‘Get The Politics Right’ to Ensure Correct Peacebuilding Track, Deputy Secretary-General Stresses at Security Council Debate
Following are Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed’s remarks as prepared for delivery at the Security Council open debate on United Nations peacekeeping operations, in New York today:
I thank the Security Council and the Egyptian Presidency for this timely reflection on the contribution of United Nations peacekeeping operations to global efforts to sustain peace.
The nature of today’s challenges requires us to connect all our efforts for peace and security, human rights and sustainable development. Member States have explicitly acknowledged this interlinkage, most recently in the twin resolutions on the review of the peacebuilding architecture.
The universality of the 2030 Agenda and its pledge to leave no one behind has put sustainable development at the core of the Sustaining Peace Agenda. Sustainable development cannot be achieved in the absence of the conditions for peace, and implementing all the Sustainable Development Goals will make an enormous contribution to the Sustaining Peace Agenda. The links between both agendas are found not only in Goal 16 on strong institutions and inclusive societies, but across all 17 Goals. Sustaining peace “understood as a process and a goal to build a common vision of a society” underlines the “comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred” approach of the 2030 Agenda.
Implementing the Sustaining Peace Agenda requires an inclusive strategy that supports the diverse range of our missions and takes account of the entire peace continuum, from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and long-term development. The resolutions on the review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture outline the importance of strong coordination, coherence and cooperation between the Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission in the formation, review and drawdown of peacekeeping operations.
This Council has a vital role to play. Peacekeeping operations need clear, realistic and up-to-date mandates, with well-identified priorities, adequate sequencing and flexibility to evolve over time. Coherence, complementarity and collaboration between United Nations peace and security efforts and its development and humanitarian work are also essential for preventing conflict and mitigating risks, fostering more sustainable outcomes and ensuring that no one is left behind.
Looking ahead, we must work together to ensure that peacekeeping lives up to its full potential as an essential tool for sustaining peace — not in isolation but as part of our new, integrated approach. Peacekeeping missions operate with strong links with the United Nations development system and the humanitarian community to facilitate a more integrated approach to peacebuilding initiatives, exit strategies and transition plans, as we have seen in Liberia and Haiti.
Sustaining peace is an inherently inclusive political process that spans development activities, preventive measures, mediation, conflict management and conflict resolution. Implementing the Sustaining Peace Agenda means putting Member States and their populations in the lead, prioritizing political solutions, putting prevention as the priority and leveraging the three United Nations pillars — human rights, peace and security, and development — in a mutually reinforcing way.
The Secretary-General’s vision of prevention goes beyond averting crisis and violent conflict and takes account of the changing nature of crises in today’s unpredictable world. It requires a broad whole-of-UN approach, as well as greater synergies for more effective delivery and impact.
We need to enhance our support through drawing on the UN’s early-warning capacity, mediation, preventive diplomacy as well as programmes and activities in the field. In line with this vision, the Secretary-General has committed to a surge in “diplomacy for peace”, in partnership with a wide range of actors.
Prevention measures and peace processes must be driven by national leadership and inclusive ownership that recognize the needs and contributions of all segments of society, including women and youth as agents of development and peace. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community acknowledged the role of young men and women as critical agents of change. They will find in the Sustainable Development Goals a platform to channel their capacities for peace into the creation of a better world.
The future of humanity lies in their hands and they will pass the torch to future generations. Empowering them and building a sustainable future requires stronger institutions and better governance. This is why we must invest more in development and mobilize our efforts towards fostering peaceful, just and inclusive societies that are free from fear and violence. There can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development. And there can be neither without human rights.
To achieve sustaining peace and sustainable development, we need to engage in strong collective action and enhance collaboration and partnerships, including with the business community, financial institutions, civil society and regional and subregional organizations. We need to deepen ties with regional and subregional partners, the World Bank, which is drastically increasing its involvement in conflict-affected countries, and the International Monetary Fund, which is seeking to reduce the destabilizing influence of corruption, to ensure better investment in peace.
At the African Union Summit in July, I committed to strengthening our partnership on political issues and peace operations, with stronger mutual support and continued capacity-building through the Joint United Nations-African Union Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security. The Peacebuilding Commission occupies a unique role in bringing all these partners together. I invite the Security Council to engage more actively with the Commission.
These partnerships must also be based on solid and predictable funding, including for prevention, in line with the Sustaining Peace Agenda. I hope a united Council will consider supporting missions backed by a Council resolution and implemented by our partners, either with assessed contributions or by promoting other predictable financing mechanisms.
Let me now turn to the subject of reform. We need to improve how we review peacekeeping operations, in consultation with our development and humanitarian partners, and ensure a strong human rights and gender focus. Women are the first to bear the brunt of conflict, endure through transition and are expected to lay foundation for peace. In all fields of peacekeeping, women peacekeepers have proven that they can perform the same roles, to the same standards and under the same difficult conditions as their male counterparts. It is an operational imperative that we recruit and retain female peacekeepers and police, not only because gender parity is essential for its own sake, but because the involvement of women increases the chances of sustained peace and reduces incidences of sexual abuse and exploitation.
We must work together across silos and address the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, as well as the root causes of violence and conflict.
Sustaining peace can only be achieved through a broader vision of prevention.
Humanitarian and development actors need to work together to bridge the gap between relief efforts and development aid, and enable Governments and communities to build and strengthen their capacities for resilience, disaster risk reduction and mitigation and conflict prevention, in particular in developing countries.
It is our duty to support the people of the world and provide them with effective and timely humanitarian assistance and development programmes simultaneously through a coherent whole-of-system approach. Guided by the Secretary-General’s ambition to overcome fragmentation and make prevention the priority of the United Nations, we have taken important steps to outline a comprehensive and bold agenda to improve how the UN delivers for the people we serve.
It is crucial to recognize that development is an end in itself and a central part of our work. The Secretary-General’s repositioning of the United Nations development system, as well as the reform of the peacebuilding architecture, reflects the instrumental role of the 2030 Agenda as the road map for sustainable development and sustaining peace. The Sustainable Development Goals are the key tools to prevent crisis and achieve sustained peace. The reform of the United Nations system has been designed to reinforce the interlinkages between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustaining Peace Agenda as outlined in the presentation of the Secretary-General’s report on the United Nations development system to the Economic and Social Council in July 2017.
Among other steps, the Secretary-General’s recommendations call for strengthening the leadership of resident coordinators and establishing a direct line from them to the Secretary-General, ensuring more responsiveness, accountability, coordination and efficiency on issues related to prevention, sustainable development as well as sustaining peace. To effectively implement these reforms and sustain peace, we must build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters.
We must focus on the needs of people and the priorities of countries.
Each mission and peacekeeping operation must be considered in its unique political and development context. In many ways, one of peacekeeping’s most important contributions to peace is the preparation for a smooth and effective peacekeeping drawdown and handover to the United Nations country team. We have recently seen successful examples of this in Côte d’Ivoire and soon in Liberia.
In Haiti and Darfur, community violence reduction programmes are preventing recruitment of youth-at-risk by armed criminal groups, thus contributing to stability and social cohesion. In Mali, [the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali] mainstreams the prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and security-sector reform processes. To deepen our successes, we must work for gender parity, particularly in missions that are moving from military to policy and civilian components. For example, we must use the window of opportunity that is emerging from the drawdown of the military component of [the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti] to engage more women in police and civil operations.
Peace processes are rarely short or straightforward. The complexity of current conflicts requires a multidimensional approach that prioritizes a range of initiatives. These include providing crucial protection for civilians under threat and strengthening institutions, as well as the rule of law, to enable respect for human rights to be strengthened at all levels. They require disarmament, demobilization and the reintegration of armed groups. And they entail a focus on justice and reconciliation, proven credible elections and the extension of legitimate and accountable State authority.
For many people suffering in conflict-affected countries, United Nations peacekeeping missions are a rare source of hope that peace can return. Their success is a source of great pride for all of us. I would like to pay tribute to the brave men and women of United Nations peacekeeping — whether civilian, military or police — and take the opportunity to encourage more women to join our missions. And I would like to particularly honour the sacrifices of those who have lost their lives providing an indispensable service.
To ensure that we are on the right peacebuilding track, we must get the politics right. Peacekeeping operations are political instruments that ideally accompany a locally owned peace process. To this end, missions provide good offices and work closely with different parties and communities to achieve and implement peace agreements.
In considering all these areas, a broader and more sustained level of engagement by the members of a united and strong Security Council — individually or collectively — is essential to ensure that Member States, the United Nations system and all our partners are aligned behind a common purpose and a common vision for action that integrates all pillars of the United Nations and bring all its activities together in a truly integrated fashion.
With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustaining Peace Resolutions, we have mapped the road to a safer, more resilient and sustainable world. The challenge now is to ensure that the journey is successful and its gains irreversible. I look forward to the support of the Security Council in orienting efforts and resources towards our ultimate goal of achieving sustainable development and sustaining peace.
Thank you.