Security Council can benefit from closer ties with UN peacebuilding body – official

The Security Council can benefit from enhanced interaction with the United Nations body set up to help post-conflict countries avoid slipping back into war, the head of the Peacebuilding Commission said today.

As the 15-member Council discussed post-conflict peacebuilding, Ambassador Eugene-Richard Gasana of Rwanda noted that the Commission could provide early peacebuilding perspectives which could help the Council in designing the role of peacekeeping missions.

The Commission can also provide a platform to for partnerships and engagement with key actors, “thus ensuring broader buy-in to the peacebuilding processes and facilitate informed draw down of peacekeeping missions,” said Mr. Gasana, who serves as Chairman of the Commission.

An additional function could be to monitor the progress of countries from stabilization to consolidation of peace, he added.

Set up in 2005, the Commission provides strategic advice and harnesses expertise and financing from around the world to aid post-conflict nations with recovery projects. Countries can also avail themselves of financial assistance from the Peacebuilding Fund to jump-start rebuilding projects.

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

Ambassador Peter Wittig of Germany, the body’s former chairperson, told the Council that by linking up the Commission’s work to that of peacekeeping, development and political actors in the field, the Commission has added considerable value.

“The challenge facing the Commission in demonstrating its full potential, however, is to ensure that is work is backed by a higher level of political commitment from the Member States and the senior United Nations leadership,” he stated, echoing a message he delivered to the General Assembly earlier this week.

He voiced the hope that today’s meeting, like the one convened by the Assembly, will help realize the full potential of the Commission, “an advisory body which is uniquely positioned to help the United Nations meet the challenges facing our collective capacity to deliver on the promises to respond to the needs of millions of peoples in the countries emerging from conflict.”