International Day of Peace

  Peacebuilding is primarily a national challenge and responsibility. It is the citizens of the countries where peacebuilding is underway, with support from their governments, who assume the responsibility for laying the foundations of lasting peace. National ownership is essential to success.  National capacity development must be central to all international peacebuilding efforts from the very start, as part of the entry strategy, not the exit. Indeed, a core objective for peacebuilding is to reach as soon as possible the point when external assistance is no longer required, by ensuring that all initiatives support the development of national peacebuilding capacities. This is a challenge, especially in the early days when peace is fragile and national capacity is often displaced and severely limited. Nevertheless, peacebuilding must focus proactively on (re)building national capacity, otherwise peace will not be sustainable. To support this effort, a collective assessmen...

  There is no simple, clear cut definition of peacebuilding that sets it apart from conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking, humanitarian and development assistance.6 For one thing, there is considerable overlap of goals and activities along 6 See Annex the spectrum from conflict to peace. For another, various peacebuilding activities may take place in each phase of the spectrum. The UN Charter clearly outlines the mandate of the whole UN system to engage in peacebuilding. The first preambular paragraph speaks of saving “succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and the first article states that the purpose of the UN is “to maintain international peace and security, and to that end to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace.” In most post-conflict situations there are many international actors who contribute to peacebuilding as security, development and humanitarian staff. Humanitarian and sometimes development staff...

  Most peacebuilding happens once conflict – i.e. major, large-scale violence – has ended. But some peacebuilding tasks can start even during conflict . For example, in pockets of peace, civil society organizations, local government or traditional actors may be promoting conflict resolution mechanisms , or seeking to provide basic services or develop livelihood opportunities. The United Nations can support them. It is important to start assessing capacity as soon as the end of conflict is in sight (particularly national capacity, but also other potentially useful capacity in the country or the region, such as resident staff or NGOs). This preparatory groundwork enables the United Nations to respond more quickly and effectively once a negotiated settlement has been reached and/or elements of peace are established, as well as to capitalize on any opportunities to build peace from the bottom up where pockets of stability exist . At that point, the volume of peacebuilding action i...

  The initial post-conflict period in most countries is characterized by significant insecurity and political uncertainty. Peace processes can advance, but they also often suffer periods of regression. Many countries are governed by transitional political arrangements until after the first post-conflict elections , when newly elected representatives have assumed their executive and legislative functions. So the success of peacebuilding depends in part on the political decisions of those involved (national and local governments, communities, donors, the UN itself), in part on effective leadership (by national governments and within the UN), and on resources like human capital or donor financing.