Official Launch of the United Nations Policy for Post-Conflict Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration

Excellencies
Distinguished Panellists
Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am pleased to welcome you all to the Palais des Nations. It is a privilege to host and chair this Official Launch of the United Nations Policy for Post-Conflict Employment Creation, Income Generation and Reintegration, not least in view of UNOG’s long-standing involvement in facilitating system-wide efforts on peacebuilding, including through the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. I appreciate sharing this podium with colleagues from different parts of our United Nations family; it shows our collective commitment to meeting the peacebuilding challenge. Allow me also to extend a special welcome to the representative of Burundi. We appreciate that you can be with us to share your views from the perspective of a country that has been working closely with the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, also on socio-economic recovery.

As the outcome of a three-year consultation process led by UNDP and ILO, this United Nations policy combines the expertise and good practice of 19 entities across the United Nations family and the international financial institutions. As such, it represents an important step towards the much-needed system-wide coordination and coherence that the United Nations seeks to ensure in our peacebuilding efforts. This is an example of cooperation that we hope can be replicated in other areas of our peacebuilding work.

Building sustainable peace in countries emerging from conflict is indeed at the heart of the United Nations’ mission and it requires a holistic approach across the three pillars of our work – peace and security, development and human rights. Bringing all the actors together has proven to be crucial, based on national ownership.

It is clear that there are still gaps in our immediate response to post-conflict situations. With its concrete recommendations, this policy can help to close some of those gaps by systematizing available options when and where integration takes place. As was stressed in the Secretary-General’s comprehensive report on peacebuilding in the aftermath of conflict published in June of this year, economic revitalization, including employment generation and livelihoods, is among the recurring areas where international assistance is frequently requested as a priority in the aftermath of conflict. Job creation and self-employment opportunities provide the means for survival and recovery to communities and individuals. Jump-starting economic recovery, based on a clear understanding of local needs and aspirations, not only provides the engine for recovery, but it also bolsters security.

There is no doubt that the proposed integrated strategies for stabilization, reintegration, economic recovery and development contained in this policy hold the potential to make a valuable contribution to the work of the Peacebuilding Commission in this central area. The launch could hardly be more timely, as the economic and financial crisis impacts on the fragile peace in countries struggling to overcome the legacy of war.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As this launch demonstrates, Geneva is especially well-placed to help to reinforce the international community’s peacebuilding response. With the capacity and experience of a multitude of peacebuilding actors, Geneva brings unique value to both the formulation of peacebuilding policy and strategic guidance, and to implementation on the ground through capacity-building. Geneva represents an important knowledge platform in the fields of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, human rights, humanitarian protection and assistance, employment, health and gender, and in other areas that are critical to peacebuilding. As the turn-out here today testifies, “International Geneva” has the potential to create and cultivate the multistakeholder partnerships that are so important to delivering in peacebuilding.

[Programme continues]

Closing

Dear friends:

This has been an enriching discussion. The end of a conflict creates a window of opportunity for socio-economic change. It is our hope that this United Nations policy will help practitioners in delivering as one for sustainable post-conflict employment creation and reintegration. I thank you all for joining us today as a demonstration of our shared resolve. The United Nations Office at Geneva is pleased to be part of the process to enable this policy to achieve maximum impact, helping countries where peacebuilding support is most needed. Now, the focus must be on implementation, and the entire system must work together towards this end.

Thank you very much. The meeting is closed.