ASG for Peacebuilding Support makes first official visit
Posted: Monday, 14 September 2009, Santiago | Author: ECLAC
On her first official mission since taking office two weeks ago, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Judy Cheng-Hopkins, joined colleagues in Santiago, Chile, on Monday to examine how peacebuilding efforts can prevent countries from relapsing back into violent conflict.
The seminar, organised by the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), was attended by a number of senior officials.
They included the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Mariano Fernández, the Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC Alicia Bárcena, Ms. Cheng-Hopkins, and the Assistant Secretary-General of UN Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet.
“I’m very pleased to have my ‘baptism’ in this job in a country like Chile,” she told participants at the regional seminar.
“I come from Malaysia, which is something of a success story in South-East Asia, I am especially pleased to be in Chile, which is itself such a beacon of success in Latin America.” noted Ms. Cheng-Hopkins, adding that “Chile can play an important role in peacebuilding efforts.”
The ASG referred to estimates that about half of countries emerging from conflict fall back into war within a decade, particularly low-income countries, and said, “This is where peacebuilding plays a vital role to reduce that risk.”
Peacebuilding, she said, involves not only helping consolidate government structures, supporting political dialogue or establishing the rule of law, but also disarming soldiers, building hospitals, and training police.
When the “blue helmets” leave, new cadres are needed – technical assistants, engineers, health personnel, teachers, judges and others.
“Without basic services, like water, health and education, without revitalizing economies destroyed by war in order to create jobs and start to build a normal life – without all of these things, we will not have lasting peace,” stated ASG Cheng-Hopkins.
Peacebuilding can comprise conflict-prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, humanitarian aid or development assistance. “Indeed, the challenge is as much about winning the peace as stopping the war,” she noted.
In her new job, Ms. Cheng-Hopkins knows the challenges are enormous, as is what she defines as the main dilemma she will be facing. “Peacebuilding is a vast, multi-faceted, cross-cutting consultative process with many players and perspectives.” She explained: “It (peacebuilding) involves permanent consultations with governments, stakeholders, donors and United Nations departments. The dilemma is how to strike a balance between this process of consultations and providing visible results.
This is our fourth year, and people are crying out for results on the ground,” stated Cheng-Hopkins.
With peacekeeping operations expanding over the past 20 years, the United Nations has come to realize how crucial the post-peacekeeping process is and the need for comprehensive collective efforts from the Organization and the international community.
The new peacebuilding architecture includes the Peacebuilding Commission- an intergovernmental body that advises the Security Council and the General Assembly; the Peacebuilding Fund, which provides resources to launch peacebuilding activities; and the Peacebuilding Support Office, which supports the Commission, manages the Fund and advises the Secretary-General on UN peacebuilding strategies.
The PBC currently supports peacebuilding in Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi and the Central African Republic.