S/PV.8301 Security Council

In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting: His Excellency Mr. Cho Tae-yul, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea, in his capacity as former Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, and His Excellency Mr. Ion Jinga, Permanent Representative of Romania, in his capacity as Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2018/83, which contains the report of the Peacebuilding Commission on its eleventh session. I now give the floor to Mr. Cho Tae-yul. Mr. Cho Tae-yul: I thank you, Mr. President, for inviting me to the Security Council, in my capacity as former Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, to present the annual report of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) on its eleventh session (S/2018/83). Since the adoption of the twin resolutions on the review of the peacebuilding architecture in 2016 (resolutions 2282 (2016) and Generaal Assembly resolution 70/262) and the Secretary-General’s strong commitment to peacebuilding and sustaining peace, the political momentum for improving the activity of the Peacebuilding Commission has been growing. Taking advantage of that hard-won momentum, the Commission continued to work hard in the past year to use its convening role to mobilize relevant stakeholders within and outside the United Nations and to assist countries and regions, in line with its mandate in pursuing their peacebuilding priorities, by way of an integrated, strategic and coherent approach to peacebuilding and sustaining peace. I would like to highlight some of the achievements made in the past year. First, as an advisory body to the Security Council, the Peacebuilding Commission continued to make efforts to improve the quality of its advice to enrich the Council’s deliberations, when requested. For that reason, the interaction and dynamics between the PBC and the Council seemed to improve, as the Council recognized the importance of the convening role of the Commission last year on a number of regional and country-specific issues, including the Sahel region, the Central African Republic, Liberia and Guinea- Bissau. Such requests provided an opportunity for the Commission to show that, given its role of convening diverse actors, including host Governments, United Nations agencies, international financial institutions, civil society and, where relevant, private sector actors, it can provide comprehensive advice to the Council. For instance, in the case of Burundi, the Commission presented to the Council the socioeconomic dimensions of the country, while maintaining a channel of communication with the Burundian Government. As for Liberia, the Commission helped to develop a peacebuilding plan for the country in preparation for the transition ahead of the withdrawal of the United Nations Mission in Liberia. On the Sahel, the Council emphasised the importance of the Commission’s convening role to mobilize relevant stakeholders in collaboration with the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, with a view to advancing the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel. To that end, the Commission held several meetings on the Sahel last year and engaged with the African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, the Permanent Secretary of the Group of Five for the Sahel, the European Union Special Representative for the Sahel and the Deputy Secretary- General of the United Nations, among others. An informal interactive dialogue with the Council was also held to discuss the regional peacebuilding challenges in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin. In my capacity as Chair of the PBC, I attended the meeting in Chad of the Ministerial Coordination Platform for the Sahel, to identify ways by which the PBC can support the efforts of the countries in the Sahel in making progress towards development and stability, the results of which I shared with the Council last year (see S/PV.7976). The PBC also held a joint meeting with the Economic and Social Council to focus on the social and economic dimensions of the Sahel’s multidimensional challenges. That was also an attempt by the PBC to play its bridging role among the relevant intergovernmental United Nations principal organs and to pursue an integrated and coherent approach to peacebuilding and sustaining peace within its mandate. Secondly, in addition to the good work of the existing country-specific configurations, the Commission expanded its work by considering, in the Organizational Committee, other countries and regions. Most notably, the PBC started to assist the Gambia, upon its request, at a critical time of transition by sustaining international attention and supporting the country, which was not on the Commission’s formal agenda, after the Security Council stopped deliberations on its situation. After visiting the Gambia with the Assistant Secretary-General of the Peacebuilding Support Office and the Permanent Representative of the Gambia, I convened a series of meetings on the country with PBC members and senior officials from the United Nations, international financial institutions and civil society to discuss the peacebuilding priorities of the Gambia, with the Gambian national authorities clearly in the driver’s seat. The Commission also for the first time deliberated on Solomon Islands, Colombia and Sri Lanka, upon their request. After becoming eligible to receive resources from the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), those countries came to the PBC to discuss their peacebuilding priorities. The meetings illustrated how countries eligible for the PBF can use the PBC as a platform for securing global political support for their peacebuilding priorities. The PBC has also been increasingly taking on a regional approach, as the challenges faced by certain countries are intertwined with those of other countries in the region, making it increasingly important to address the issues with a regional, cross-border approach. As I mentioned earlier, last year we discussed the Sahel region, at the request of the Security Council, as well as the Great Lakes region, with the consent of the countries concerned. To better assist countries in building and sustaining peace, the Commission has also been strengthening its partnerships with key stakeholders within and outside of the United Nations, such as international financial institutions, regional organizations, civil society and, where relevant, the private sector. For instance, in June last year, I led a delegation of PBC members to the World Bank, where we met with the President and other senior officials of the Bank and members of the Executive Board to discuss ways to assist the countries and regions considered by the PBC. The PBC and World Bank later issued a joint statement on holding a meeting on an annual basis, and the Commission should make use of such annual meetings to help mobilize resources for the countries supported by the PBC. In December, I also led a delegation of the Commission to Addis Ababa to discuss ways to reinforce cooperation between the Commission and the African Union. Given that regional organizations and subregional organizations are increasingly playing a leading role in building and sustaining peace in their respective regions, the Commission will continue to strengthen its partnerships with those organizations so as to gain a better understanding of the situation on the ground, while enhancing the coherence and coordination of international efforts in order to assist countries with their peacebuilding priorities. The convening role of the PBC has also created space to engage with civil society organizations. Last year, in the discussions on Colombia, Solomon Islands and Sri Lanka, local civil society representatives contributed to the Commission’s deliberations by sharing their views on what peacebuilding and sustaining peace meant in practice. Before I conclude my remarks, I wish to make a couple of points on how the Peacebuilding Commission can work more closely with the Security Council. First, the Commission’s efforts to advise the Council can be more effective if its work is coordinated with the activities of the Council. For that reason, the Commission should continue to align its work with the Council’s calendar and engage with the relevant actors to gather diverse perspectives in the months preceding the relevant Council meetings. Secondly, the Security Council and the PBC can consider working more closely during and following transitions, especially in the transition related to the withdrawal of a peacekeeping operation. The PBC could also look at a country situation that is coming off the Council’s agenda, at the request of the country. The Commission can help to maintain the international community’s support, while assisting the country’s efforts to maintain stability and build and sustain peace by helping to implement its peacebuilding plans, mobilize resources and promote coordination and coherence of international assistance. I would like to conclude by congratulating Ambassador Jinga, Permanent Representative of Romania and current Chair of the PBC, for the excellent work done so far, and by thanking the Peacebuilding Support Office for its dedicated support to the Commission. The Republic of Korea, in its capacity as Vice-Chair of the Commission this year, remains committed to fully supporting the Peacebuilding Commission.

I thank Mr. Cho Tae-yul for his briefing. I now give the floor to Mr. Jinga. Mr. Jinga: At the outset, I wish to congratulate the Republic of Korea, and Ambassador Cho Tae-yul in particular, for the excellent work he did as Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) in 2017. As we have just heard, under the leadership of the Republic of Korea the Commission made good progress in enhancing the effectiveness of the Peacebuilding Commission and in improving its advisory role to the Security Council. I wish to focus my intervention on what the Commission has been doing this year to continue on that positive track. The Sahel region is a clear priority for our work region. As was just mentioned by my predecessor, last year the Security Council emphasized the importance of the convening role of the PBC in mobilizing deeper commitment and partnership among the United Nations, the countries of Sahel and other international and regional partners, with a view to advancing the implementation of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel. In March I attended the sixth meeting of the Ministerial Coordination Platform for the Sahel in Chad. The meeting stressed the need for a holistic approach to address the multidimensional threats facing the countries of the Sahel region and their people and called on regional and international partners to act with greater synergy and unity of purpose. To further that objective, the Commission’s annual session, which is scheduled to take place in the fall this year, will focus exclusively on the Sahel. The PBC will bring together Member States, representatives of countries of the Sahel, senior officials of the United Nations, including the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General, and representatives of regional organizations, international financial institutions and civil society organizations. The purpose of that important event will be to discuss ways of mobilizing deeper commitments and partnerships in support of efforts to build and sustain peace in the Sahel under the umbrella of the updated Integrated Strategy for the Sahel that the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for West Africa and the Sahel, Mr. Chambas, will present in July. The annual session is a good example of how the convening role of the PBC can improve its advisory role. It is through its engagement with all the relevant stakeholders to discuss broad peacebuilding issues that the PBC can provide comprehensive advice to the relevant United Nations bodies and support their deliberations. To do that in an effective way, the Commission will further enhance its working methods and strengthen cooperation with key partners. With regard to the advisory role of the PBC to the Council, most important — and I wish to support a point raised earlier by my predecessor — the Commission must better time its calendar of work based on the activities of the Security Council. Early preparation is key if we wish to provide strategic advice to the Council, if requested, when possibl a couple of weeks ahead of Security Council meetings on specific issues. At the same time, the PBC must submit advice to the Security that would complement advice the Council receives from other sources. The Commission is also working towards further strengthening its relationship with the African Union. On 18 July, on the margins of the Security Council meeting with the African Union Peace and Security Council, the PBC will convene a joint event with the Peace and Security Council to explore opportunities for collaboration. Its engagement with the Gambia is another important area of work for the Commission. Upon the request of the Government of the Gambia, the PBC continues to provide a forum for the country to engage with the international community. Two months ago we convened a high-level meeting, chaired by the State Secretary of Romania, as Chair of the PBC, which was attended by the President and the Minister of Finance of the Gambia, the European Union Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, the President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States, the Permanent Observer of the African Union, as well as senior officials of the Department of Political Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme and the Peacebuilding Support Office. The meeting provided an opportunity for the Gambia to present its peacebuilding priorities ahead of the successful International Conference for the Gambia, which took place in Brussels last May, and demonstrated once again the convening role of the Peacebuilding Commission. In addition, the existing country-specific configurations — for Burundi, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone — continue to do important work in support of longer-term peacebuilding and sustaining peace strategies. At the beginning of this week, the PBC held a substantive meeting at which we heard reports from the Chairs of the country-specific configurations and a briefing by the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support on progress in enhancing synergies between PBC and Peacebuilding Fund. Lastly, I wish to thank you, Mr. President, for organizing the informal interactive dialogue that will take place today. A discussion on the advisory role that the PBC can play when the Council is considering the formulation, review or drawdown of peacekeeping operations and special political mission mandates is very timely and important. I look forward to a fruitful discussion and to further strengthening the relationship between Council and Commission.

I thank Mr. Jinga for his briefing. I shall now give the floor to those Council members who wish to make statements.

We sincerely thank His Excellency Mr. Ion Jinga, Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations and current Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, and His Excellency Mr. Cho Tae-yul, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations and former Chair of the Commission, for today’s informative briefings on the work of the Peacebuilding Commission in 2017. I shall deliver my statement on behalf of the three African Member States on the Security Council — Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea. Our group congratulates the Peacebuilding Commission on its consistent efforts to maintain peace and security, while always respecting the sovereignty of countries. As experience in our brother countries of Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and other African countries has shown, supporting the sovereignty of countries is the cornerstone of peacebuilding. Such support is crucial in order to ensure an effective and permanent transition from peacekeeping operations to peacebuilding initiatives, which helps build resilience and foster sustainable development in countries and their institutions. Given the huge peace and security challenges we now face, prioritizing conflict prevention is not just an option, it is an obligation. The concepts of peacekeeping and peacebuilding are perfectly in line with that important priority, and they have certainly caused a paradigm shift in the way we ought to address peace and security issues. It has been underscored time and again that peace and security, development and human rights are inextricably linked. Closer collaboration among the various organs of the United Nations and other stakeholders is therefore needed to build peaceful and inclusive societies. Addressing institution-building and ensuring political and operational consistency throughout the United Nations system is therefore absolutely essential to ensure that conflict, peacekeeping and peacebuilding are priorities for the Organization as it conducts its work and activities. That is basically what the reforms of the Secretary-General seek to address, and the African members of the Security Council fully support the reform process under way. We also believe that the outcome of the reform will enable the United Nations to develop additional capacity to comprehensively respond to today’s security challenges, including, inter alia, maximally reducing the duplication of structures and overlapping mandates and ensuring greater transparency and responsibility and better planning and budgeting. We think that it is important for the Security Council to understand the catalysing value of the Peacebuilding Fund. Peacebuilding and peacekeeping are essential to the implementation of development programmes and sustainable peace and security on the African continent. In that regard, we commend and encourage the efforts that have been made on focusing on conflict prevention and post-conflict stablization, such as those of the Joint United Nations-African Union Framework on Sustainable Development and Peace and Security and the subsequent memorandum of understanding between the African Union Commission and the Peacebuilding Support Office. The implementation of the Peace Fund by the African Union demonstrates the commitment of African countries to peace and security, both on the African continent and internationally. Due to the complex nature of conflicts, however, ensuring the maintenance of peace and conflict prevention in a sustainable manner requires international cooperation. Similarly, the United Nations cannot address the large number of international security challenges alone. In order to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing solid and lasting world peace, it is necessary to strengthen relations among diverse stakeholders, including regional and subregional organizations, international financial institutions, national Governments, various civil society groups and private organizations, in all aspects of conflict cycles. It also entails prevention, peacekeeking, special political missions, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. We take this opportunity to comend the work of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel in supporting regional strategies in the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin, as well as its work in the Great Lakes region. Accordingly, we propose considering similar initiatives in other areas of the continent that require them. Central Africa, for example, hosts two peacekeeping missions, and we have seen an increase in terrorist activity and transnational organized crime by armed groups, both on the ground and at sea, as well as incidents of violent extremism. We believe that the Central African region requires the same level of attention as other regions in Africa, so as to ensure cooperation to support peacebuilding. In that regard, we believe that one of the added values of the Peacebuilding Commission is to complement the reports of the Secretary-General by identifying blind spots and gaps in the implementation of regional strategies aimed at peacebuilding, as well as potential risks related to dedicating resources to a single region, country or initiative.