Mr. Chair,
It is indeed a pleasure to see you in the chair. I congratulate you, Mr. Chair on taking over the Chairmanship of PBC in an exciting year when we will be reviewing the Peacebuilding architecture. You can count our full support to your efforts. Allow me also to congratulate Colombia and Japan on their elections as Vice Chairs. We are confident that in their roles as Vice Chairs they will continue to contribute importantly to the work of the PBC this year and to the ongoing review process.
I also thank Ambassador de Soto for his excellent chairmanship & his efforts to consolidate & enhance further the PBC’s convening and advisory role.
The annual report of the Commission, which is before us is a testimony of PBC’s meaningful engagements on regional and cross-cutting issues, ensuring synergy with the work of the Peace-building Fund, and expanding further the legacy of issue-specific footprints of the PBC. We appreciate the report’s balanced focus across country specific, regional, and thematic issues. We are also happy to see the report’s due emphasis on the centrality of national ownership and leadership. As one of the top T/PCCs, we cannot but stress more the importance of national capacity building in countries emerging from conflicts through meaningful partnerships. We believe that this approach can contribute in many ways including in the areas of protection of civilians, institution-building, and implementing WPS and Youth, Peace and Security Agenda.
Mr. Chair,
We commend the works of the country-specific configurations. Through lateral dialogues among country configurations, we can learn from each other by cross-referencing, sharing experiences and good practices. We feel encouraged to see efforts towards breaking down the silos in implementing peacebuilding and sustaining peace agenda and stand ready to contribute our part to this effort. In particular, we are happy to see the success of the PBF in attracting funds from multiple donors and its evolution as a successful investment model. We shall continue to support the fund in our own modest way as an expression of our political support towards it.
Mr. Chair,
We can foresee further exciting time awaiting us in the coming year under your leadership. 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the 20th anniversary of the landmark 1325 resolution on WPS, 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and the 5th anniversary of the Resolution 2250 on Youth Peace and Security. All our works in these parallel processes are expected to reinforce further our shared vision for a more effective review of the Peacebuilding Architecture this year.
We greatly welcome your forward-looking statement and commitment. We have before us the task to add further impetus to the Secretary General’s priorities for 2020 to make sure that “prevention must orient all we do as we engage across the peace continuum”. The PBSO has a critical role to play as the ‘hinge’ for the UN’s engagements on conflict prevention and sustaining peace across its three pillars. Going forward, we need to build consensus around various recommendations of Secretary General’s interim report in this review cycle. We must also take full advantage of the three-track processes to contribute further towards his upcoming report on peacebuilding and sustaining peace.
On our part, Bangladesh assures the Chair and Vice-Chairs of our continued support in further advancing peacebuilding and sustaining peace across the UN system. We shall continue to act as the bridge between PBC and NAM, including by keeping the Movement regularly updated of PBC’s work.
I thank you.