NEW YORK, 25 January 2021 (Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs) — At 9 a.m., on Tuesday, 26 January, Secretary-General António Guterres will convene a virtual High-Level Replenishment Conference for the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund. All Member States are invited to mobilize critical support for conflict prevention and peacebuilding against the Fund’s $1.5 billion requirement for the period 2020 to 2024.
The Conference aims to counter the persistent underinvestment in peacebuilding and provide this timely, catalytic and risk-tolerant instrument with more adequate, predictable and sustained resources to support national peacebuilding efforts in more than 40 countries around the world.
After opening the Conference, the Secretary-General will be joined by Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone; Abdalla Adam Hamdok, Prime Minister of Sudan; Marc Garneau, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada and Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission; and Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany. Also participating will be Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Liberian peace activist, and Annika Söder, a Member of the Secretary-General’s Independent Eminent Persons for the 2020 Peacebuilding Architecture Review. Robert Rae, Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations, will moderate the event. The Conference will be livestreamed on United Nations Web TV.
The event takes place as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to expose and exacerbate divisions, tensions and exclusion of the world’s most vulnerable people — particularly those living in fragile situations. Conflict prevention and peacebuilding are powerful deterrents to violent conflict, offering ways to save countless lives and financial resources.
Funding remains a critical factor in implementing peacebuilding activities. The need for predictable, adequate and sustained funding to promote peace through inclusive approaches and crucial partnerships is becoming ever more urgent.
In 2020, the Peacebuilding Fund invested $174 million in joint programmes by United Nations country teams, contributing to the peacebuilding components of the Organization’s Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks and COVID-19 socioeconomic response plans in 36 countries and 11 cross-border settings. Forty per cent of the Fund’s investments contribute directly to gender-sensitive peacebuilding — exceeding its target for five consecutive years — and setting a high bar for United Nations efforts to advance women’s leadership and gender equality in peacebuilding. The Fund also supports the United Nations response across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus.
The Peacebuilding Fund’s Strategy for 2020-2024 scales up support to national peacebuilding priorities to meet today’s challenges in areas where the Fund has particular impact, namely the inclusion of women in youth in peacebuilding, facilitating transitions and tackling cross-border or regional risks.
For further information, please contact Fatimah Inayet, at email: Fatimah.Inayet@un.org, or tel.: +1 646 881 2550.
