by Xinhua writer Wang Xiangjiang
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council staged on Wednesday an open debate on peacebuilding strategies in an effort to help countries emerging from war and seeking to rebuild.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, members of the 15-nation council, delegates from dozens of UN member states as well as representatives from relevant UN agencies took part in the day-long debate.
Ban presented to the Security Council his report on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict, which highlighted five interconnected aspects that are directly linked to peacebuilding efforts -- national ownership, international leadership, coherence, a common strategy and predictable and credible delivery.
"Building peace is about much more than ending war. It is about putting in place the institutions and trust that will carry people forward into a peaceful future," Ban told the meeting. "We often have a limited window of opportunity in which to do this."
He said that the report focuses on that crucial two-year period when conflict has ended but insecurity often persists and peace is fragile.
"If peace is to be sustainable, the international community must make the most of this moment and provide the right support at the right time," Ban said.
In a presidential statement adopted in May, 2008, the Security Council invited the secretary-general to provide advice on how to support national efforts to security sustainable peace more rapidly and effectively.
Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa, the council president for July, said that the task before the council was to consider and refine the strategies through which the United Nations and the wider international community could effectively support countries emerging from conflict in moving towards sustainable peace, reconstruction, economic recovery and development.
Post-conflict peacebuilding was premised on the simple fact that sustained peace was impossible without development, and without development, no peace could be durable, Kutesa said.
"There is a need to deliver tangible pace dividends, including the provision of basic services and improving the standard of living of the population," he added.
Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, who heads the UN Peacebuilding Commission, said that the commission endorsed the secretary-general's approach and recommendations.
However, he cautioned, the commitment to national ownership as a key principle of peacebuilding would remain merely an abstract concept unless it was accompanied from the very beginning by capacity-building, starting with a clear understanding of existing capacities on the ground.
National capacity-building must start immediately following the end of conflict, taking advantage of a narrow window of opportunity to lay the foundations of a sustainable peace, Munoz said.
Jordan Ryan, director of the Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery at the UN Development Program (UNDP), said that effective and quick peacebuilding action was essential if countries emerging from conflict were to succeed in meeting the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight anti-poverty targets that world leaders have agreed to achieve by 2015.
For that reason, it was important to effectively link short-term peacebuilding activities with longer-term recovery and development, Ryan said.
Ryan stressed that special attention should be paid to women and youth, who must be fully engaged in planning and decision-making processes, adding that UNDP was currently deploying senior gender advisers in 10 post-conflict countries.
Peacebuilding constitutes part of the United Nations' broad peace endeavor, with a focus on helping countries emerging from conflict to recover from the wounds of war and start to rebuild peace.
To this end, the UN established the Peacebuilding Commission in2005, an intergovernmental advisory body, to help countries in post-conflict peace building, recovery, reconstruction and development.
The commission helps these countries determine the priority areas for rebuilding out of the vast array of challenges they face. Countries can also avail themselves of financial assistance from the UN Peacebuilding Fund to jump-start projects.
The Peacebuilding Fund was launched in October 2006 in response to the growing global demand for sustained support to countries emerging from conflict. The role of the fund is to establish a crucial bridge between conflict and recovery at a time when other funding mechanisms may not yet be available.
