The Peacebuilding Fund

What is the Peacebuilding Fund?

Created through joint Security Council and General Assembly resolutions in 2005 as part of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture, together with the Peacebuilding Commission and the Peacebuilding and Peace Support Office in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and Peacekeeping Operations (DPO), the PBF is the United Nations’ leading instrument to invest in prevention and peacebuilding programming, in partnership with the wider UN system, national and subnational authorities, civil society organizations, regional organizations and multilateral banks.

The Fund supports joint UN responses to address critical peacebuilding opportunities, connecting peace, development, human rights, and humanitarian action. The core principles of the Fund are being timely, flexible, catalytic, and risk-tolerant, and facilitating inclusiveness and national ownership, integrated approaches, and cohesive UN strategies. The Fund has become the UN’s leading instrument to support peacebuilding programming. It has seen growing demand from Member States and has now supported over 70 countries from around the globe. The Fund works through more than 20 UN agencies and other partners on the ground, guided by the Resident Coordinators at the country level.

The PBF is primarily funded through voluntary contributions from Member States. In addition, General Assembly 78/257 approved $50 million in assessed funds per year starting in 2025. 

Twenty years on — what are some of the Fund's key achievements?

• In 20 years, from 2006 to 2026, the Peacebuilding Fund has supported 75 countries and territories, invested more than $2 billion and worked with 24 UN partners and more than 80 civil society recipients.
• The Fund has supported the implementation of peace agreements, peace and dialogue processes in countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Colombia, Guatemala and Papua New Guinea. It has been a key supporter of national transitional justice efforts in Colombia, The Gambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• It helped communities recovery from conflict by restoring livelihoods and providing essential services including mental health support for instance in the Central African Republic and South Sudan.
• It has helped pilot new approaches on helping communities manage local conflicts, from farmer-herder conflicts in the Sahel to water and other natural resource-based conflicts from Central America to Central Asia.
• People are not only beneficiaries of peace; they are building it.
• The Fund is the largest multilateral supporter of the Youth, Peace and Security agenda. Between 2018 and 2025, we invested more than $320 million in youth-led peacebuilding across 48 countries and territories.
• The Peacebuilding Fund has dedicated targets to support the inclusion of women in all our projects - since 2018, more than 40% of the Fund’s annual approvals have been dedicated to this work, making the Fund one of the UN’s leading instruments in this regard.