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Statement Delivered by Foreign Minister at High-level Replenishment Conference for UN Secretary General’s Peacebuilding Fund


Minister Todd delivers announces Guyana’s voluntary contribution towards the Peacebuilding Fund’s 2020-2024 Strategy


Statement delivered by the Honourable Hugh Todd, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, at the High-level Replenishment Conference for the UN Secretary General’s Peacebuilding Fund

26 January 2021

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Excellency,

I wish to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important event and I applaud your efforts to mobilize much-needed support to advance conflict prevention and peacebuilding in these urgent times. 

As I reflected on the results of the Peacebuilding Fund’s Strategic Plan for 2017-2019, I was encouraged by the levels of support and investment that Member States and other stakeholders committed to ensuring that peacebuilding efforts around the world were sustained.  I was also heartened by the achievements in the established priority windows, particularly the steps taken to advance youth participation in public policymaking and to advance gender sensitive peacebuilding.

Despite the Fund’s many successes over the last three years, my Government is cognizant of the need to scale up investments in the Peace Building Fund for the full implementation of the 2020-2024 Strategy.  As you observed, Excellency, “global conflict trends and the expected number of United Nations transitions would require the Fund’s critical support” and my Government shares the view of others that these realities have been further compounded by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world.

It has become increasingly evident that there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development.  As we have entered the Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development with the attendant challenges brought on by the pandemic, investments in development and peace have become even more critical to ensure that countries build back better and address, in particular, the reversal of gains made over the years.

It is on this note, Excellency, that the Government of Guyana is pleased to make a voluntary contribution towards the Fund’s 2020-2024 Strategy in response to your call for a “quantum leap in peacebuilding financing.”  The Government of Guyana is aware of the persistent underinvestment in peacebuilding and that the sad consequence has been a shortfall in peacebuilding financing in relation to the needs.  Moreover, the increase in violent conflicts globally since 2010 thrusts upon us, the United Nations Member States, a greater responsibility to respond with the appropriate level of commitment to address this worrying trend and its implications for international peace and security.  The level of ambition reflected in the PBF’s 2020-2024 Strategy is precisely what is needed at this time and my Government is pleased that it could play a role in this respect.

Excellency,

The Government of Guyana welcomes the successful conclusion of the review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture and was pleased with the decision to convene a high-level meeting of the General Assembly at the seventy-sixth session to deliberate on peacebuilding financing.  Our hope is that together, we the Member States can craft concrete ways to take forward this important issue in the interest of the world’s people.

Excellency,

Allow me to renew the enduring commitment of the Government of Guyana to the principles and purposes of the United Nations and to assure you that we will continue to do our best to contribute to advancing the United Nations’ peacebuilding efforts.

I thank you.    

Participants engage in the virtual High-level Replenishment Conference for UN Secretary General’s Peacebuilding Fund
Minister Todd announces Guyana’s voluntary contribution towards the Peacebuilding Fund’s 2020-2024 Strategy

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