The strength of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) lies in its unique bridging and convening roles. As an intergovernmental body specialized in peacebuilding, the Commission brings together Member States, the United Nations, and a wide range of international, regional, national and local peacebuilding actors, including women and youth, to promote an integrated, strategic and coherent approach to peacebuilding.

This year’s Annual Session of the PBC testified the efforts of the Commission to build stronger partnerships with regional development banks. The Commission heard from representatives of the African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank regarding their strategies and approaches to fragility and resilience. Building on the Commission’s engagement with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund over years, the Session promoted a better understanding of the role of regional development banks in support of peacebuilding.

Member States recognized the important roles played by regional development banks in support of peacebuilding, through development and implementation of their fragility and resilience strategies and approaches, and called for strengthening collaboration and synergies between the UN and regional development banks, including through joint analysis and assessments. Regional development banks also recognized the PBC as a platform to facilitate dialogue with relevant peacebuilding partners and to exchange good practices in peacebuilding. 

The Commission’s joint meeting with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of 2 December is another example of the convening role of the PBC. The meeting brought together Member States, the senior representatives of IOM, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UN-Women, WFP, IMF, and civil society representatives to discuss the interlinkages between peacebuilding, sustaining peace and sustainable development, focusing on coherence and impact in conflict-affected contexts. The meeting raised awareness among Member States on how the Agencies, Funds and Programmes (AFPs) respond to multidimensional challenges and are contributing to peacebuilding and sustaining peace and promoting long term development in conflict-affected contexts, which in turn can translate into ensuring timely, relevant and adequate political and financial support, as well as greater coherence and a stronger impact on the ground.

The Peacebuilding Fund was recognized as a valuable instrument to promote integrated UN responses to fill critical gaps of peacebuilding effort on the ground. Member States saw this joint meeting as an excellent opportunity to utilize the joint ECOSOC-PBC platform, to further support strengthening cooperation and coherence among the UN system in conflict-affected contexts and expressed their commitment to continuing to rally around this effort.