爆料公社

Strengthening the collaboration between Peace, Humanitarian and Development actors within the UN System

Peace, development, and the fulfillment of humanitarian needs cannot be achieved without each other. Amidst today’s ongoing multidimensional conflicts and crises, progress in human development has reversed; the number of people living in conflict-affected contexts has increased, and humanitarian needs are growing. With a vast majority of humanitarian needs nowadays stemming from conflicts, and countries affected by fragility lagging furthest behind on the path towards sustainable and inclusive development, there is a growing international consensus about the need to anchor humanitarian and development efforts in the pursuit of peace. Meanwhile, the human rights dimension is also integral to addressing humanitarian needs and advancing development and peace.?

Our work on strengthening the centrality of peace in the humanitarian, development and peace nexus

While there has been extensive focus in recent years on bridging humanitarian aid and long-term development efforts, without progress on addressing and preventing conflict, development gains remain limited and are easily reversed, and humanitarian crises become protracted.?

Therefore, the Peacebuilding Support Office uses its “hinge” role in bringing humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors together, enhancing coherence and strategic alignment within the UN system to make the “triple nexus” a reality.?

The Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), which PBSO supports, applies a holistic lens to building and sustaining peace, convening a wide range of partners to address themes related to peacebuilding. For example, the annual ECOSOC-PBC meeting highlights the importance of linking peace and development on the ground.

The Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund, managed by PBSO, incentivizes joint programming of UN entities operating at the intersection of humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding. Examples include supporting social cohesion and finding durable solutions for both displaced and host communities, scaling up development activities such as basic services and community security in contexts where humanitarian and/or peacekeeping operations are winding down, and supporting conflict prevention and equitable access to natural resources where livelihoods of different communities are under pressure.

In its partnership and strategy work, PBSO offers coordination and fosters guidance to enhance alignment across the nexus, including on good practices for integrating conflict sensitivity and peacebuilding approaches into all kinds of assistance activities and through the UN system-wide Community Engagement Guidelines on peacebuilding and sustaining peace. In collaboration with the Development Coordination Office (DCO), PBSO supports stronger engagement of the peace and security pillar in the Common Country Analysis and UN Cooperation Framework, the most important strategic planning instruments of the UN development system at the country level.