequate, predictable, and sustained financing will allow for better incentives and can foster further collaboration across the UN system.
Second, the strong linkages among peacemaking, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and development are mutually reinforcing. Financing for peacebuilding is key, for example, in safeguarding peacekeeping gains. This ensures effective transitions and averts a “financial cliff” after a mission leaves. Peacebuilding has helped prevent relapses into conflict in Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone notably.
The dedicated Peacebuilding Fund window is a welcome contribution in this respect, with a total of $35 million invested in 2020. The transition in Darfur, for example, shows the importance of complementing resources of peacekeeping operations with the PBF investment. It enabled the UN Country Team to continue catalytic peacebuilding programmes after UNAMID’s closure. It also contributed to supporting the new integrated mandate of our special political mission, UNITAMS.
We expect that the largest share of PBF investments during the 2020-2024 strategic period will be directed to support countries undergoing complex transitions when UN configurations on the ground change.
Third, we continue to strengthen our partnerships with international financial institutions and regional development banks, which in recent years have resulted in more in-depth analysis of fragility factors and better understanding of conflict drivers.
This shift towards prevention, conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding in the International Financial Institutions and the resources they bring to bear towards those objectives are potential game changers.
We should not lose sight of the urgent need to make these partnerships more systematic through regular joint analysis and assessments. The creation of a Humanitarian-Development-Peacebuilding and Partnership Facility (HDPP) is contributing in a significant way to this effort, enabling the UN’s field presences to better interact with the World Bank.
Examples of good partnership also include:
We also look forward to deepening our engagement with the International Monetary Fund, in the context of its upcoming Fragility and Conflict-affected States Strategy, and regional development banks, such as the African Development Bank. There is also scope for synergy on climate risk mitigation, since climate change is a risk multiplier in many conflict settings, such as in the Sahel and Horn of Africa.
We should also continue to explore stronger partnerships with the private sector. An initiative with a blended finance facility in Colombia that leveraged close to seven times the funding capital from the private sector is a powerful example that innovative financing solutions can fill the gap in peacebuilding contexts.
Fourth, as Our Common Agenda acknowledges, demand for support from the Peacebuilding Fund significantly outpaces available resources. As the UN’s instrument of first resort to support peacebuilding, the Fund needs additional resources.
The recourse to voluntary, extrabudgetary contributions obscures the fact that prevention and peacebuilding are structural and central objectives of the UN and the Charter obligations.
Voluntary contributions are insufficient: the PBF is currently $90 million below its target for 2021. The Secretary-General’s recommendation to allocate a dedicated amount ($100 million) to the PBF from assessed contributions would indeed have a strong symbolic value.
Additional and more predictable funding would enable the UN to, for example, increase its support for women-led and women-focused peacebuilding initiatives, as urged by many women peacebuilders who have briefed the PBC in the past. More resources for peacebuilding activities would also strengthen the work special political missions are playing in promoting women’s and youth participation in peace and political processes.
Excellencies,
As Peacebuilding Commission Members know best of all, scaled-up preventive action could prevent loss of human life and incalculable suffering.
Adequate, predictable and sustained financing, including through assessed contributions, will allow the UN, through its Peacebuilding Fund, to grow its investments in support of Our Common Agenda.
I look forward to hearing from you on how we can collectively achieve this ambitious objective.
Thank you.
The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, continues to pose a significant challenge to international peace and security, United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, said on Monday.
