Excellencies, Amb. Hawke, Amb. King,
Allow me to share some thoughts on the review in my national capacity:
First, we greatly welcome this review exercise, and consider this as a critical driver in improving the work of the UN, particularly in implementing its prevention-centric peace agenda. I thank the co-facilitators for their excellent work and inclusive approach of consultation. We would like to see the 2020 review to be more implementation focused, based on evaluation of the work of the UN at the field level, particularly in the context of UN reforms. [And in this regard, we welcome the consultations undertaken at the regional and field level.]
Second, In the normative context, Bangladesh would continue to support the agreed evolution in the concept of peacebuilding and sustaining peace. We see peacebuilding and sustaining peace as an inclusive, and broad-based process beyond its traditional remit of short to medium term post-conflict crisis response and recovery. Going forward we should try to better integrate the primacy of politics in conflict prevention as part of the peacebuilding continuum.
Third, we stress on the importance of national ownership in peacebuilding involving all relevant national institutions and stakeholders, including those at the grassroots. This helps in building trust and contributes to achieving greater sustainability of peace. This should, however, be complemented by meaningful, sustained, and well calibrated international support throughout the peace-building process.
Fourth, we believe there is a need for PBC to reinforce the understanding of new and evolving challenges, and indicate to the extent possible, some guidelines to prepare for contingencies and emergencies. This is all the more relevant in the context of Covid-19 pandemic, which brought out the limitations of the current peace and development architecture. In this regard, the Secretariat can use the data received from the field to analyze the trends and directions in some critical areas.
Fifth, we reiterate the importance of integrating the core commitments of WPS and YPS agenda into the work of Peacebuilding Commission. In this regard, it is important to reinforce the commonalities and complementarities of these two agenda. The PBC and PBF have already demonstrated some useful precedents and results in this regard, such as, the Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative (GYPI). We need more structured engagements for sharing such good practices among UN agencies and national governments.
Sixth, we welcome the PBC’s growing interface with development actors including the World Bank, UN funds and programs, African Union, UNOSSC, the relevant regional and sub-regional organizations, and its enhanced focus on regional, cross cutting issues. But any such initiative will have to be undertaken in a consultative manner, especially, with the host country to ensure national ownership.
Seventh, most of the post-conflict settings under the remit of the PBC and the PBF are among the least developed countries. It would therefore be crucial to address their peacebuilding priorities within the broader framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this regard, we stress the importance to the UN’s internal and external coherence of its three pillars in attaining the goals of the peacebuilding and sustaining peace.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the issue of financing for peacebuilding remains a major stumbling block to realize its potentials. The Secretary General reports have come up with many innovative ideas for mobilizing increased, predictable, and sustainable financing, factoring in both options for assessed and voluntary contributions. We believe the proposals to bring PBC within the ambit of UN’s regular budget merits consideration. We hope this year’s review would help garner further political support towards more predictable and sustainable financing for PBC.