UN peacebuilding architecture
The UN Peacebuilding Commission and its associated bodies (commonly referred to as the UN peacebuilding architecture, or PBA) were established in 2005 in order to “address the special needs of countries emerging from conflict towards recovery, reintegration and reconstruction and to assist them in laying the foundation for sustainable development”.
During 2010, the UN will review the performance of the PBA to date, including the question of whether it has achieved its mandated objectives. This is the backdrop for a project lead by Professor Roland Paris (Centre for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa), which has sought to stimulate fresh thinking about the UN’s role in peacebuilding.
The nine resulting essays examine the possible future role of the PBA from various perspectives, and emphasize the need for more ambitious targets over the next five years. In particular, calls are made for increased awareness of the possible tension between concerns in the immediate aftermath of conflict and the building of a sustainable peace; the link between global security and the lack of economic and social investment; the private sector-peacebuilding relationship; the conceptualization of and emphasis on local ownership; and the specific implications for sustainable peace in Africa.
Moreover, it is argued that there is a need for developing the UN peacebuilding concept and operational model and for significantly stepping-up efforts to improve system-wide coherence. While the focus should be on realistic possibilities, the PBA will have to play new roles – in terms of mandate, resources, procedures, and partnerships – and adopt a ‘multi-tiered approach’, if it is not to remain a marginal actor in an already overcrowded peacebuilding field.
The project was co-organized by the Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS) at the University of Ottawa and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), with the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre, and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
The papers will be presented to the peacebuilding community in New York on the 9th of February in a seminar at the Canadian Permanent Mission to the UN.
The nine essays:
Aning, Kwesi and Ernest Lartey: Establishing the Future State of the Peacebuilding Commission: Perspectives on Africa
The paper discusses the strategic role of the Peacebuilding Commission as a vital component in the attainment of the new peacebuilding vision and architecture and examines its potential implications for sustainable peace in Africa.
Thomas and Oliver Jütersonke: The Challenges of Institution Building: Prospects for the UN Peacebuilding Architecture
The United Nations peacebuilding architecture is a new and relatively recent institutional creation. To address the issue of what role the UN peacebuilding architecture could realistically be expected to perform ten years from now, this paper briefly examine what different theories have to tell us about the origins of new institutions, their operational dynamics, their challenges, their constraints, their pathologies, and their realistic possibilities.
de Coning, Cedric: Clarity, Coherence and Context: Three Priorities for Sustainable Peacebuilding
This paper will focus on three challenges that should inform the 2010 Review of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, namely: (1) developing the UN peacebuilding concept and operational model; (2) significantly stepping-up efforts to improve system-wide coherence; and (3) seriously implementing the principle of local ownership.
Jenkins, Rob: Re-engineering the UN Peacebuilding Architecture
This paper argues that if the Peacebuilding Commission and the Peacebuilding Support Office are to avoid longterm institutional decline, they will, over the next five to ten years, need to position themselves to play new roles – in terms of mandate, resources, procedures, and partnerships.
McAskie, Carolyn: 2020 Vision: Visioning the Future of the United Nations Peacebuilding Architecture
Despite the overwhelming impact of major global crises, the actual number of conflicts has been reduced significantly since the end of the cold war. At the same time too many post-conflict countries either fall back into violence or fail to get on the path to sustainable peace. More is now understood about the link between global security and the lack of economic and social investment. This combination of analyses has provided the impetus behind the development of peacebuilding as a field in its own right and the creation of new international architecture.
McCandless, Erin: In Pursuit of Peacebuilding for Perpetual Peace: Where the UN’s Peacebuilding Architecture Needs to Go
This paper suggests that the new focus on the immediate aftermath of conflict supported by the UN’s Peacebuilding Architecture (PBA) crowds out important debates surrounding potential core drivers or building blocks of sustainable peace.
Rettberg, Angelika: The Private Sector, Peacebuilding, and Economic Recovery: A Challenge for the UNPBA
The paper focus on two aspects of the private sector-peacebuilding relationship. First, it will examine difficulties related to promoting economic recovery by stimulating domestic and international private sector actors in conflict or post-conflict countries to produce and invest in order to reinvigorate economies. Second, the paper will discuss aspects directly related to engaging the private sector in peacebuilding tasks.
Stamnes, Eli: Values, Context and Hybridity: How can the insights from the liberal peace critique literature be brought to bear on the practices of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture?
The authors of the liberal peace critique literature argue that local ownership should mean taking the recipient societies’(rather than simply governments’ and elites’) understanding of the problems and solutions as the starting point of peacebuilding.
Tschirgi, Necla: Escaping Path Dependency: A Proposed Multi-Tiered Approach for the UN’s Peacebuilding Commission
This paper argues that unless the Peacebuilding Commission adopts a ‘multi-tiered approach’ which is designed to better identify and respond to multiple peacebuilding challenges, it will remain a marginal actor in an already overcrowded peacebuilding field.
CIPS presentation of the project.