PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION'S ANNUAL SESSION 2021 - FINANCING FOR PEACEBUILDING

PEACEBUILDING COMMISSION’S ANNUAL SESSION ON

FINANCING FOR PEACEBUILDING

STATEMENT DELIVERED BY H.E. BANKOLE ADEOYE, AU COMMISSIONER FOR POLITICAL AFFAIRS, PEACE AND SECURITY

Monday 29 November 2021

UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK

Let me at the outset thank you, Mr. Chair, for convening the PBC annual session on financing peacebuilding.

The African Union welcomes the work of the PBC especially on what has been done so far on financing in response to the mandate of the two resolutions on peacebuilding of December 2020 (which is to provide inputs to the GA High-level meeting on financing of 2022).

We also welcome the decision of the PBC to focus its annual session on financing. The AU looks forward to engaging with the Secretary-General and other senior leaders.

The achievements of the PBC have been enabled considerably by the Peacebuilding Fund. The tangible benefits of PBF support in strengthening rule of law, security and governance institutions have been critical to peacebuilding in countries on the agenda of the PBC and others that have benefited from it. Given the catalytic role of the PBC which is limited to transitional phases, there is an urgent need for increased and sustainable funding for medium to long-term development. Long-term sustainable funding is needed to complete the projects and programmes funded by the Peacebuilding Fund so as to ensure that that such programmes and projects do not fall into disrepair.

We echo the call of the Secretary-General in his report dated 4 February 2021 and his messages in his report on Our Common Agenda where he proposed stronger commitment and investment in prevention and peacebuilding, including through additional dedicated resources to the Peacebuilding Fund and Peacebuilding Commission.

Mr. Chair

The question of financing remains a gap in our peacebuilding efforts. The Secretary-General’s proposal in 2018 for diversifying sources of financing for peacebuilding by mobilising resources from Member States, foundations and private sector was very forward looking. The proposals offered a wide range of innovative options for financing Peacebuilding. However, the Secretary-General noted in his report that financing for peacebuilding has registered limited progress since the last review.

Mr. Chair

I would like to reaffirm the following:

- There is a strong imperative to consider allocating a certain percentage of assessed contribution to support medium to long-term peacebuilding in order to ensure continuity, predictability and sustainability of financing for peacebuilding.

- There is a need to strongly consider allocating 15 percent of the final year of assessed contributions during the drawdown of peace operations for peacebuilding as proposed by the Secretary-General.

For its part, the AU would leverage its newly reinvigorated Peace Fund to support peacebuilding initiatives. The Peace Fund would serve as a catalytic instrument that will ensure timely and predictable support by the AU. I should, however, note that the Peace Fund is not designed to support large scale and long-term peacebuilding programmes. It is therefore important to ensure complementarity between the Peace Fund and other mechanisms such as the UNDP-led Regional Stabilization Facility for the Lake Chad Basin, the UN Peacebuilding Fund and other financing facilities. Optimizing complementarity between existing financing instruments would scale up our collective efforts to address the financing gap for peacebuilding.

Mr. Chair

I would like to conclude by underscoring the fact that establishing effective partnerships would be an important step towards our collective efforts to address the financing gap for peacebuilding.

It also should be anchored on and guided by among other things, the principles of national and regional ownership; mutual accountability; respect for national, regional and international human rights instrument as well as gender mainstreaming.

I thank you.