5 The Peacebuilding Commission
147. Armed conflict, its threat, and the build-up
of arms in many countries has set back development and progress
towards the MDGs. If the international community is committed
to the achievement of the MDGs the incidence of conflict in developing
countries must be addressed directly.
148. The UN system has responded to this phenomenon
and the need to address pressing humanitarian issues by launching
a number of post-conflict missions known as peacebuilding or peace
support operations.[148]
The first such operation was in Namibia in 1989. In 2004 the
UN Secretary General's High Level Panel proposed the creation
of a Peacebuilding Commission and a Peacebuilding Support Office[149]
to help states avoid collapse into war and to assist in their
transition from war to peace.
149. The Peacebuilding Commission was formally endorsed
by the World Summit in September 2005. Its remit is to:
i. Propose integrated strategies for post-conflict
peacebuilding and recovery;
ii. Help to ensure predictable financing for
early recovery activities and sustained financial investment over
the medium-to longer-term;
iii. Extend the period of attention by the international
community to post-conflict recovery;
iv. Develop best practices on issues that require
extensive collaboration among political, military, humanitarian
and development actors.[150]
Absent from the new Commission is a specific preventative
mandate, and this lack has been much criticised, in particular
by NGOs.[151]
150. The significant difference between the Peacebuilding
Commission and previous peacebuilding efforts has been the attempt
to move beyond the imposition and observance of a peace agreement
and the monitoring of ceasefires toward a much more sustained
post-conflict reconstruction effort. Reconstruction, when carried
out properly, can provide important incentives for maintaining
the peace. We discussed the Peacebuilding Commission in our earlier
report on Darfur.[152]
151. The effectiveness of the Peacebuilding Commission
will depend on how it interprets its mandate. Concerns have been
raised with us that the problem with the Peacebuilding Commission
is that the UN as a system operates on the basis of:
"government to government diplomacy, whereas
peacebuilding is not about government to government peacebuilding,
it is more about civil society engagement...there is a concern
that it will not engage with local communities in the proper way
and that needs to be thought about again."[153]
152. Saferworld are concerned that the Peacebuilding
Commission should not simply be an office in New York but that
it needs to "relate to both UN and donor bodies on the ground
but also have an interaction with national authorities and civil
society."[154]
We agree. The peace which is being built should be one which grows
out of the local situation and not one which is imposed by donors
or simply reflects the government's interests. Mechanisms should
be established to involve civil society so that grievances can
be properly addressed in the work of the Peacebuilding Commission.
153. DFID argues that the Peacebuilding Commission's
operations should be based on a shared plan between the government
of the country it is operating in and the donor community, and
that the Peacebuilding Commission must play a key role in reconstruction.[155]
We agree that the operations
of the Peacebuilding Commission should be based on a shared plan
between the country in question and the donor community but we
also consider that excluding civil society organisations runs
the risk of downplaying grievances.
154. The forthcoming DFID policy on conflict due
out later this year provides an ideal opportunity for DFID to
consolidate its place among development agencies at the forefront
of addressing conflict. A DFID conflict policy also has the potential
to produce a more coherent, whole-of-government approach to conflict.
This report sets out some of the key policy areas and considers
ways in which a conflict policy can have a net positive effect
on reducing the incidence and recurrence of conflict in developing
countries. This in turn would vastly increase the prospects for
achieving the Millennium Development Goals, especially in Africa.
While the link between conflict
and development is a relatively new field, it is an area to which
the Government must give priority in order to improve development
outcomes amongst the poorest. Preventing and ending conflicts
and helping to ensure they do not recur will do more to create
a climate for poverty reduction and development in the countries
affected than any amount of costly aid programmes.
148 The UN had been involved in peacekeeping before
this but this was on a much smaller scale and largely concerned
with implementing a peace agreement. Back
149
UN High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, A more
secure world: our shared responsibility, New York: UN 2004 Back
150
www.un.org/peace/peacebuilding Back
151
Richard Ponzio, The creation and function of the UN Peacebuilding
Commission, Saferworld, November 2005. Back
152
Second Report from the International Development Committee, Session
2005-06, Darfur: The killing continues, HC 657 Back
153
Q 36 (Oli Brown, IISD) Back
154
Q 36 (Claire Hickson, Saferworld) Back
155
DFID, Making Governance work for the poor, p 50. Back
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