9. In contexts in which the Security Council is preparing a post-conflict operation, an early meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission could provide the Security Council with pertinent information about the availability of bilateral and financial institution-funding for early peacebuilding activities relevant to the peacebuilding aspects of integrated missions.

10. The Peacebuilding Commission could also provide a mechanism through which donors could be encouraged to make specific, sustainable commitments to the financing of peacebuilding and recovery activities. It could help to ensure the speedy transition from relief-oriented financing to recovery and developmentoriented financing, and help to ensure adequate early attention to and financing for oft-neglected issues, such as building public administration capacity for the rule of law and the delivery of public services.

11. As planning for post-conflict operations is undertaken, or at the earliest stages of recovery, the Peacebuilding Commission could review a report that provides an overview of planned financing for peacebuilding through assessed, voluntary and standing funding mechanisms, giving both national authorities and the members of the Commission a chance to identify shortfalls and gaps. Where gaps commonly occur, in the financing of early development activities and the recurrent costs of public administration, a Standing Fund for Peacebuilding could play a targeted and catalytic role.

12. At planned intervals (roughly two to four months after the establishment of an operation and then on a quarterly or semi-annual basis), the Peacebuilding Commission (in country-specific format) should meet to review progress towards medium-term recovery goals, especially in the areas of developing public institutions and laying the foundation for economic recovery. Carefully planned meetings of this type, drawing on information and analysis of the United Nations mission, country team and World Bank offices, could provide an opportunity to identify gaps in progress, areas where greater concentration of effort is required, funding gaps etc. Such meetings should not duplicate normal consultative group or similar in-country or country-based donor mechanisms but should focus on critical links between the ongoing process of stabilization at the military/political level and the underlying process of recovery at the economic/financial/institutional level.

13. Such mid-course reviews could also provide a warning signal to the Security Council and to the international community as a whole if progress is not being made in consolidating the public institutions and the economic foundations for longerterm stability. In the absence of progress on these fronts, the Security Council has at times found itself in the position of not being able to remove peacekeepers or to take countries off of its agenda, for fear of instability and a relapse into conflict. The preferred solution of course is not longer-term duration of peacekeeping presences but more intensive efforts at an earlier stage to ensure that when the military/security situation is adequately stabilized peacekeepers can leave and the foundation is laid for continued stabilization.

14. The process of developing effective institutions for the rule of law, building State capacity to deliver public services, establishing a foundation for strong fiscal management and support to private-sector activity — these activities normally take considerably longer than the average peacekeeping operation. One of the vital functions of a Peacebuilding Commission must be to ensure that the international community’s political and financial attention to recovering countries — which are often fragile and at risk of renewed conflict — continues well past the normally brief duration of a peacekeeping presence. Working with the Economic and Social Council, the Peacebuilding Commission could provide sustained attention as countries move from transitional recovery towards development.

15. The ad hoc post-conflict groups under the Economic and Social Council, formed over the past few years, constituted helpful efforts to perform this function. It is important that we learn from these, which could inform the workings of the Peacebuilding Commission and of the Economic and Social Council. I do believe, however, that a standing body that draws at different stages on the authority of the Security Council and of the Economic and Social Council will be able to provide a more powerful and consistent system of support.

16. Countries that have been through war in the previous five to ten years are at far higher risk than others of witnessing a relapse of war. Therefore, post-conflict peacebuilding is a critical form of prevention. It is not enough, however. Preventing wars from breaking out in the first instance is a core goal of the entire United Nations system.

17. Neither the Peacebuilding Commission nor the Support Office should have an early-warning function. There are other mechanisms in the United Nations for what has become known as “operational prevention”, i.e., the use of such tools as mediation and preventive peacekeeping when conflict has become imminent or has broken out in a small-scale way. These are necessary parts of the United Nations and regional organizations’ capacity and should continue to be strengthened.

18. More relevant to the Peacebuilding Commission, however, is the issue of risk reduction. Members of the United Nations should be able at any stage to appeal for advice to the Peacebuilding Commission or for assistance from a Standing Fund for Peacebuilding. The Peacebuilding Commission and a Standing Fund for Peacebuilding can add an important dimension to United Nations preventive efforts by providing better tools for helping States and societies reduce the risk of conflict, including by aiding their efforts to build State capacity, especially in the area of the rule of law.

19. In issue areas that require extensive collaboration between political/military, humanitarian and development actors, both within the United Nations system and without, the Peacebuilding Commission (in core membership format) could provide an important mechanism for regularizing best practice and agreeing on a division of labour between the respective operational actors.

20. The establishment of a Peacebuilding Commission and Support Office could improve the coordination of United Nations missions and agencies in post-conflict operations in three ways. First, participation by the funds, programmes and agencies in the work of the Peacebuilding Support Office will lead to improvements in planning, as specified below. Second, the various departments, funds, programmes and agencies should participate in the Peacebuilding Commission as part of a single United Nations team, led by a senior official representing the Secretary-General; this too will strengthen a sense of common purpose and joint endeavour. Third, and most important, the Peacebuilding Commission should be used by its members to set common priorities together with the national authorities. This more than anything else can ensure that the various United Nations activities are financed according to common priorities and not, as is too often the case, according to donorspecific or agency-specific priorities.

Functions of the Peacebuilding Support Office

21. For the above functions to work effectively and efficiently, a small but highquality Peacebuilding Support Office will need to be established. The primary functions of the Peacebuilding Support Office must be threefold:

22. Staff of the Peacebuilding Support Office should have expertise in postconflict strategy development in several of the substantive areas that form the core of the civilian aspects of post-conflict peacebuilding and in donor mobilization. The Office should pull together a small team with experience of reconstruction at the national level, experience across the range of the United Nations system and exposure to the work of other institutions, such as the international financial institutions and regional organizations. As noted in my report (A/59/2005), I believe that the Peacebuilding Support Office should contain a dedicated rule of law unit.

Standing Fund for Peacebuilding

23. Several potential donors have expressed strong interest in making contributions of new funds for peacebuilding efforts. I believe a Standing Fund for Peacebuilding to be essential. One option would be the establishment of a voluntary, replenishable fund. Were it in existence, it could provide critical, targeted support to nascent authorities and to early peacebuilding activities. It could help provide sustained attention of the United Nations system beyond the normal cycle of peacekeeping. And it could provide national authorities with vital support for strengthening institutions of the rule of law, national reconciliation processes and similar efforts to reduce the risk of conflict.

24. I will work in the coming months to solidify potential commitments to such a Fund. Any fund should have accountability mechanisms that conform to the highest available standards.

Institutional structure

25. As noted in my report (A/59/2005), I believe that the Peacebuilding Commission would best combine efficiency with legitimacy if it were to advise the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council in sequence, depending on the state of recovery. Simultaneity should be avoided because it will create duplication and confusion.

26. The institutional structure of the Peacebuilding Commission should not alter the formal prerogatives of the principal organs of the United Nations. If the proposal for sequential reporting to the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council is agreed, these two bodies would have to work together to identify the modalities for transition between the two. While a given country is on the agenda of the Security Council, the work of the Peacebuilding Commission would have to remain within the purview of that body. However, one of the purposes of the Peacebuilding Commission should be to ensure that (a) adequate early work in transitional recovery is undertaken and (b) the Economic and Social Council has a predictable, effective mechanism for continued support so that early transition from the Security Council is possible. In such matters, the views of the national authorities should be duly taken into account.

Membership

27. As noted in my report (A/59/2005), the Peacebuilding Commission would be most effective if its core membership comprised a subset of Security Council members, a similar number of Economic and Social Council members, the major donors to a standing fund for peacebuilding or representatives of the donor community, and some leading troop contributors. The total number of core members should be small, perhaps between 15 and 20 members. Members should have expert knowledge of the issues and it should work by consensus.

28. In its country-specific operations, the Peacebuilding Commission should involve the national or transitional authorities, as appropriate, relevant regional actors and organizations, troop contributors, where applicable, and the major donors to the specific country. The participation of international financial institutions is vital. I have started discussions with them to determine how best they can be involved, with due respect for their mandates and governing arrangements. The participation of regional organizations is vital. Clearly, regional organizations should participate in the country-specific meetings, as appropriate.

29. United Nations participation should reflect the dual (and at times contradictory) goals of (a) improving coordination within the system and (b) ensuring that development actors participate more fully in the deliberations of United Nations political/military processes. I believe this can best be accomplished if United Nations participation in the Peacebuilding Commission is at all times led by a single senior United Nations official representing the Secretary-General, accompanied by other departmental or agency colleagues, as relevant. Of course, the Secretary-General remains responsible and accountable to the membership for the overall coordination and coherence of the United Nations system.

Modalities

30. It is too early to tackle the question of modalities in any detail. If the idea of sequential reporting to the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council is adopted, the Peacebuilding Commission will have to work out modalities with those bodies.

31. Some early ideas about modalities may be useful, however. First, in listening to the deliberations of Member States about the proposed Peacebuilding Commission, it seems clear that the Peacebuilding Commission should be advisory in nature. It should provide ideas and inputs to the work of the Security Council and of the Economic and Social Council and interface directly with the Secretariat on peacebuilding matters. With the right participation, the outputs of the Peacebuilding Commission, albeit advisory, would be likely to carry substantial political authority and have an important impact on the work of its members and others.

32. Second, I believe that the core members of the Peacebuilding Commission should meet infrequently, perhaps on a quarterly basis. As core members, they could undertake such functions as reviewing and endorsing best practice in particular issue areas, such as disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation, and commissioning independent or internal evaluations. The core membership, together with the bodies with whom it will work, will have to identify appropriate arrangements for chairmanship of both of the core bodies and of country-specific meetings (which might usefully vary, providing opportunities for those most actively engaged in supporting post-conflict efforts in a given case to lead those efforts).

33. Third, as suggested above, I believe that the country-specific meetings of the Peacebuilding Commission might usefully be held at regular intervals: prior to the establishment of the civilian part of a mission or at early stages in the planning process, in this phase meeting fairly frequently; and at later stages of recovery meeting at regular intervals (perhaps quarterly or semi-annually) to assess progress.

34. Fourth, as noted briefly in my report (A/59/2005), I believe that the Peacebuilding Commission should be creative in adopting modalities that allow for flexible participation by national actors, field-based representatives, mission representatives and capital-based representatives, as appropriate. This could involve different kinds of representation within core and country-specific meetings; use of videoconferencing and related technologies to allow for field-based participation; and meetings outside New York, either in Geneva, the capital city of countries chairing specific sessions, or the country or region under consideration.

35. As part of the overall process, I believe it would be valuable if there were regular, independent evaluation of peacebuilding activities. Several bilateral donors and international financial institutions have instituted regular, rigorous evaluation practices. Within the United Nations system, the humanitarian community has gone farthest in regularly subjecting its operations to rigorous external evaluation. I believe that practice could usefully be adopted by a Peacebuilding Commission.