EDITORIAL by Brian James Williams, Chief, Financing for Peacebuilding Branch, DPPA/PBSO

Global warming has profound implications for peace and security. The United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) has been financing pilot climate security projects for several years, and in April, the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) published an independent Thematic Review on Climate Security and Peacebuilding as part of efforts to continuously learn and improve. The review found that PBF had helped catalyze action in this field, highlighted the value of cross-border programming, encouraged increased inclusiveness of communities in environmental peacebuilding activities and recommended more investment in longitudinal studies.  The review was commissioned in partnership with FAO, UNICEF, Climate Security Mechanism and the UK, and led by the UN University’s Centre for Policy Research.

The review found that the Fund played a catalytic role as a conversation starter, fund for innovation, and ‘tugboat’ to bring larger donor funding for climate-security into more fragile and conflict-affected areas. Moreover, it emphasized that the efforts towards climate, peace, and security present opportunities to address pressing social challenges, such as the exclusion of women or elite capture in local communities.

Building on the review’s findings, in particular with regard to greater inclusiveness, the PBF has dedicated its 2023 Gender Promotion Initiative to climate change mitigation and adaptation and women’s engagement in natural resource management. This reflects the commitment to exploring the gender-climate-security nexus through programmatic responses and investing in women’s inclusion. Global webinars for all applicants developing proposals on these topics have already taken place.

To further support learning, the PBF is developing internal guidance for climate-security project design. This guidance will outline good practices and common challenges, provide sample project outcomes, activities and indicators, and offer a list of useful resources for reference during project design. Additionally, in partnership with UN System Staff College (UNSSC) and the Climate Security Mechanism (CSM), an in-person training is being organized at the UNSSC in Turin, Italy, dedicated to climate-security programming. This training, taking place in July, will invite nearly 30 United Nations country counterparts currently developing PBF climate-security proposals.

Moreover, we greatly appreciate the recommendation to invest in longitudinal testing to generate a greater impact on the effectiveness of climate-security efforts. Through the PeaceFIELD initiative, launched in 2021 with generous support from Germany and Canada, we are conducting impact evaluations and disseminating findings in five case studies including Guatemala, the Mali-Niger border region, Guinea-Sierra Leone border regions, and Darfur and Gedaref in Sudan. We hope to learn from this innovative initiative on how best to measure the peacebuilding impact of PBF-funded projects and are open to expanding impact assessments to climate-security projects if further funding becomes available.

Conflict-affected countries struggle to obtain financing from the larger vertical funding sources available for climate change and the environment.  The Review recommended that the PBF engages more with these larger climate donors, encouraging UN actors benefiting from PBF resources to maximize the catalytic effect of investments in climate-security efforts.

The Climate, Peace, and Security agenda is a significant priority for PBSO, with an increasing demand for PBF’s support to countries in this area. This year, we continue our work on climate security with ongoing projects in Cameroon, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Tunisia, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, The Gambia, and Madagascar.

This edition of our newsletter features a case study from the Liptako Gourma subregion, illustrating how environmental pressures, transnational armed groups, trafficking, and governance issues have fueled violence and dire conditions in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Despite the challenges, PBF investments in climate-security offer hope by addressing root causes and engaging communities in bottom-up efforts to balance securitized approaches.

The Annual Strategic Dialogue with the PBF’s top twelve donors is scheduled to take place this week on June 13. Hosted by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, the event will discuss challenges and opportunities for multilateral peacebuilding in the current context and the upcoming New Agenda for Peace. Specific issues will include PBF’s support for transitional justice, more strategic orientation of PBF programming in UN mission settings and trends in country demand for prevention.

The need for predictable, adequate, and sustainable funding for peacebuilding continues to grow. For 2023, the PBF faces a widening shortfall.  While the Fund’s current five-year strategy called for programming in 2023 of $350 million, PBSO currently forecasts contributions in 2023 at closer to $150 million. Without further pledges, activities may have to be postponed. Reduced investment in prevention now, however, comes at a greater cost later.