“Pathways for Peace” (Side Event on the Margins of the High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace)

– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Mr. Miroslav Lajčák, President of the 72^nd Session of the UN General Assembly, at “Pathways for Peace” (Side Event on the Margins of the High-Level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace)

Good afternoon, everyone.

I want to start by stating the obvious: prevention is not free.

It costs money.

This is true, for diplomacy and mediation.

Mediators need a salary. Conference rooms need to be hired. Cars and planes need to shuttle envoys, between towns, cities or countries.

And, this is true for our broader prevention work. Institution-building costs money. The delivery of justice costs money. Sustainable Development costs money. Ensuring that basic services can be accessed by everyone – and not just some – costs money.

But, it is worth it.

And this, in short, is the conclusion of the United Nations-World Bank report – Pathways for Peace.

To start our discussion, I will talk about what I believe are the two main takeaways, from this report.

The first is the case for prevention. It says that if we invest in prevention now, we can save much more in response – later.

We have all heard the same figure, repeated this past week. But I am still going to repeat it, one more time, today. Because it is shocking.  In the past 10 years, we have spent two hundred and thirty-three billion US dollars on reacting to conflict. This includes costs from humanitarian response, peacekeeping and hosting refugees. However, only a fraction of that has been spent on prevention.

So, this makes a clear case: Too little of our money is going to prevention. And, too much of it is going to response.

Even using our basic logic, this does not seem smart. Now, however, we also have hard data, to back this up.

This Report tells us that, a dollar spent on conflict prevention can save up to seven dollars, later down the line. And these savings can increase, in certain contexts. For example, every dollar used to build peace and prevent violence, in Rwanda, has saved a staggering sixteen dollars, over the last two decades. This is also a fact in this report.

So, this is, also, a clear case:  If we invest in prevention now, we can save in the future.

But, why are we not doing it?

And that leads me to the second big takeaway from the report:

A strong case for prevention is not enough. We also need to make this case heard.

Because, it is not as obvious, as we might like it to be.

When we invest in infrastructure, we see the roads, and the bridges, being built.

When we invest in healthcare, we can count how much medicine or equipment is procured.

But, if we invest in prevention…… we don’t really see much.

In fact, things might look exactly as they did, before. It is hard to prove that we have just averted disaster.

The World Bank report actually talks about this. It makes a comparison, to preventive healthcare. Someone who is perfectly healthy might feel no need, to visit a doctor. Why waste money, when there is no visible problem to fix?

And, that is why a case needs to be made to them. They need to learn, about the value of preventive healthcare. They need to understand that, say, one hundred dollars on a doctor, now, could save thousands – or even millions – of dollars in expensive treatment, down the line.

This may seem simplistic. But it is what we need to do, for prevention.

We need to increase understanding. We need to educate, on the drivers of peace – and the risks of conflict.

And this report, gives us all the tools to do so.

Not just through the figures. But also by increasing our understanding of prevention.

It tells us that groups can turn more easily to conflict, when they feel excluded, unequal, and a sense of injustice.

It tells us that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, although not a political framework, can actually help to prevent conflict. And it can do this by removing some of its drivers, including poverty, lack of opportunity, and inequalities.

It tells us that access to justice, rule of law, and the protection of human rights, can make societies more resilient to conflict.

And it tells us that our current funding mechanisms are not enough, to get the investment we need, in prevention. We need to branch out. We need new public-private partnerships. We need to innovate.

And, this week we have heard from people who can inspire us, in this effort.

For example, Ms. Durreen Shahnaz, who founded the world’s first social stock exchange – and who has unlocked millions of dollars of private funding, for development.

Or Ms. María Victoria Llorente, who runs a platform for business people to contribute to peace gains, in Colombia.

So Dear Colleagues, I want to praise this report.

It brings the comparative strengths, of the United Nations and the World Bank, together.

It uses the most up-to-date research and data.

And, it makes the case for prevention impossible to deny.

And, as we meet this week, to explore how we can all better contribute to Sustaining Peace – this is a case we need to make heard, loud and clear.

Thank you.