This Week in DPPA: 6 - 11 March 2022

Security Council

Briefing the Security Council on 11 March regarding the situation in Ukraine, Under-Secretary-General for Peacebuilding and Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said that as the war entered its third week, the Russian armed forces were pursuing their offensive operations and laying siege to several cities. USG DiCarlo stressed that the targeting of civilians, residential buildings, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, was “inexcusable and intolerable”, and that all alleged violations of international humanitarian law must be investigated and those found responsible should be held accountable. She called for negotiations to end the conflict to intensify, including to secure humanitarian and ceasefire arrangements as a matter of priority. 

Full remarks at the Security Council here

Iraq

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), met on 8 March with the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi. They discussed the current political situation in Iraq and the region.  

On 7 March, UNAMI released a gender analysis report of Iraq’s 2021 national elections. The report reveals that Iraqi women candidates were able to win seats, beyond their quota, despite obstacles such as gender stereotypes, security challenges, insufficient political support, and the limited campaign experience of some first-time candidates. The performance of Iraqi women in the October elections marks a major improvement from the 2018 elections, with 29% representation up from 25%.  

Read more here  

Yemen

Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, concluded on 10 March the first week of bilateral consultations with various Yemeni stakeholders. He met with the leaders from the General People’s Congress and representatives from Al-Islah Party, the Yemeni Socialist Party and the Nasserist Unionist People's Organization to discuss ideas to chart a path towards a sustainable political settlement to the conflict in Yemen. Among other things, participants highlighted the need for a ceasefire and the urgency of returning to negotiations and resuming the peace process. 

Read more here

Libya

Stephanie Williams, Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Libya, continued her good offices and mediation efforts this week. She met with various female members of the High Council of State on 10 March in Tripoli, where she briefed on the UN initiative to form a joint committee that consists of representatives from the House of Representatives and the High Council of State to establish a sound constitutional basis for holding elections. On 9 March, she met with President Mohamed Al-Menfi of the Presidency Council, where they agreed on the importance of preserving calm and respecting the aspirations of the 2.8 million Libyans who registered to vote. On 8 March, she met with the western members of the Joint Military Commission (JMC 5+5). 

Find out more about her latest engagements in the region

West Africa and the Sahel 

The United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), from 7 to 8 March in Dakar, Senegal, held a Desk-to-Desk (D2D) meeting to enhance coordination in addressing the various challenges to peace and security in the sub-region. 

Read more here 

Together with the Development Coordination Office (DCO) and the UN Resident Coordinators of the Mano River Union (MRU) Member States, UNOWAS held on 10 March a meeting on common challenges to peace, security and sustainable development in the Mano River sub-region. The participants shared information and analyses on various subjects, including drug trafficking, organized crime, illegal exploitation of resources, the growing ethnicization of politics, the instrumentalization of the justice system and the use of hate speech in the media.

Read more here

Great Lakes region

Huang Xia, Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region met on 10 March with the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt. They exchanged views on how to achieve the global goals for road safety and halve the number of road traffic victims by 2030 in the Great Lakes Region. 

Central Africa

François Louncény Fall, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), concluded on 6 March a three-day visit to São Tomé and Príncipe. Meeting with President Carlos Vila Nova and Prime Minister Jorge Bom Jesus, Special Representative Fall hailed São Tomé and Príncipe for its stability and peaceful power alternation. He encouraged the country’s leaders to continue to enhance the participation of women in all areas of decision-making, and speed up the adoption by the National Assembly of the law requiring that women hold 30% of elective seats. He reaffirmed UNOCA's commitment to supporting the country's efforts to consolidate its democratic gains and encouraged the country’s leaders to ensure that the elections to be held in September-October 2022 are peaceful, inclusive, free and fair. “Your country is a model of democracy in the subregion, and I urge you to do everything possible to maintain and consolidate this achievement,” Fall said. He also met with representatives of political parties and civil society organizations.

International Women’s Day  

The photo exhibit “In Their Hands: Women Taking Ownership of Peace” organized by the Department of Peace Operations, in collaboration with the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and UN Women, was shown at the Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates as well as in Nairobi, Kenya, in Sudan, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this week. Featuring women campaigning for peace seen through the lens of women photographers, the exhibit highlights women’s role in bringing and maintaining peace in the Middle East, South America and Africa. The exhibit is currently also on display at Albee Square, Downtown Brooklyn, until the end of the month. Furthermore, on 23 March from 10-11.30 am (EST), “Women, Peace, Power – a live discussion on women photographers as peacebuilders” will be held on Zoom and focus on the challenges faced by women as photographers and storytellers in conflict and post-conflict settings, their aspirations and roles in advancing peace. The event will be moderated by Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming and will feature the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Photoville, four of the photographers from the exhibit. To follow the discussion, register here by 22 March. 

The UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) organized a series of activities to mark International Women’s Day in Kadugli, South Kordofan. A group of women leaders, featured in the Photoville exhibit ‘In Their Hands: Women Taking Ownership of Peace’, discussed with students and teachers from the Kadugli Secondary School for Girls, the challenges they face in their communities. Special Representative of the Secretary-General Volker Perthes hailed the prominent role of Sudanese women and stressed the importance of empowering girls, protecting their rights, and investing in their education.

Read more here

The UN Office to the African Union (UNOAU) launched on 8 March a new website She Stands for Peace, with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government of Sweden. The website will function as a comprehensive source of information on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the Women, Peace and Security agenda as it pertains to Africa. It will also contain key information, such as national and regional action plans, UN and AU policy documents and reports, as well as links to UNOAU’s “She Stands For Peace” podcasts. 

Read more here

Listen to podcasts

Celebrating International Women’s Day, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General/Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Irena Vojáčková-Sollorano met with female students of a UNDP-UNICEF supported school in Basra. The visit was made together with UNDP Iraq Resident Representative Zena Ali-Ahmad, UNICEF Iraq Resident Representative Sheema SenGupta, and WFP Iraq acting Deputy Resident Representative Maysaa al-Ghribawy. Separately, UNAMI’s Human Rights Office organized events in Basra, Ninewa and Kirkuk.

Read more here

Joanna Wronecka, the Special Coordinator of the Secretary-General for Lebanon, visited on 8 March the Lebanese army’s first Gender Department. At the headquarters of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in Yarzeh, the Special Coordinator met the head of the army’s Gender Department Colonel Marwa Saoud. “Women’s role in promoting peace and security is vital, whether in decision-making positions or at the grassroots,” said the Special Coordinator. She then took part in a roundtable discussion organized by UN Women with women-led organizations working on issues of peace, security and social cohesion in Lebanon. 

Read more here

Peacebuilding

The PBF Advisory Group concluded their two-year mandate this week. The Secretary-General received the Group and the Head of the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) Elizabeth Spehar to discuss peacebuilding resource mobilization and the Fund’s impact. The Group underscored the importance of accelerating the organization of the upcoming High-Level General Assembly Meeting on 27 April as a key event, and reiterated that contribution to the PBF would be essential to achieve a more predictable foundation for the Fund. The Group was briefed on the Fund’s investment priorities for 2022, including plans to pilot a new approach to the Gender Promotion Initiative to better support institution-building of women’s civil society organizations. The Group highlighted the UN’s role in facilitating Member State commitments, and they consulted representatives of key UN partners on ways to promote programmatic innovation and integrated responses, including to support women and youth peacebuilders. The Group also met with the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) Chair Ambassador and Vice-Chairs to discuss PBF-PBC synergies and preparations for the High-Level General Assembly meeting. ASG Spehar expressed profound thanks for the Group’s dedicated oversight and counsel over their mandate, which saw a further increase in voluntary contributions to the Fund. 

PBSO completed the first assessment of the PBC Strategic Action Plan on youth and peacebuilding, covering the period from 1 February 2021 to 31 January 2022. The assessment showed that there has been a significant increase in both the number of young peacebuilders who briefed the Commission and the priority given to youth issues in the Commission’s work. A record 12 young briefers appeared before the Commission, far more than the previous years, and the participation rate of young briefers rose from 5.4% in 2020 to 44.4% in 2021. The vast majority of PBC outcome documents (53 out of 67) contained references to youth, and almost all ambassadorial-level PBC country-specific, regional and thematic meetings (25 out of 27) highlighted youth-related issues and innovative approaches. The majority of the concept notes prepared by PBSO (28 out of 33) included references to youth. Almost every time the PBC presented advice and briefings to the Security Council, General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (13 out of 15 advice and briefings), it mentioned the importance of including young people in peacebuilding efforts. These achievements are a promising start as they demonstrate that the strategic action plan has become an important tool and foundation to further raise youth considerations in PBC’s work and discussions.  

The full assessment can be accessed here

This week, ASG Spehar met with Member States, civil society, the Permanent Observer of the African Union, UN system colleagues (including the ASG for Human Rights and the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth) as part of her introductory meetings. They had a particular focus on financing for peacebuilding in view of the visit of the Secretary-General’s Advisory Group of the Peacebuilding Fund and the upcoming High-level Meeting. The ASG joined the President of the General Assembly’s Holhuashi Dialogue on Women, Peace and Security on behalf of the USG DiCarlo and DPPA, and spoke at the World Bank Group’s Fragility Forum, focused on the impact of peacebuilding work. 

Next Week