Statement by H.E. Mr. Muhammad Abdul Muhith, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh at the open debate of the Security Council on “Peace and security in Africa: Capacity-building for Sustaining Peace”, Tuesday, 09 August 2022

Mr. President,

I congratulate the delegation of China for assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of August 2022 and thank for organizing this very important debate.  I appreciate Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Africa and AU’s Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security for their insights.

Mr. President,

I wish to highlight the following points:

First, I underscore the instrumental role of peacekeeping missions for capacity building in Africa. The African continents have been hosting most of the peacekeeping operations. Since 1960s, there have been more than 30 peacekeeping missions in Africa. As the largest TPCC, at present, more than 6500 peacekeepers from Bangladesh are deployed in 6 peacekeeping missions in Africa. Our peacekeepers have been protecting the civilians, creating conducive conditions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, building national institutions, especially in security sector and supporting the peace process in Africa under the mandate of the peacekeeping operations. Our peacekeepers are also engaged in providing medical facilities, building and protecting the schools, constructing roads, enhancing the social cohesion, conducting training for the local authorities, conducting vocational training, providing assistance for agriculture development, and so on. In addition to our uniformed personnel, our female Judges are involved in strengthening the rule of law and judicial sector in African countries.

Moreover, Bangladesh Institute for Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) has been offering training courses such as contingent commander course, military observer course, staff officers’ course, logistic officers’ course, women peace and security course, security sector reform course etc. Till September 2021, 70 personnel (officers) from 12 African Countries attended different course in BIPSOT.

We believe, leveraging the experience and expertise of the peacekeepers can greatly contribute to capacity building in Africa. In this regard we call for increasing programmatic funding of the peacekeeping missions to enable them to scale up the peacebuilding activities of the peacekeeping missions. We request the Council to take this into consideration while setting up the mandate of the peacekeeping missions, not only in transition but also from the beginning.

 

Second, we emphasize the role and contribution of NGOs, INGOs and other civil society actors in capacity building of the national and local authorities and also to supplement the national priorities towards sustaining peace. For example, we wish to refer to the work of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the world’s largest NGO originated in Bangladesh. BRAC has been working in seven (7) African countries namely Kenya, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with an aim to pursue sustainable impact in Africa by developing innovative solutions and effectively implementing development programmes at scale in resource-constrained environments, as spelt out in the Agenda 2030.  There work extends in the fields of agriculture, food Security, livelihood, education, health, micro finance, social enterprises, ultra-poor graduation, women and youth empowerment, early childhood development, emergency preparedness and response programme etc.

We wish to call for creating enabling environment for the NGOs, INGOs and civil society organizations in line with the national priorities of the African countries. We also called increased support to those CSOs, including those which are working for capacity building of women and youth led organizations at the local and national level.

 

Third, we would like to highlight the role of the Peacebuilding Commission in supporting the national peacebuilding priorities of countries and regions in Africa. We have already heard the statement of the Peacebuilding Commission. The convening role of PBC should be leveraged to bring all actors on board to take a coordinated approach for sustaining peace in Africa.

Finally, while the partnership with the regional and sub regional organizations, IFIs, are crucial at the same time we underscore the importance of South South and Triangular Cooperation in addressing the challenges in Africa. This cooperation can address issues such as climate change, digital divide, human resource development, resource mobilization, capacity building of local and national institutions etc.

I thank you all.