Statement [Made on Behalf of the Security Council, at the 7750th Meeting, 28 July 2016, in Connection with the Council's Consideration of the Item Entitled "Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace"]

S/PRST/2016/12No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Presidential Statement of the Security Council, under agenda item 27Peacebuilding and sustaining peace, published in 2016.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 topics

Africa Peace Peacebuilding

What does this mandate say?

15 paragraphs

At the 7750th meeting of the Security Council, held on 28 July 2016, in connection with the Council’s consideration of the item entitled “Peacebuilding and sustaining peace”, the President of the Security Council made the following statement on behalf of the Council:

“The Security Council recalls its resolutions and the statements of its President on peacebuilding, in particular S/PRST/2010/7, S/PRST/2011/2, S/PRST/2012/29, S/PRST/2015/2, S/PRST/2016/8 and S/RES/2282(2016), and stresses the importance of institution-building as a critical component of peacebuilding and sustaining peace in Africa, which requires comprehensive approaches bearing in mind African countries’ national development strategies.

“The Security Council recognizes that peacebuilding is an inherently political process aimed at preventing the outbreak, escalation, recurrence or continuation of conflict, and further recognizes that peacebuilding encompasses a wide range of political, developmental, and human rights programmes and mechanisms.

“The Security Council reaffirms the importance of national ownership and leadership in peacebuilding, whereby the responsibility for sustaining peace is broadly shared by the Government and all other national stakeholders and underlines the importance, in this regard, of inclusivity in order to ensure that the needs of all segments of society are taken into account and further reaffirms the primary responsibility of national governments and authorities in identifying, driving and directing priorities, strategies and activities for sustaining peace.

“The Security Council recognizes the critical role of the African Union in peacebuilding and sustaining peace in Africa, and commends the efforts of the African countries, the African Union and Regional Economic Communities in this regard. The Security Council reiterates that cooperation with regional and sub-regional organizations is critical to contributing to peacebuilding and sustaining peace, and further stresses the importance of partnership and cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union consistent with Chapter VIII of the United Nations. The Security Council encourages the Secretary-General both through United Nations Office to the African Union and consistent with its Resolution 2282 (2016), the Peacebuilding Support Office, to commence holding regular exchanges, joint initiatives, and information sharing with the African Union Commission. The Security Council welcomes various fora for dialogue among national governments, the African Union, civil societies and other relevant actors, including beyond the United Nations.

“The Security Council recognizes that African initiatives in peacebuilding, notably the AU policy on Post Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD) and African Solidarity Initiative (ASI), could provide opportunities for the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union to increase synergies and ensure the coherence and complementarity in their peacebuilding efforts in Africa. The Security Council takes note in this regard of the adoption of the African Union Agenda 2063 and its first 10 year implementation plan, which outlines key African flagship projects, fast track programs, priority areas, specific targets, and African strategies and policy measures at all levels.

“The Security Council stresses the importance of long-term national capacity development through institution-building, human resource development and confidence-building among the national actors, which are key to sustaining peace. The Security Council recognizes that an integrated and coherent approach among relevant political, security and developmental actors, within and outside of the United Nations system, consistent with their respective mandates and the Charter of the United Nations, is critical to achieve these ends. The Security Council calls upon the United Nations system, and invites Member States, to assist African countries emerging from conflict, upon their request, in pursuit of global development and win-win cooperation.

“The Security Council reaffirms the importance of addressing the root causes of conflicts throughout the process of peacebuilding, as well as ensuring national reconciliation and moving towards recovery, reconstruction and development. In particular, the Security Council underlines the importance of socio-economic development for sustaining peace in Africa through economic development including transnational and trans-regional infrastructure development, industrialization, job creation, agricultural modernization and promotion of entrepreneurship. In this regard, the Security Council also underscores the importance of the rule of law in support of socio-economic development. The Security Council also notes that AU PCRD highlights the need for undertaking comprehensive institution-building to enhance good economic governance through the reinforcement of fiscal and financial management institutions in support of effective revenue collection, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and anti-corruption structures to ensure accountability and transparency. The Security Council stresses the importance of strengthening public-private partnerships and political commitments to reinforce such efforts.

“The Security Council, while welcoming the statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 29 March 2016 stating that the Ebola situation in West Africa no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, reiterates its concern about economic, social and humanitarian consequences of this virus disease and underlines the importance of promoting long term human and institutional capacity building to build strong national health systems. The Security Council supports current efforts and underscores the need to strengthen the global health architecture, including inter alia through the implementation of the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) and its Health Emergencies Programme, in order to better respond to public health emergencies, as well as for promoting strong, sustainable and responsive health systems for better preparedness and prevention.

“The Security Council encourages those who drive the efforts on peacebuilding to take the necessary steps to ensure that women are equally engaged in the process of peacebuilding. The Security Council underscores the need to empower women to do so by such means as increasing representation of women at all decision-making levels at local, national, regional and international institutions and through mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of conflict and mediation, and to consider gender-related issues in all discussions pertinent to sustaining peace. The Security Council further welcomes the efforts of Member States to implement Resolution 1325 (2000) and its subsequent resolutions, in particular its Resolution 2242 (2015).

“The Security Council calls on all relevant actors to engage in long term capacity building to promote a culture of peace, tolerance, intercultural and interreligious dialogue that involve youth and discourage their participation in acts of violence and terrorism. The Security Council further stresses the importance of promoting policies and adopting tailored approaches for youth that would positively contribute to peacebuilding efforts, including social and economic development, supporting projects designed to grow local economies, and providing youth employment opportunities and vocational training, fostering their quality education, and promoting youth entrepreneurship and constructive political engagement. The Security Council recognizes that such efforts contribute to countering recruitment to violent extremism, which can be conducive to terrorism, and promoting social inclusion and cohesion, making the society more resistant to radicalization to violence.

“The Security Council stresses the potential benefit of taking such innovative approaches as the use of science and technology, which can play a key role in support of sustaining peace, economic growth, sustainable development and national capacity building through institution-building in Africa. The Security Council appreciates the efforts to develop and apply relevant technologies to activities such as elections management, border control, and the prevention of disease outbreak, among others. The Security Council stresses the need for strengthening capacity of relevant institutions at local, national, regional and international levels through further innovation, including digital connectivity through improved Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure and enhanced access to energy.

“The Security Council recalls its Resolution 2282 (2016), and welcomes the valuable work undertaken by the Peacebuilding Fund. The Security Council reaffirms the importance of the advisory functions of the Peacebuilding Commission and requests it to further consider and share good practices on institution-building for sustaining peace in Africa. The Security Council reaffirms the importance of strengthening coordination, coherence and cooperation with the Peacebuilding Commission.

“The Security Council emphasizes the need for predictable and sustained financing to United Nations peacebuilding activities, including through increased contributions, and strengthened partnerships with key stakeholders, while also noting the significance that non-monetary contributions can play in peacebuilding efforts, taking into account the need to ensure transparency, accountability and appropriate monitoring of funds.

“The Security Council recalls the General Assembly’s decision to invite the Secretary General to report to the seventy-second session of the General Assembly, at least sixty days prior to the high-level meeting on “Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace”, on efforts to implement its Resolution 2282 (2016). The Security Council further recalls the Secretary-General’s suggestion to provide an oral briefing to the Security Council no later than December 2016.”

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