Annan calls for international assistance for post-transition Guinea-Bissau

After three decades of coups and counter-coups and a subsequent political transition, Guinea-Bissau now needs its partners to take part fully in the donor round table scheduled for November and to support a portfolio of quick-impact projects before that, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report.

In his report to the Security Council on developments in the West African country, including the work of the UN Peacebuilding Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS), he says: "In the shorter term, the donor round table, scheduled for November 2005, would present an important opportunity for Guinea-Bissau to address the development challenges facing the country. However, the organization of the round table requires institutional stability and substantive support by the international community."

Even before that meeting, it is urgent for the international community to support a $1.5 million portfolio of community-directed, quick-impact projects that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could execute "to show the population of Guinea-Bissau quick and visible dividends of the present peacebuilding efforts," he says.

In the delicate post-electoral phase, Guinea-Bissau cannot meet its multiple short-term and long-term political and economic challenges without international assistance, he adds. "I appeal to the international community to remain engaged and to provide Guinea-Bissau with development assistance."

The focus of UNOGBIS's activities from March to August was to manage and resolve crises in the political transition and the electoral process, so as to ensure the successful restoration of constitutional order and to build a reasonable degree of trust and a solid working relationship with the key national stakeholders and international partners, Mr. Annan says.

The country's electoral commission declared former president João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira the new President, followed by Malam Bacai Sanha, who lost his court appeal to change the results.

With the completion of the political transition, Mr. Annan proposes that UNOGBIS be given a revised mandate as a facilitator, within and outside the UN, in helping the development of self-sustainable, national peacebuilding mechanisms and initiatives.

To that end, it will resume its advocacy and good offices roles and will conduct training and capacity-building activities, especially in the field of constructive conflict management and resolution, he says.