From 1 – 4 May, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Elizabeth Spehar, interacted with United Nations and national actors working in peacebuilding in Nairobi, Kenya on the sidelines of the UN Sustainable Development Group Principals Meeting. ASG Spehar, together with the Resident Coordinator Stephen Jackson, met with the National Steering Committee on Peacebuilding and Conflict Management to discuss the review of Kenya’s Peacebuilding Architecture looking at how to re-energize infrastructures for peacebuilding and address compounding and multi-faceted challenges. ASG Spehar joined a reflection session with Kenyan state and non-state peacebuilding actors, that received support from the Peacebuilding Fund, to contribute to peaceful elections. OHCHR and UNDP helped to reduce risks of violent conflict around elections and strengthened early warning and response capacities. The project successfully engaged a broad coalition and capacitated a national platform to quickly detect, investigate and counter over 800 hate speech incidents surrounding the 2022 national elections. Timely analyses of trends, risks and incidents in offline and online spaces informed responses and prevention efforts at the national and subnational levels, reaching over 7 million people online and 10 million people through radio.

Through the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office, UNDP, WFP and OHCHR, ASG Spehar was briefed on a project proposal being developed to enhance inclusive peace and development in the North East region of Kenya, which will seek PBF funding. She also engaged with the Fund’s coordinator on peacebuilding and with the UN-World Bank liaison officer in Somalia. The donor community in Nairobi interacted with the ASG who called upon member states to support the Peacebuilding Commission.