Speakers at a special event today highlighted the private sector’s potential to help fragile countries emerge from years, if not decades, of conflict by creating jobs and economic stability while healing rifts among diverse peoples.
The Liberia configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission today adopted the draft outcome of its second review of the implementation of mutual commitments on peacebuilding in that country.
The new Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission today urged members to “put our heads together” on ways to reinforce the body’s founding vision — providing strategic advice and harnessing expertise and financing to help post-conflict countries avoid sliding back into war or chaos — so that in 2013, the Commission could gain its rightful place within the United Nations peacebuilding architecture and beyond.
Commending Sierra Leone for committing to peaceful, free and credible elections, the Peacebuilding Commission today stressed the need for national leadership and sustained international support in managing the root causes of conflict, addressing emerging threats to peace consolidation and establishing conditions conducive to holding the presidential, parliamentary and local council polls, slated for 17 November.
Heads of State and Government and other high officials of the nations that made up the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission this afternoon reaffirmed their commitment to bolstering the stability of countries emerging from conflict through reinvigorated international efforts, in a special event coinciding with the start of the sixty-seventh General Assembly session.
Adopting today an initial assessment of the first review of a joint strategy between the Government of Guinea and the Peacebuilding Commission to promote national reconciliation, reform the security sector, and provide job opportunities for women and young people, the Peacebuilding Commission agreed that the country’s political transition must culminate in the holding of free, transparent and politically and technically credible legislative elections.
The new Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission pledged today that he would pursue “the path of inclusion” throughout 2012 to enhance the six-year-old body’s ability to mobilize resources and align key actors in assisting the populations of countries emerging from conflict.
Political engagement would be a key component for building peace in the Central African Republic, the top United Nations official in that country said this morning as the Peacebuilding Commission configuration dealing with that country met to adopt the second review of the Strategic Framework for Peacebuilding in the Central African Republic.
Seizing the opportunity to deepen democratic gains triggered by the political transition in Guinea, the Peacebuilding Commission today approved a joint strategy to promote national reconciliation, reform the security sector, and provide job opportunities for women and young people, in a country where, President Alpha Condé said: “Everything is a priority.”
Praising Burundi today for having held peaceful elections in 2010, made “breathtaking” strides in establishing key democratic institutions and, assumed the presidency of the East African Community while still a young member, delegates in the Peacebuilding Commission held the fifth and final review of the strategic framework for the nation, calling it a “milestone” in a process that had begun four years ago.
The Peacebuilding Commission decided today that it would place Guinea on its agenda, acting for the first time without a referral from the Security Council but responding instead to a request from the West African country itself.
The incoming Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission today pledged to strengthen that body’s role within the United Nations in order to resolve disputes and restore peace and hope to nations emerging from conflict.
The Peacebuilding Commission and the Government of Liberia set forth this morning the terms of their partnership to strengthen the rule of law, support security-sector reform and promote national reconciliation as the West African nation sought to consolidate peace and heal the historic rift between indigenous and “American” Liberians.
At the inaugural high-level stakeholders meeting in New York, the Member States of the United Nations endorsed the importance of the Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund and pledged further support. A total of 33 Member States spoke at the meeting on 4 November, commending the Fund as a fast, relevant and catalytic resource for supporting peacebuilding initiatives in countries emerging from conflict.
Acting without a vote this afternoon, the Peacebuilding Commission adopted the draft review of the outcome of its 10 June 2009 High-level Special Session on Sierra Leone.
The Peacebuilding Commission established a country configuration for Liberia this morning to implement priorities set out in letters from the Government of Liberia and the Security Council dated 27 May and 19 July 2010, respectively.
The Peacebuilding Commission today adopted the conclusions of its fourth biannual review of the implementation of the Strategic Framework for Peacebuilding in Burundi, following an appeal by Burundi’s Minister of External Relations and International Cooperation for partners to redouble efforts to mobilize resources for the country’s elections in May –- the anticipated crowning moment in Burundi’s peace consolidation -- and to make permanent the results achieved so far.
The United Nations today announced the selection of the members of the Senior Advisory Group for the Review of International Civilian Capacities. The Advisory Group, named by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, includes senior figures from a diverse range of backgrounds who couple operational experience in the aftermath of conflict with a deep understanding of the United Nations system and its Member States.
Despite an encouraging commitment to peacebuilding priorities on the part of the Guinea-Bissau authorities, there had been only slow progress in security-sector reform, economic development and combating drug trafficking, the Chairperson of the Peacebuilding Commission’s relevant country-specific configuration said today.
The Peacebuilding Commission must create closer ties with the Bretton Woods institutions in 2010, in addition to a more structured relationship with the Security Council and streamlined working methods to better and more swiftly help post-conflict countries sustain peace and development, Peter Wittig (Germany), the newly elected Chairperson of the Commission’s Organizational Committee, said today.
