UN peace-building body seeks more backing from Member States, UN leadership

The General Assembly today discussed the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, which seeks to prevent post-conflict countries from lapsing back into bloodshed, with its outgoing chairman calling for greater support from the UN leadership and Member States.

“By linking the Peacebuilding Commission’s work to that of peacekeeping, development and political actors in the field, the Commission has added considerable value,” former chairman Peter Wittig of Germany told the Assembly of the five-year-old body that seeks to promote economic development, institution building and the rule of law to consolidate stability.

“The challenge facing the Commission in demonstrating its full potentials, however, is to ensure that its work is backed by a higher level of political commitment from Member States and the Senior United Nations leadership,” he said.

The Commission currently has six post-conflict countries on its agenda – Burundi, Guinea, the Central African Republic (CAR), Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In its report the Commission recognized the need to address critical peacebuilding priorities in the countries on its agenda through enhancing national ownership and building national capacities with a view to laying a solid foundation for economic growth, peace consolidation and sustainable development.

“The review should be a wake-up call to strengthen the collective resolve to deal with peacebuilding in a more comprehensive and determined way,” the report concluded, noting that expectations have been raised for a more central role of and contribution by the Commission to an evolving UN peacebuilding agenda grounded in improving its impact on the ground.

Twenty-one Member States spoke in the debate.