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QUNO & the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission Background

Local Rwandans relax by the river. QUNO has worked to promote sustainable peace in Africa's Great Lakes region. Credit: Aletia Dundas

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was created in 2006 to help post-conflict countries move toward sustainable peace. The PBC is an advisory body of the Security Council and the General Assembly, made up of 31 UN member states. It brings together government officials, and representatives of UN agencies, the World Bank, IMF, regional organizations and civil society organizations; these groups work together to create peacebuilding strategies for countries emerging from conflict. These strategies identify priorities for that country, for example: "justice and rule of law", "good governance", and others. Few other bodies in the international system bring together such a diverse set of stakeholders, and the PBC has shown that its engagement can help stimulate important conversations in post-conflict countries.

Besides producing peacebuilding strategies, the PBC is also tasked with marshaling resources for peacebuilding, sustaining international attention on its focus countries, and sharing lessons learned across the UN system. So far, the PBC has considered the cases of Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-Bissau, and has drawn up peacebuilding strategies for each. As it moves towards monitoring its peacebuilding strategies in those countries, the PBC is now undertaking work on the Central African Republic.

The PBC also works closely with the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), which gives administrative support to the PBC and helps draft the PBC's documents. The PBSO also administers the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), which disburses small grants to peacebuilding projects in post-conflict countries. Along with the PBC, these bodies form the UN's new "Peacebuilding Architecture".

The Quaker UN Office's programme on the Peacebuilding Commission aims to link Quaker peace work on the ground to the peacebuilding work of the United Nations. In both Geneva and New York, QUNO seeks to support and enhance this new body as it carries out its important mission.

Click here to read about QUNO Programme Work on the Peacebuilding Commission

Click here for Further Resources on the PBC