Essential features of peacebuilding.

 

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 assessment of existing capacities should be conducted early on.

Inclusive peacebuilding involves many actors. The key to effective peacebuilding lies in an agreed common strategy, nationally owned, with clear priorities against which the UN, the international community and national partners can allocate resources.

 A common strategy should be: 

• Nationally owned, derived from an inclusive planning process, with many and diverse stakeholders consulted as the strategy is developed; and 

• Based on an assessment of the country’s situation (e.g. through a Post-Conflict Needs  “Peacebuilding strategies must be coherent and tailored to the specific needs of the country concerned, based on national ownership, and should comprise a carefully prioritized, sequenced, and therefore relatively narrow set of activities aimed at achieving the above objectives.” Secretary-General’s Policy Committee, May 2007 Assessment or Strategic Assessment) including analysis of conflict drivers and risk.