Briefing on the occasion of Peacebuilding Week (22-26 June 2026)

All right.
Good afternoon.
Welcome and thank you.
As you may recall, more than 20 years ago, in his report on Lager Freedom, the Secretary-General then Secretary-General Kofiannan proposed the creation of a peace building Commission and 20 years later, here we are.
So we're delighted to have our esteemed colleagues here as we mark the first ever peace building week, marking an important milestone, which is 20 years since the inaugural session of the Peace Building Commission.
We are joined by Elizabeth Spehar, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peace Building and Peace Support, Ambassador Mohila permanent representative of the Kingdom of Morocco, who is here in his capacity as chair of the Peace Building Commission.
And with him is Ambassador Iham Mustafa Awad Mustafa, permanent representative of Egypt to the United Nations and Ambassador Samuel Žbogar, permanent representative of Slovenia to the United Nations.
So I think, Elizabeth, are you opening? Please.
So please go ahead.
Yes.
Hello.
Go ahead.
You can hear me.
All right.
Well, thank you so much, Stephan.
I'm really delighted to be here this afternoon in excellent company, I must say, very distinguished company to my left and to my right to speak a little bit about Peace building Week, UN Peace Building Week.
This is the opening day of Peace Building Week, which will take place from today, 22nd of June all the way through to the 26th of June.
This is the first ever peace building week and we are commemorating peace building under an overarching theme UN Peace Building A 20, Partnerships for Innovation, Inclusion and Impact.
This is quite an important year for peace building because it marks the 20th anniversary of two very important institutions that are part of what we call the peace building architecture, the Peace Building Commission, the 31 member intergovernmental body, and the Secretary-General Peace Building Fund.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the PVC's first meeting, which took place in June of 2006, and also the establishment of the SG's peace building Fund.
I think that holding this week in the current circumstances could not be more relevant or more timely.
We all know that we are facing an increasing number of conflicts around the world, a lot of protracted conflicts that we have not managed to solve or help solve.
Very complex scenarios, a lot of loss of life to conflict, forced displacement, and much more.
In this context, someone might say, or you might say, Well, why why peace building? I think it's absolutely critical, and it's not optional.
It is essential.
We need more investments in stability, resilience, and sustainable development.
Okay.
We're very pleased from the Secretariat side to have welcomed the work of our member states, first of all, through the Peace Building Commission, certainly, but very importantly through the Security Council and through the entire General Assembly.
Last year, you'll hear more about it in a moment where they conducted a peace building architectural review and came out with two resolutions that, among other things, spawned this peace building week.
I think it's an excellent opportunity to take peace building to the next level, to make it even more relevant and more impactful on ground.
The resolutions emphasized a implementation and impact above all.
So going beyond the resolutions on going beyond the declarations, the intentions to real action on the ground.
I think a critical aspect of peace building is its focus on prevention.
So if you look at the resolutions from a decade ago, member states were talking about peace building being preventing the outbreak, the escalation, the continuation or occurrence of conflict.
So all about preventive action.
And we do know, and we have proof of that, that prevention does work, and it's the most cost effective way to address tensions and rising divisions in a society.
We often talk about the really difficult conflicts in this room.
You are often here to hear about what we haven't been able to do or achieve and how things are getting so much worse in so many contexts.
So it would not be strange that you would ask, well, why should we pay attention to peace building? Let me give you at least three reasons.
First of all, because failing to invest in prevention and peace building, failing to pay attention to it, has costs, and I think those costs are enormous.
When we let grievances fester in societies, when exclusion becomes the norm, when weak institutions are not strengthened, when deep rooted problems are not addressed, cycles of violence and humanitarian emergencies often erupt, or they reoccur.
Secondly, because in addition to focusing on the crisis and on what is not working, we also do need to pay attention to the things that are working.
I know that it's not very popular to talk about good news stories, and peace building stories are very rarely in the headlines.
It is what's not working.
It's what's falling apart that is in the headlines.
You know, I can give you examples of Timor-Leste of Liberia, Côte D'ivoire.
These are countries that have known and not that long ago, very deep levels of conflict and violence.
They have been on a path for some time now to consolidating peace.
And these, I consider are successful stories of peace building, and they should be better known.
Why also should we pay more attention to peace building? Again, even from a monetary, from a financial point of view, investing in prevention is cost effective.
And at a moment in time where everybody's tightening their belts, countries are cutting official development assistance in many cases, every dollar absolutely counts.
And we have seen from the Pathways for Peace study of seven years ago, eight years ago to a recent IMF study that for every dollar invented for every dollar invested in prevention, you can save many, many more dollars.
You can save up to 103, according to the IMF.
So Peace Building Week provides us with a number of opportunities.
It provides us an opportunity to convene governments and all partners around a shared agenda for peace.
It allows us to reflect on 20 years of peace building and learn from good practices, not just commemorating or celebrating, but really learning, and it helps us to focus and to look ahead and build on the momentum that we have created over the years and hopefully focus in areas such as innovation, inclusion, and impact.
Here in New York, we are going to have a number of activities for peace building Week.
The program includes three official meetings at UN headquarters, which the chair of the Peace Building Commission will speak about in a moment.
We will have a series of anchor events organized by my office, the Peace Building and Peace Support Office, including a peace event with young peace Builders, a Civil Society UN dialogue on peace building, an event on innovation with private sector partners, and a screening of our impact spotlight documentary on the Gambia.
There's also a wide range of side events organized by member states and partner organizations and the ambassadors of Egypt and Slovenia to my left and over to my right.
We'll shortly go through some of those activities for your information.
I would encourage everyone to explore the program for Peace Building Week and to join the conversations throughout this week.
There are full details of all the events that are available on the UN Peace Building website.
And let me just finish by saying that the member states decided on Peace Building Week as an important annual event.
So this is the first one, but it certainly will not be the last one.
And I think this is a crucial aspect of what has been decided.
We have an opportunity now through Peace Building Week, to make sure that at least once per year, we are focusing on the fact that we are not investing enough in prevention.
We are not investing enough in peace building.
And there's a lot more money going to war.
There's a lot more money going to deterrence without deterrence being undergirded by a more comprehensive approach to building and sustaining peace.
I think that's the more dangerous way forward.
And each and every year, we can reflect on that during peace building week.
We can look at our strategies, we can look at the challenges, we can look at what we've achieved, and we can get real about matching our action to the rhetoric.
So I do hope that you will all be engaged.
This is not a week just for UN.
It's not a week just for diplomats.
It's not a week just for New York.
We are seeing many activities across the globe, and I hope that year on year, those activities by civil society organizations, grassroots groups, governments, regional organizations, private sector actors who are interested in peace, young people.
I really hope young people will be inspired by Peace Building Week.
Because we need everybody, everybody to chip in.
And this is why, again, the theme this week is partnerships above all.
And my fervent hope is that peace building week, this first peace building week, will be the start of being able to create a real, genuine and lasting constituency for peace across the world.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Ambassador Hilau, please.
Thank you very much, my good friend, Stephanie.
For me, as president of the PBC, it's a gen a pleasure to address you at the opening of this inaugural Peace Building Week, a week this very purpose is to bring into the light the peace building and sustaining peace efforts of the United Nations so often carried out far from headlines.
We have placed have placed under fitting banner, UN Peace Building A 20 Partnerships for Innovation, inclusion, and impacts.
Allow me at the outset to express my sincere gratitude to Slovenia and Egypt for the patient diplomacy that gave us last November the Twin resolution on PBR adopted by consensus and the General Assembly and the Security Council, and no less for their tireless work in coordinating the side events that member states will offer throughout this week.
Take this opportunity to congratulate my dear brother Ihab for the brilliant victory of Egypt team yesterday.
So I cannot avoid this.
You enjoyed doing the game, and we enjoyed also your victory.
Indeed, I come to you directly from the very first engagement of this week, the joint session of the economic and social Concept and our commission on advancing social cohesion through job creation in peace building context.
I wish to thank Ecosc for productive exchange on a question none of us can answer alone and which demands precisely our combined efforts for what we have learned at times at agreed cost that no peace agreement survives an empty stomach and that no reconciliation endures without a job, a wage, and the dignity they carry.
Allow me to look briefly at the days that lies ahead.
Tomorrow, the 23rd of June, the Security Council will be briefed on the Sortral African Republic, brotherly country, this configuration the Kingdom of Morocco has the honor to chair.
We will carry to the council the voice of nation that has chosen the harder and the nobler part of national dialogue and patient reconciliation.
And we will invite the international community to meet that courage with support that is sustained and predictable.
On the 24th at noon and here, if you will allow me to set my chairmanship heart aside for a moment and speak in my national capacity, Morocco will convene with the African Union side events on regional approaches and the future of sustainable peace building with friends from El Salvador, the Philippines, and Ghana, three continents, one conviction that regional organizations are not the spectators of peace, but its first architects, its first builders.
On the morning of 25th June, the General Assembly will hold its debate on peace building and sustaining peace when the entire membership lends its voices and its weight and reminds us that this agenda belongs not to a community, nor to a configuration, but to the whole of our family.
And that the same afternoon 25th, June at 3:00, the commission will convene the flagship event of this week, the annual session of the PBC honored by the personal participation of the Secretary-General and Excellency Mr.
António Guterres.
There we will take the measure of the impact of peace Building fund, and we will hear from civil society, from private sector, and from the international financial institutions.
For peace today is built through partnership for it is not or it is not built at all.
Dear colleagues and friends, a single thread runs through these days from risk to resilience, from fragility to stability, from fine words to firm needs.
It is the conviction that peace is not merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of opportunity, of justice, and of hope.
The commission you will see at work this week is resolved to honor the promise of the review, greater national ownership, closer partnership with international financial institutions, financing that is more predictable and above all, results that reach the women, the man, and the young people still waiting for the dividend of peace.
We count on your attention and on your pants to carry this message for beyond the walls of the United Nations.
I thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Ambassador.
Please, Ambassador Mustafa, please.
Thank you very much spokesperson.
It's a great privilege to share this podium here together with His Excellency, Ambassador Hilal, chair of the PBC, to whom I would like to reciprocate his very nice gesture, congratulating Egypt on its victory yesterday with also returning the same compliment for the impeccable form that Morocco has shown so far in the first two games in the World Cup.
And one of the two games that I watched so far was one of them for Egypt, naturally, and the other one, I visited the stadium here to watch Morocco and Brazil.
And I was so proud to be seated among the Moroccan fans on that particular afternoon.
So thank you very much.
I am pleased also to be a accompanied here by Aj Sphar whose tireless efforts at the helm of PPBSO can not be over emphasized.
Really, we all highly appreciate the effort and the stellar work that you're doing in championing the cause of peace building within the United Nations system.
And last but certainly not least, my partner, and good friend Ambassador Samuel of Slovenia, who is the original co facilitator.
I am just stepping in the shoes of my predecessor, Ambassador Osama, who has done all the great work.
So we are here today to recognize really the excellent work that Ambassador Samuel has contributed in order to reach what has proven to be a very rare instance of consensus.
And not only a consensus within the General Assembly, it's a consensus for the General Assembly and the Security Council jointly adopting the resolution on the PBR 2025.
This is a great achievement, and that is a good segue for me to really say how peace building is unique in the Union system.
It is unique because it's co owned by two of the main the primary the principal organs of the United Nations.
But also, we are coming just now from a very important, a joint meeting between the Peace Building Commission and Ecosc bringing peace building as the embodiment of how the United Nations should act in coherence and should act across its three main pillars, peace and security, Humanitarian and development pillars.
So that's the uniqueness of the peace building architecture, and that's the uniqueness of the peace building in the United Nations and the unique feature of the peace building architecture for which this peace building week is yet another achievement.
Spokesperson spoke about the 20 years ago, the inaugural meeting of the Peace Building Commission took place on the 20th of June 2006 in the presence of late former Secretary-General Kofi Anan.
I was privileged to be in attendance.
With as a young diplomat at that time, a member of the delegation of Egypt, I sat behind my ambassador at that time, and we were all very, very proud of the moment to launch and to inaugurate the peace Building Commission.
It took a long time, 20 years of hard work.
To place peace building now at the center of what the UN need to do in order to build and sustain peace.
And that's a great achievement crowned by the outcome of the 2025 Peace Building Architecture Review Egypt has the honor, together with Slovenia to coordinate the program of member state led side events taking place throughout this week.
We are gratified by the strong response from member states, the United Nations system, regional organizations, civil society, and other stakeholders which demonstrate the growing recognition that peace building is not just a niche agenda.
It is central to conflict prevention and sustaining peace and for achieving sustainable development and the SDGs most prominently.
We promise you with very rich and diverse topics rotating around the theme of the week, including through the angle of financing, building resilient national institutions, transition settings, conflict prevention, and very prominently the side event that Egypt is organizing as part of the peace building Week on peace infrastructures.
And this is a central aspect of how Egypt approaches peace building as the embodiment of national ownership.
And the national resilience.
And I think this is exactly what we need to emphasize during peace building week, how partnerships can help build national resilience and build national ownership.
Whether through partnerships with national institutions, regional organizations, international financial institutions, civil society, women and youth organizations, or the private sector.
Our common objective, Slovenia and Egypt during this week will be to support a presentation of how nationally identified priorities can deliver impact on the ground.
For Africa, these principles are particularly relevant.
Egypt has advocated for strengthening national capacities for conflict prevention and peace building, supporting African led solutions, and enhancing cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union.
Egypt is the champion to what we call in the African Union, the post conflict Reconstruction and Development policy, PCRD with the through which we are trying to synchronize both agendas between the United Nations and the African Union and to ensure more coherence in the approach to peace building on the continent.
And as Ambassador Hill just mentioned, one of the flagship meetings of the Peace Building Commission this week is to showcase the progress made in the Central African Republic, which I think is a very important and very significant example of how National ownership together with support from the African Union and the United Nations can get a country that far.
Finally, and as we begin this first peace building week, let us ensure that it becomes more than an annual gathering.
That's very important.
Let it become a platform for practical cooperation, policy innovation, and measurable impact.
Most importantly, let it help bring peace building and prevention closer to the people and communities we seek to serve.
Thank you, Ambassador Mustafa, thank you.
And I'll turn now to Ambassador Bogar please.
We're switching here.
Thank you.
And then we'll take some questions.
Ambassador.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Unfortunately, we don't have a team at the World Cup, so I'm just happy for the two of my colleagues and their teams.
Thanks.
Next time, we are better in the winter sports.
I'll repeat some of the messages that we just heard, and I think we didn't coordinate with my co facilitator.
Um, but it just shows how like minded we are in our thinking and reflections.
Because what I wanted to say is at the beginning at the beginning, is that the multilateralism may be facing many challenges, and we see that polarization in the General Assembly is growing, and we have more and more solutions that are adopted by vote, not by consensus.
And the principle of consensus seems to be eroding.
And that's the fact, I think, that we are observing every day.
So, and yet, I think we have to take a moment to recall that last November, the General Assembly and Security Council, as my colleague said, came together by consensus to adopt a solution on peace building architecture review.
And this is just, I think we don't need another proof of the importance that all member states are putting in peace building, in maintaining sustaining peace, in building peace, in building resilience for peace.
I think that's important message that all member states see the important role that UN is playing and can even play more in peace building.
I think that I want you to say as introduction.
Um, the objective of the 2025 P Bar review, of course, was to enter resolutions, was to enhance the impact of the UN peace building, especially in the field.
And the paragraph on peace building Week was inserted by two co facilitators and approved and by member states without hesitation, I have to say, the only reflection was about the cost, and that's why you have a paragraph you have a line there without additional costs, but there was no questioning about the value of having peace building week.
For two reasons, I believe.
One is to foster dialogue, inclusive dialogue on peace building approaches, to promote sharing of good practices among member states and the partners, and that's continuing discussions that started in the peace building in the PBR process.
And two, very important is to increase visibility and awareness about the UN peace building and thus also encourage countries who need help to come forward to the Peace Building Commission, as well as to encourage partners from international financial institutions to civil society, local peace builders, women, and youth to join forces for building peace.
I think these are the two, messages or reasons, I think, why this peace building week really got all the support from member states.
And also, when you look at the program of the peace building week and also the side events that are organized by member states, and you see that there are more than 20 side events organized in one week, I think that demonstrates the u the interest of the members to discuss the topics.
And the topics that you have as side events are the topics that were most discussed during the PBR discussions.
Some were also had also there were different views on some of those topics.
But at the end, as I said, we got consensus on all of those paragraphs.
And these are, of course, one of the most important about the national ownership, which was stressed over and over in the discussions that we have.
Um.
Then, of course, as was mentioned, some transitions from peacekeeping, on prevention.
I think prevention was really important topic during the discussions.
And it's the link the building the peace building link to development, to the human rights, to the rule of law, to the climate change, to the mental health.
All these elements are now being developed or will be discussed further in, in different side events.
Then, of course, financing for peace building was very important topic or continues to be important topic.
The impact of the financing, the impact of the peace building, all the discussion about the partners from regional organizations to all other stakeholders, um including, of course, the local peace Builders, CSOs, women and youth.
So I think what the Peace Building week is doing is making the PBA not one off event every five years, but making it a process.
So the topics that were raised, discussed as the most important for member states then continue to be discussed throughout the year, but then in concentrated form during the peace building week.
And I believe that these peace building weeks are guarantee that the next PBR in five years will have so much more elements for discussion, and it will be so much more substantial since the substance will be built up over the years.
So yeah, thank you all for being part of this process, and we're looking forward to all the interesting discussions coming forward.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Ambassador.
We'll take some question, please, Karma.
Thank you, Stepan.
Thank you for doing this important briefing.
And the microphone will close.
And thank you for the efforts you are exerting to further the noble cause of peace and peace building.
My question is to Mr.
Chairman, His Excellency Ambassador Hill.
Morocco chairs the Peace Building Commission as it opens the very first peace building week in the history of the United Nations.
What does Morocco bring to this chairmanship and why begin such a tradition now and Morocco stewardship.
Thank you.
That's all.
Yes.
Thank you very much for your question.
What Morocco brings to the PBC.
We bring our commitment, our conviction, and the voice of country that have been working since its independence for peace.
Morocco have participated to all the UN missions.
First one in Congo.
We were the first African country that sent troops there.
After we sent troops to Cambodia, to Haiti, to Balkans, to South Sudan, to Somalia, LDC, Sour African Republic.
We have more than 110,000 people that served the flag of the United Nations, and we lost almost around 100 people who paid with their lives.
The commitment of Morocco to the peace and international security.
And beyond that, you may remember that Morocco is sharing for more than 12 years the configuration of Soutral African Republic.
And we have been very successful because I think this configuration was the first ever in the PBC to receive a head of state of Southal African Republic to come just to show the credibility that we managed to put and to enforce in the configuration.
We were also the first to inaugurate the tradition now that have been accepted to send to prepare an advice to the Security Council.
As you know before, there was no bridge between Security Council and the peace Building Commission or the configurations.
Now, thanks to the experience that Morocco managed to draw in Southal African Republic, we succeeded in having trust between the configuration and Security Council and also the confidence of this country in Southal African Republic.
Last observation because we believe in peace, and we are committed to peace, and just last week, we celebrate the first International Day against hate speech.
It's Morocco who was behind this.
And as you know, so many wars started just with words, with hate speeches.
And we are very proud to serve.
And at the same time, we are hammered by our duty there, and we will do whatever will be possible to enforce the role of the PBC.
One last observation.
For us, peace is just not only chairing the car configuration or with honor the PBC, we are also acting with the countries, for example, the Southal African Republic.
We organized a round table for fundraising to finance the economic plan and recovery of Soutral African Republic, because as you know, there is no peace or stability or recovering without development, prosperity, and cooperation.
And we managed to have to collect more than $9 billion in Casablanca.
So this joining the effort in the UN here as commitment, as brass, same time working and sacrificing paying sacrifices on the field in Southal African Republic, on the other side, with the partners, with international financial institutions bringing support, economic support, and enforcing the partnership between the country who is under the umbrella of the configuration of the PBC and international financial institutions and also the state and regional banks and regional organizations.
For all this reason, We believe humbly that we deserve to all I would not say we deserve.
We are serving.
We are serving the peace and serving this very important PBC, this organ of the United Nations.
I thank you.
Thank you.
We'll go online to Ahmed Ahmed Fay, please go ahead.
Thank you, Steph.
This is Ahmad Fay ATN News.
And first, I wish to thank You Excellencies for their briefing on behalf of my colleagues, the other UN correspondents.
And I start with a question to Ambassador Hill and miss Spehar 20 years after the creation of the Peace Building Commission and the Peace Building Fund, What is the strongest evidence that the UN peace building architect is now preventing conflict rather than mainly responding after crises have already erupted? And a question to Ambassador Mustafa and Ambassador Spiegar Egypt and Slovenia helped steer the 2025 Peace Building Architect Review.
What concrete benchmarks should member states use over the next year to judge whether the review has moved from agreed language to actual implementation on the ground? And I'll keep my last question after this if Steph will allow me.
Thank you.
Good.
Ambassador Hilla, please.
Yes.
What's the PBC have done for peace under the umbrella of the United Nations? I think when this organ was created 20 years ago, it was created to manage crisis, tensions, and recoveries of the country that have civil war or wars or ethnic one or Russian one.
Now we are more in the logic and in the mood of preventing.
When I say preventing, it's before the configurations were just to help countries to recover from their situation.
Now, countries are coming without being in conflict, but because they have symptoms of crisis or tension or economic problems, they are coming to seek The support of the PBC, the SC of the PBF, to help them to face the challenges of the post war situation or the reconstriction of their national institutions, especially in transitional justice, in also reforming the security apparatus, or in building their economy and bringing prosperity and hopes.
We have so many requests that have been expressed, especially from Africa, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea Bissau just two weeks ago, the Minister of Justice of Guinea Bissau came to discuss about the progress they have made and the reforms that have been launched thanks to the support of the UN and thanks to the support of the PBF.
We will receive the Colombian authorities to talk about their peace process.
We are in process of discussing with Haiti also to invite them.
There is possibility to have other countries, one I would not scott it, but one from Middle East that is looking to come here to expose their situation, to seek for the assistance, for the help, and also for the advisors because the PBC is not seen like the Security Council where there is accountability.
It's a platform or it's a space where country is coming to have exchange discussion with member states and to seek their effort and their action to mobilize international support, international financing.
Also, and also to keep their situation on the screen if ever they are on the security council, to keep their situation at the top of the priority of the international community and especially the security council.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Please.
Yes, thank you very much.
Well, in terms of the role, both of the PBC, the PBF, and other actors, because, of course, we are not alone, and as the peace building architecture, we actually mobilize a big part of the UN system in favor of peace building, we do have, I think a lot of things to be proud of and contributions that we have made.
But as I was saying earlier, they're not always so evident because the preventive contexts are the ones that are usually the least focused upon me give you a specific example.
We've been working hand in glove, both through the PBC and through the support of the Peace Building Fund with other actors to assist Mauritania in its journey to get towards a national prevention strategy.
Mauritania, of course, is part of the Shel, but it is not yet, thankfully, that part of the Sahel that is overrun by by terrorism and extremist groups.
It has a lot of pressures at its borders.
Of course, it has internal pressures as well.
But the government and other national stakeholders and local stakeholders have decided that they want to invest in strengthening and improving institutions and investing in preventive actions that will go to um, some of the root causes of the tensions in order precisely not to fall into the deep conflict that has unfortunately engulfed, some of their neighbors.
So the PBF, the Peace Building Fund, has been investing over a number of years in various peace building initiatives in the context of Mauritania, and Mauritania just recently presented its national prevention strategy to the Peace Building Commission members and seems keen to continue that relationship for the political accompaniment that the PBC can provide.
Also its support in terms of resource mobilization.
But as Ambassador Hi was saying, there are also a lot of other examples.
Santo Principe is a very small country that thankfully is also not considered a huge conflict context, but they are cognizant of the internal fragilities do exist in that country.
They want to do something about it.
They also elaborated a strategy, a national prevention strategy, and they are actively working towards implementing it with our support.
Papua New Guinea is another case from the Asia Pacific region.
None of these again are in the headlines.
They're not talked about much, but precisely again, it's the dog that didn't bark.
It is that case, whether it's on the African continent or elsewhere in the world that has its fragilities, has its issues, but it's the political will and the resources and the support that when they are there can really make a difference.
So I would say that there's a lot more that we could also share, and we're also very cognizant of the fact that when one says evidence, it's pretty hard to have hard evidence and clear evidence about something that you helped that didn't happen.
And we are working actively within my office of Peace Building and Peace Support Office to try to invest more in impact assessments and evaluations that will show in as measurable a manner as we can, how these investments in building and sustaining peace, whether it's investments in social cohesion, in reconciliation initiatives, in inclusive livelihoods or other actions, that this actually has made a measurable difference on the ground.
There will be later this week on Friday, I believe it is a very interesting session that I hope you will all join, and that is a spotlight on the Gambia.
We basically crafted a study or it was done through an independent outfit, looking at the Gambia's investments in transitional justice initiatives over a large number of years and how that has actually contributed.
To building peace in that country.
It highlights the work that we have been able to do through the peace building architecture.
So the PBF, the PBC, and all of our partners across the system, the agency's funds and programs, but also other actors.
But above all, it highlights the role of the Gambians themselves.
So as Ambassador Hila was saying, you know, when you have that national ownership and when you have that the political will and the requisite resources to go forward, you can really address some very difficult internal issues in a country that help make it stronger vis-à-vis the many pressures that that country may face and the fragilities that could lead it otherwise to systemic and violent conflict.
I hope we'll have more examples of impact in evidence for you over the years.
But again, we are investing quite a bit in generating this information both to again, prove, if you will, that prevention and peace building work, also very much to learn from those experiences.
And then finally, on your question with respect to what concrete benchmarks there are and how can one, again, measure success against the resolutions that were passed last year, I would say, again, that I thought it was very relevant that the resolutions were quite clear that the main focus of member states was on implementation and impact.
They don't want these resolutions just to rest on the page.
They want it to mean something on ground.
Um, of course, that's always easier said than done, but the Peace Building Commission asked my office to put together a kind of an implementation matrix that they can use and that we can all use to see exactly how member states and other partners are going to translate those words into action and into sustainable peace on ground.
So I would say that we do have quite clear benchmarks and actions that the member states have committed to There are parts of the resolution the resolutions that commit the Secretariat or other parts of the system and far beyond the IFIs, even the private sector, certainly civil society.
And we can organize ourselves to follow that.
And I think we all should follow it.
We need to be held accountable.
We need to take, as I said earlier, something that might sound like rhetoric and really translate it into concrete results on ground.
Thanks.
Thank you, Ambassador Mustaf A Bogard.
I don't know which one you want to go first? Yeah.
That's fine.
Yeah.
Thank you.
I think on the benchmarks for the success of the PBR solution, I think the two colleagues spoke already, but very briefly in lines, I wanted to say a few words.
First, If more countries are coming forward to the PBC, asking for help, asking for support, I think that's one of the benchmarks.
If we will have more success stories to tell about how PBC and PB Fund actually helped countries move forward.
If there's going to be, you know, we were we listened a lot during the negotiations about convening role of the PBC as the most important role that the PBC has so that they can convene, they can bring together different entities, partners, and so on.
So IFIs are one of those partners which are very important for financing for peace building.
And I think that would be another benchmark if the IFI, especially the World Bank and PBF and the UN in general will find the joint projects to finance, especially on the ground more cooperation in the field among the UN itself, which is also part of the UN AT discussions, but also with IFI so that it's not parallel trucks as we have now, but actually that they work together.
Then, um, transitions from peacekeeping operations.
If we see if we'll get a single a single example that the Security Council will recommend to PBS, a transition from one peacekeeping to to a peace building.
Then then is the um Security Council asking more advice from the PBC or maybe even to have regular meetings between PBC and Security Council.
During our presidency, December, we did one such meeting on the youth between PBC and Security Council.
So if such meetings would become more normal than just one off, then it's probably yeah, I think that probably would that probably would would be.
And also national prevention strategies that we discussed a lot, which is a responsibility of the countries that more countries will engage in that.
We'll draft them, and we see the value in drafting them.
I think there are elements how you can observe the change within the next five years.
Um, and this is all, as Micher was saying, implementing the resolution.
Everything, what I mentioned is in the resolution.
So I think it's very easy to evaluate and measure if this is being implemented through the years.
Thank you.
Mr.
Bass Mustafa.
I cannot add much to what we've just heard in terms of the first question on the evidence, on how over 20 years the peace building architecture has helped in conflict prevention.
And A Esperar mentioned also that the intangible nature of prevention might prove to be a bit difficult to present a case and to identify its contours quite right.
But, you know, let me bring back a couple of very important examples that perhaps were not necessarily attributed to the peace building architecture in time, but those who have been working closely within the peace building architecture of the year could actually identify some contribution, and I would say, to a different type of prevention.
We had Sierra Leone and Liberia, among the earlier examples of the countries who have come to the PBC and have a longstanding engagement with the peace building architecture, whether the PBC or the PBF.
At one point in time, as you know, for countries emerging from conflict and especially a very harsh conflict as the one experienced by Liberia and Sierra Leone.
And following the transition from peacekeeping operations, elections, are very delicate moments in measuring if those countries have actually emerged from conflict and they are ready to trade on the path to sustainable peace.
And that's why when elections happen in these contexts, they are marred with a lot of difficulties and a lot of risk as well.
And in both cases, and on several occasions, those elections have proven to pass without much problems because the infrastructure for peace and the transition that has been invested not only by the peace building architecture, but previously by the multidimensional peacekeeping operations that the United Nations and the Security Council has mandated in these two countries.
Many people just forgot that, you know, the situation in which Sierra Leone and Liberia found themselves in the early 2000 and where they are today.
And the most recent example about the transition in Liberia, the peaceful transition in Liberia, is a case in point.
And the two countries were serving as members of the Security Council back to back in the past two years and the current year.
The Peace Bud Support Office, the Pea Building Fund and the Peace Bilingmmiss have invested a lot over the years, and it's not just one year over years in these two countries, and we can see today the fruits of those.
Finally, on the other question about the implementation.
I wouldn't put the PBR in a different context than what the UN AT and even the Pact for the future are all about.
So this is a collective effort of the United Nations.
So the PBR is one element that can reinforce much of what UN AT needs to achieve, whether on peace and security or on financing or on system wide coherence and the realignment and restructuring of the UN system itself.
So when it comes to the question of how the UN acts as one or in a coherent manner, there is a lot in the PBR resolution that can support that in certain contexts.
But without the reform that should come out of the UN 80 and without the commitments to the PBR resolutions, but also to the Pact of the future, as a collective member states commitment, political commitment, I think we cannot necessarily say that there are benchmarks that can be identified for implementation.
It is a collective effort, and the UN 80, the Pact toward the future, and the PBR should be seen and viewed as part of a whole reform and progression within the United Nations.
And I'll stop here.
Thank you, Ahmed.
You had one more question if we can make it short.
But let's go ahead.
Thank you, Steph.
And thank you Excellencies, for your answers.
My question is to miss Spear.
From your vantage point, as the hub for peace building and peace support activities, what are the biggest obstacles to peace building today? Is it funding, political will, coordination, or just trust? Thank you.
Well, thank you.
This will be a quick one because I would say, yes, yes, yes and yes.
I'm not sure that in terms of the hierarchy, I wouldn't look at it as a hierarchical ranking because they all matter.
Funding, of course, I was mentioning before that we know that many countries have cut their official development assistance.
The needs continue to grow for peace building and prevention efforts.
We get a lot of requests from member states for support, and yet the funding is not enough.
We're looking at innovative funding.
Innovative financing measures and more partnerships with financial institutions.
But the situation remains challenging.
It remains dire.
That's certainly one of them.
Political and political will, absolutely.
It is very important.
You have to want to genuinely invest in prevention and peace building.
We talk about it as something in the UN is grounded in national ownership.
So those national authorities and the society as a whole, I would say, need to be ready to invest in prevention and peace building, and in particular when it comes to The authorities, they will need to really tackle some very difficult political issues in many cases in order to really contribute greater stability to their country and a solid foundation for sustainable peace.
And that is not easy often.
In terms of coordination, absolutely.
This is something and I'm glad that The ambassador mentioned UN AD and other efforts.
This is something that the UN is consistently trying to do better at, and that is to coordinate within the UN system to make sure that we have a much more coherent approach on ground, that we're all working together as one.
We talk a lot about peace building architecture here at the UN, but as I always like to say, the peace building architecture is understood as the PBC, the Peace Building Fund, the PBF, and now the PBPSO, my office, the Peace Building and Peace Support Office.
But we are actually, um, three entities that are leveraging the entire UN system and beyond at the service of building and sustaining peace.
It's more than just us and we need to use the tools of the peace building architecture and other tools at our disposal and the UN AD process to make sure that indeed we are all coming together across the peace humanitarian and development actors and our human rights colleagues as well so that we are delivering a coherent approach and response to peace building on ground.
And that coordination, when it works on ground, it is, I can tell you, so much more effective than siloed efforts or fragmented efforts.
So internal coordination within the UN system, but of course, also coordination with other actors.
And trust, absolutely.
I think if you really want to build and sustain peace over time, part and parcel of that is building trust.
And this is nothing new.
The Secretary-General was quite clear about it in a new agenda for peace back in the middle of 2023.
We are in a crisis of trust, a lack of trust, both at the international level.
We have a lot of polarization right now among countries, a lot of geopolitical tensions.
I think Ambassador Vogar, you were mentioning, you know, the challenges within the Security Council and so forth.
But there's also a lot of, um, polarization that we see in so many societies across the world, where seemingly it's very hard to build or rebuild a national vision, a unified vision, and a coherence that will help a country move forward.
So trust is critical, but I think we can use peace building to go towards building that trust by strengthening the key institutions, but not just strengthening them per se, but actually making sure that they're more transparent, they're more accountable, more inclusive, our justice institutions, security institutions, and so forth.
We have to work supporting communities at local level with reconciliation efforts after conflict, or even pre conflict in situations where you have displaced persons coming in to host communities and the need to build a cohesion between those actors.
There's a lot we can do to build trust, and it is certainly a key ingredient.
Thank you.
On that note, Elizabeth, thank you, Ambassadors, thank you very much, and thank you all for coming.
You have a great afternoon and look forward to all the events this week.
Thank you.
Thank you.