On 2 February, the Peacebuilding Commission elected Croatia as Chair and Bangladesh and Germany as Vice-Chairs for 2023. The Commission, composed of 31 Member States, welcomed ten countries—Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Italy, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Peru, Qatar, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—as its new members. 

The Commission adopted its annual report for 2022, an active year during which the Commission convened 27 meetings and engaged in support of 14 country- and region-specific settings, broadening its geographic scope, including through the first meetings on Central Asia, South Sudan, and Timor-Leste.

Building on the achievements in 2022, the Chair of the Commission, H.E. Mr. Ivan Šimonović, expressed his commitment to strengthening the Commission and its impact in 2023. “We should, as the rest of the UN system, focus more on prevention and strengthening of resilience,” the Chair of the Commission emphasized. “We need to help to bring together all relevant state, local, regional and global, as well as civil society actors and ensure more efficient and coherent approach to peacebuilding.”

This year, the Commission is expected to continue to engage in support of peacebuilding efforts in at least 14 country contexts, as well as new and existing and regional contexts. These have been set out in the Commission’s 2023 programme of work which will be shared with the General Assembly and the Security Council to enhance the predictability of the Commission’s calendar and to further improve the Commission’s advisory, bridging and convening roles.

The Commission has expressed their commitment to continue to enhance the substantive and timely nature of its input and advice to the General Assembly and the Security Council, with a view to providing them with broad peacebuilding perspectives, anchored in substantive and diverse engagements, to consistently inform the deliberations of both bodies, including on mandate renewals and transition contexts.

In relation to its bridging role, the Commission plans to continue to foster greater coherence in the United Nations system, including between the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, and within and across the UN Secretariat, UN peace operations, and UN agencies, funds, and programmes.

The Commission also intends to continue to strengthen its partnerships with key stakeholders, including regional and subregional organizations, international financial institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector. The Commission will also continue to be guided by and to report progress in the implementation of its gender strategy and action plan, as well as its strategic action plan for youth and peacebuilding. In this respect, the Commission will continue to use its convening and advisory role to provide a platform for women peacebuilders and youth representatives from different contexts to share their experiences.

Since the beginning of the year, the Commission has already convened five substantive Ambassadorial-level meetings, including on the New Agenda for Peace and on South Sudan in January and on Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique in March in addition to a briefing by the World Bank.

The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs also organized induction workshops for the Commission members at both expert-level and ambassadorial-level for an informal exchange on the work of the Commission, and on its working methods.