Since our last newsletter in May 2021, QUNO has continued to adjust to the large changes brought about by COVID-19, as well as welcoming new staff and preparing to say goodbye to others. In the past months, the threats to peace that the world faces have become clearer, and what we must achieve has grown.

In 1981 the United Nations General Assembly designated 21 September as the International Day of Peace in order to highlight the importance of fostering an international commitment towards peace and non-violence.

The recently published book, “New Paths and Policies towards Conflict Prevention,” co-edited by QUNO’s UN Representative, Rachel Madenyika, shares the learnings from a series of relationship-building dialogues between Chinese and Swiss scholars, convened by QUNO New York.

In recognition of the multifaceted and universal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s joint (virtual) session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) focused on fostering global solidarity and conflict-sensitive responses to the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic on development and peacebuilding efforts.  

The six months since our last newsletter have been extraordinary ones as COVID-19 hit New York in force in March. As the pandemic unfolded, QUNO staff members quickly adjusted to working from home, with staff reaching out to friends and colleagues throughout the UN system and to peacebuilding practitioners around the world, listening, supporting, and seeking to understand how these new conditions were impacting global efforts for peace.

As co-facilitator of the Civil Society – UN Prevention Platform, QUNO co-hosted a meeting entitled ‘Responding to Socio-economic and Humanitarian Impacts of COVID-19 Through Civil Society - Peace and Development Advisor Partnerships.’ This discussion was jointly hosted with the UN Development Programme (UNDP)-Department of Political Affairs (DPPA) Joint Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention, which currently deploys over 56 Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) around the world. 

QUNO was invited to lead the second session in the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s (FWCC) Quaker Conversations, FWCC’s monthly webinar series with Friends around the world. QUNO New York Director, Andrew Tomlinson, spoke about the topic “Changing the World from the Top Down," and began by recalling the Quaker presence at the United Nations (UN), which dates back to the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco in June, 1945 – almost exactly 75 years ago. When the UN began its work in New York and Geneva, the Quaker offices at the United Nations started right alongside them.

On 22 May, QUNO was very pleased to partner with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in co-hosting a virtual session on “Inclusion: What Have We Learned?” during the 2020 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. The annually held Forum brings together members of the peacebuilding, security, development, and humanitarian communities for interdisciplinary exchanges and dialogue. Aptly, this year’s theme of Sustaining Peace in the Time of COVID-19 fostered lively and productive discussion