Ban Urges Contributions To UN Peacebuilding Fund

Ban Urges Generous Contributions To UN Peacebuilding Fund

New York, Nov 4 2010 1:10PM

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for generous contributions to the United Nations peacebuilding fund, which was set up in 2006 to support efforts to augment peace and stability in countries emerging from conflict.

“Building peace in a post-conflict setting is easy to wish for, but hard to do,” Mr. Ban "http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=4904"told delegates attending the High-Level Stakeholders Meeting of the Peacebuilding Fund at UN Headquarters in New York.

“It means addressing some of the most sensitive issues facing a given society – issues that, indeed, have previously proved so charged and intractable that they led to armed conflict,” Mr. Ban added.

The Secretary-General said the Fund has to date received $342 million, far exceeding the initial target of $250 million, with 46 countries having contributed, an indication that UN Member States attached great importance to peacebuilding.

“I thank all donors for their generosity and for the trust and confidence they have placed in the United Nations in managing and delivering this essential support,” Mr. Ban said.

The high-level meeting is an opportunity to review the Fund’s achievements and discuss how best to strengthen its role in peacebuilding.

Mr. Ban said that 60 per cent of the $206 million already allocated by the Fund went to five countries on the UN Peacebuilding Commission’s agenda – Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. The goal now is to raise, allocate and spend $100 million per year for the next three years, he added. In total, the Fund is engaged in 18 countries.

“This is an ambitious but feasible target, consistent with the trend line of our first years of experience. This funding will allow us to engage at a significant level in a focused number of countries. I call upon all of you to contribute generously to the Peacebuilding Fund. Be a peacebuilding partner,” the Secretary-General said.

He said that independent country-level evaluations, the multi-donor study on global peacebuilding funding instruments and the five-year donors’ review all indicated that the Fund is now globally acknowledged as a valuable instrument for providing post-conflict support.

The Fund also serves as a pillar of support for the UN Peacebuilding Commission, which was set up in 2005 to help States avoid slipping back into war and chaos by providing strategic advice and harnessing expertise and finance from around the world to support recovery projects.

It is managed by the UN Peacebuilding Support Office, but relies on the strengths of the entire UN system, and on the strategic guidance of the Secretary-General’s representatives, UN missions and country teams in the field.

ENDS

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