Ban Ki-moon applauds UN Peacebuilding Commission on early successes

Lauding the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) on its successes in Sierra Leone and Burundi, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today underscored the advisory body’s key role in helping countries emerging from conflict avert a slide back to war.

“The Peacebuilding Commission embodies all aspects of the UN’s work: peace, development and human rights,” Mr. Ban said at a PBC retreat he is attending this weekend.

Backed by the multi-year standing Peacebuilding Fund, the Commission focuses on reconstruction, institution-building and the promotion of sustainable development in post-conflict countries.

The Secretary-General congratulated the Commission for providing assistance to Sierra Leone through an at-times tense election process, as well as for bringing key groups in Burundi to the table to break a deadlock in Parliament.

“Peacebuilding is not just about ‘bricks and mortar’ – it is a transformative process involving changing attitudes about how to manage conflict,” he told the retreat’s participants. “While we haven’t yet determined how to measure the Commission’s accomplishments, I am confident that the people of Burundi and Sierra Leone will soon affirm its positive impact on their lives.”

He added that the PBC must now use the momentum generated by its success in those two nations to assist Guinea-Bissau, which last December became the third country on the Commission’s agenda.