“Pulling Together the UN System in Conflict-Prone States: Problems and Prospects?”

Dear Friends and Colleagues

A warm welcome to you all. And a big thank you to Stephen Browne, Tom Weiss and FUNDS for all the work that has gone into organizing this conference. And thank you to all of you for taking part. This is really a most impressive gathering of peacebuilding and development experts, which shows not only Stephen and Tom’s incredible convening power but also the capacities of our United Nations system and all of our partners. This bodes well for a discussion that moves beyond the usual analysis and ideas. Thank you also to our Host Country - Switzerland - for the support for this conference but also more broadly for much of the peacebuilding work that takes place out of Geneva - through the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform and the many organizations here engaged on peacebuilding.
As you know, this conference is particularly timely in light of the review of the peacebuilding architecture, and I know that many of you are feeding into that process. I think there is much to be gained from these more targeted expert meetings, with an honest review of what has worked and what has not - and then how we implement.

I was just at a conference in Copenhagen yesterday on United Nations reform. And one characteristic that was highlighted by one of the experts there was that our Organization has become much better at taking onboard lessons - that we are now a “learning Organization”. When it comes to peacebuilding, I think we still have a lot to learn so I hope it is true that we are truly learners. Not least when it comes to how we turn our peacebuilding experience into better conflict prevention, which has to be a key measure of success in this field. Overall, we need to become more serious about preventive work, and peacebuilding must be part of that effort. An important lesson for our 70th anniversary, I think.

I have had the opportunity to speak on the current challenges in peacebuilding on several occasions over the past year. And I will not repeat here my ideas on this – many of them shaped by my own experience in the field. But I want to stress - as I have often done - the need to focus on trust-building. Processes and institutions will only be truly meaningful in peacebuilding, if they help to establish - or re-establish - trust. The world suffers from a general and growing trust deficit, but it is often the greatest in conflict-prone countries. Trust-building has to be the common thread that ties together all of our practical work in this area.

I don’t pretend that this is an easy task, but I believe that it has to be our compass if we are to have any chance of real success in building lasting peace in fragile contexts.

With these brief words of introduction, I will wish you very substantive - and frank - exchanges. And we look forward to continue supporting the important work of FUNDS.

Thank you very much.