Peacebuilding’s relation to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking, humanitarian and development assistance.

 

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 may already be in a country during conflict, so they are ready on the ground (albeit at diminished capacity) once conflict ends. At that point the Security Council may mandate the deployment of a UN country presence. The UN would then draw from its various capacities the resources required to respond to that country`s specific post-conflict security, political, humanitarian and development challenges. A new mission may be designed in parallel with a peace process, or after a peace has been signed. If the United Nations Security Council approves the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation, then UN peacekeepers (formed military and police units, observers and advisers) deploy to support national security actors in establishing the safety and security needed for peacebuilding to get underway. In addition, UN peacekeepers increasingly play a significant role as early peacebuilders themselves. The mandates of multi-dimensional peacekeeping operations include many peacebuilding tasks, including disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), security sector reform (SSR), support to electoral processes and re-establishing governmental authority. International and national civilian staff are employed to support those tasks. Special Political Missions and integrated peacebuilding missions, too, have received mandates covering a wide range of peacebuilding tasks. In those cases, security can be augmented by UN-endorsed multilateral (including regional) security forces; or it may be provided by the national government.Peacekeeping operations (PKOs) and Special Political Missions are financed from Member States’ assessed contributions, but that funding does not cover the whole universe of peacebuilding tasks in their mandates. To succeed, therefore, they have to work in partnership with UN humanitarian and development actors, and with the World Bank, regional organizations, civil society, bilateral and other multilateral donors, and the private sector.