Doha

18 January 2018

Opening Remarks at Regional Dialogue on Sustaining Peace, 18-19 January

Ms. Ana María Menéndez, Secretary-General's Senior Advisor on Policy

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
I would like to thank the State of Qatar, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, for convening this Regional Dialogue on Sustaining peace and the warm welcome extended.  I am delighted to also join the President of the General Assembly, H. E. Mr. Miroslav Lajčák, here in the lead-up to the High-level Meeting on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace to be convened in April in New York. 
 
Two years ago, the General Assembly and the Security Council came together to express their commitment to building and sustaining peace. They reaffirmed the primary responsibility of national governments and authorities in “identifying, driving and directing priorities, strategies and activities for sustaining peace”, and noted in this regard, “that inclusivity is key to advancing national peacebuilding processes and objectives”. In doing so, they conveyed the idea that ‘sustaining peace’ is not a task limited in time or limited to one set of actors, it is a “shared task and responsibility” of all of us and at all the time.
 
The importance of women’s leadership and participation “in conflict prevention, resolution and peacebuilding” featured in the resolution, in particular the need “to increase representation of women in all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of conflict”. The consideration of gender-related issues in all discussion pertinent to sustaining peace should remain at the front of our efforts and all parts of the UN system must stand ready to support Member States.
 
Successfully sustaining peace requires approaches that reach across peace and security, development, human rights and humanitarian action.
 
Here, it is essential to stress two points. 
 
First, the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is our main roadmap for the years ahead.  The twin resolutions defined ‘sustaining peace’ as the process of building a common vision of society and Agenda 2030 is that vision.
 
Second, the Secretary-General has declared prevention the priority of the UN.  This includes not just the prevention of violent conflict, but the prevention of crises and human suffering, including through actions such as combatting climate change and ensuring disaster preparedness.
 
This broad vision of prevention is consistent with the promise made in Agenda 2030 that we will leave no-one behind. It is clear that we will not achieve the Sustainable Development Goals if we continue to allow crises and suffering to increase and spiral out of our control.
 
As you know, the sustaining peace resolutions tasked the Secretary-General to present to the General Assembly a report on progress made on the implementation of the resolutions and to be ready for the High-Level Meeting.
 
The report of the Secretary-General will address the progress made on operational and policy coherence within the UN but also look at issues of leadership, accountability and capacities as well as partnerships.  It will also present options on increasing, restructuring and better prioritizing financing dedicated to UN peacebuilding activities. 
 
The report will fully align with the Secretary-General’s vision for the organization and his reform agenda in the areas of peace and security, development and management.
 
Those reforms aim at having the UN system work more coherently and efficiently and ensure that we are better at our delivery of our mandate and functions. 
 
Those reforms recognize also that such work must be based on strong partnerships, led by national actors.  In particular, I would like to highlight the importance of regional partners in efforts to sustain peace and the critical contribution of women and youth as peacebuilders.
Regional and sub-regional organizations play a key role in sustaining peace; through preventive diplomacy, confidence-building and mediation efforts, preventing violent extremism, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.  Regional partners share knowledge, analytical capacity and strong local networks.  The Secretary-General encourages UN-wide engagement with regional and sub-regional organizations on peacebuilding and sustaining peace.  We should focus on regular dialogue, enhanced information-sharing, improved coordination and joint approaches and activities.
 
In The Gambia, we saw the value of swift and sustained regional engagement in support of national conflict prevention efforts, through ECOWAS, supported by the Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission and backed up by a coordinated and coherent UN system. 
 
In the Middle East, while progress on the Middle East Peace Process remains elusive, the UN continues to cooperate with the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as well as their Member States towards enabling a return to the negotiating table and protecting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, amongst other issues.
 
Partnerships at a regional level also mean working closely with International Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank, and with the private sector.  These partnerships can unlock significant financial flows towards peacebuilding and sustaining peace and help reduce multidimensional risks.  I am encouraged that regional Development Banks have ongoing collaboration with UN entities.  The Islamic Development Bank, for instance, is collaborating for example with UNDP on recovery in Myanmar and Palestine.
 
The private sector can also be strong advocates of peace as stability is critical for economic activity – as shown, for example, in Kenya.  The UN-World Bank Partnership Trust Fund has supported joint endeavours in support of refugee host communities in Jordan. 
 
Civil society and community-level engagement by the UN is also a critical component of sustaining peace.  Inclusivity is key to advancing national peacebuilding processes and objectives to ensure that the needs of all segments of society are taken into account.  Inclusive and sustained peacebuilding means the full participation of women in society, without which neither peace nor prosperity can be assured over the long term.
 
Women’s meaningful participation measurably strengthens protection efforts and deepens the effectiveness of peacebuilding.  Yet too little effort is made to support their inclusion or their efforts. Financing is a particularly important enabler. Within the UN, we have the Secretary-General’s commitment to allocate a minimum of 15 per cent of peacebuilding funds to gender equality and women’s empowerment. We already see interest among bilateral donors in adopting a similar funding target, but more are needed if we are to have the impact needed.
Greater efforts are also needed to expand women’s access to decision-making and improving gender-sensitive analysis and planning.  Regional efforts for the coordinated implementation of commitments to women and peace and security are key mechanisms – to date, ten regional organizations have already adopted dedicated implementation frameworks, including regional action plans, on women and peace and security.
 
The youth, peace and security agenda also offers opportunities to galvanize coherent United Nations engagement in support of young people and their contribution to peacebuilding and sustaining peace.  We must better tap into the peacebuilding potential of youth organizations, so critical across the world but in particular in those regions where young people form a large part of the population.
 
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
The Secretary-General’s ambition is to forge a common vision, system and capacities across the United Nations – together with regional and local partners – to consistently, inclusively and adequately support the primary responsibility of Member States in sustaining peace.
 
I look forward to the rich and constructive discussion in the coming days and to seeing how your contributions can inform our joint endeavour of prevention and sustaining peace.
 
Thank you all.