Our Cross-Cutting work
Our Cross-Cutting work:
PBSO uses its key role in bringing together humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding actors, enhancing coherence and strategic alignment within the UN system to turn the “triple nexus” into a reality.
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.
The Peacebuilding Impact Hub
The Peacebuilding Impact Hub, our new initiative, aims to foster a deeper understanding of the effects and impact of peacebuilding interventions and practice to enhance the ability of peacebuilders to make timely and evidence-informed decisions for effective and adaptive action across all stages, from conflict prevention to recovery and sustaining peace and development.
The Hub strives to be a one-stop resource for the United Nations system and the broader peacebuilding community, contributing to a more peaceful, stable, and sustainable world.
The Peacebuilding Impact Hub, spearheaded by the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office, serves to enhance the UN's peacebuilding efforts and practice, fostering a deeper understanding of the implementation and impact of peacebuilding interventions within the UN system. The Hub is a UN-based, practice-oriented initiative, but it extends its reach beyond the UN by providing an evidence-based platform for a broad array of peacebuilders.
The Hub’s intended audience encompasses policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and local communities who are invested in peacebuilding, both within and outside the UN. Thus, it strikes a balance between addressing internal UN needs for cohesive peacebuilding strategies, while also opening vital resources and insights to the wider global peacebuilding community.
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South-South and Triangular Cooperation
There is a growing momentum towards South-South and triangular cooperation (SSTC) for peacebuilding and prevention. SSTC is an important principle and tool for the UN’s work in support of fragile and conflict affected countries. Tackling the roots of fragility and violence is a key enabler to the SDG Framework and SSTC is considered as a strategic means to work on prevention and peacebuilding through mutual support among countries from the global South, including the sharing of lessons learned and good practices. As focal point of the Department of Peacebuilding and Political Affairs (DPPA) on SSTC for prevention and peacebuilding, PBSO continues its advocacy and engagement to strengthen partnerships for leveraging SSTC. PBSO maintains an informal network of SSTC focal points within DPPA which has enabled consultation on the Department’s approach to SSTC.
PBSO has also led the coordination between DPPA and the UN Office for South-South Cooperation and sought to make visible the many ways in which DPPA advances SSTC through its activities. PBSO has also actively facilitated knowledge exchange via its support to the Peacebuilding Commission as a platform for exchanges of experiences and peer-to peer learning on peacebuilding.