Investment in people to enhance resilience against complex challenges

PEACEBUILDING AND SUSTAINING PEACE: INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE TO ENHANCE RESILIENCE AGAINST COMPLEX CHALLENGES

Mr. President,
I begin by thanking Japan for organising today’s open debate on peacebuilding and sustaining peace. The focus of the debate on ‘investment in people to enhance resilience’ mirrors, in part, our signature event of 3rd November 2022 and takes forward the Council’s need for further engagement on how to effectively address the many powerful drivers of instability. We are grateful to Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammad for her insightful statement and thank the Chair of the Peace-building Commission (PBC) Ambassador Muhammad Abdul Muhith and the representatives of international and regional organizations for their perspectives.

With the growing incidence of intra-State conflicts since the early 1990s, and the growing threat of cross-border terrorism and violent extremism, the international community has had to deal with diverse and mutually reinforcing drivers of instability that make prevailing conflicts complex and difficult to resolve. Today, the dynamics of such conflicts are aggravated not only by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, but also by the reach and lethality of terrorist groups and transnational criminal networks. From taking by force huge parts of States to launching assaults on States’ authority and presence, looting natural resources, and destabilizing society through disinformation, radicalization, and recruitment, especially of youthful populations, these groups seek to displace established States and Governments.

Moreover, poor governance deficits, including the inability of developing countries to deliver essential public services, create inclusive opportunities, and promote participatory governance, undermine the effectiveness of traditional responses for addressing such conflicts. This often leads to protracted conflicts with dire consequences, including huge humanitarian situations. As we consider the challenges in pacifying conflicts in the Sahel, including Mali, and in the DRC, the Central African Republic and Somalia, among others, the Council must recall its resolution 2282 (2016) on the review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture and recent reports on the matter to consider additional instruments and enhanced relationships it can draw upon to carry out a peoplecentred approach for maintaining international peace and security.

It is in this context that Ghana would like to make four (4) specific points in relation to the open debate.

First, the best guarantor for sustaining peace is to prevent conflicts and to address the many underlying drivers of such conflicts. The Council’s decisions should therefore seek to reinforce actions that support, in fragile contexts, programmes that build the resilience of systems, institutions and individuals, and which incorporate projects for economic revitalization, employment generation, and livelihoods opportunities, particularly for the youth and demobilized former combatants. In the Sahel, for instance, the impact of climate change, including displacement and food insecurity, as well as endemic poverty and exclusion, low levels of education and youth unemployment, have created fertile grounds for radicalization and recruitment by extremist groups. To break the cycle of violence and the southward expansion of terrorist activity into coastal States, it is important to agree on urgent actions to strengthen support for building the economic resilience of the vulnerable communities as part of national and regional-led peace and security initiatives. It is important to note that one feature of the complexity of the conflicts driven by terrorists is the interplay of physical insecurity and insecurity fuelled by weak community resilience. Prevention in this regard has to go hand in hand with effective Security Council counter-terrorism support for regional-led peace and security initiatives.

Secondly, in its efforts to build peace, the Council could work more closely with other organs and bodies within the United Nations system to ensure coherence and effectiveness in the implementation of peace objectives, especially with the Peacebuilding Commission, which plays an advisory role to both the Security Council and the General Assembly.

As we have seen over the years, the PBC has a cross-sectoral convening ability and it has shown a capacity to create, through its work, synergies across international, regional, national, and local dimensions. In addressing the causes of conflict in fragile countries, as well as those in transition, the Council should leverage the resources of the PBC in bringing the actions of other international actors such as the Bretton Woods and the bilateral donors closer to the objectives of sustainable peace on the basis of locally developed and context-specific processes. In this regard, we stress the need for strategically-timed joint meetings with the PBC, from the mandate generation phase and in relation to common country situations that are up for renewal in the Council. We also urge PBC consultation with the Security Council in support of a coherent all of United Nations’ system strategy to build and sustain peace in fragile contexts, especially in the Sahel.

Thirdly, a lot has been said about the role of early warning in preventing conflicts. We, however, believe early warning mechanisms are more effective if anchored in regional arrangements such as the African Union and its Regional Economic Communities, like ECOWAS, which are closer to the conflict settings and usually have an institutional memory and keen awareness of sensitivities that help to better defuse conflict triggers. We therefore urge the United Nations to work closely with such regional organisations and for their capacities to be strengthened through increased funding for early warning analysis and assessments. This must include supporting fragile countries to implement appropriate interventions to remove identified threats to peace and security. As we have often said, a dollar spent in preventing a conflict saves the millions required during the phase of conflict resolution. We should therefore not only act early to stop conflict and violence from escalating, but we should be proactive in dealing with early indicators of conflicts and violence before they get out of hand.

Fourthly, in investing in people for resilient societies, women’s active and meaningful participation in peace processes, dialogues, and peacebuilding efforts remains vital to achieve just, inclusive, and long-term peace. We therefore continue to advocate for an equal inclusion of women and generous embrace of youth-led organizations in decision and policy making at national and local levels on peace and security. They should be actively empowered through local peace initiatives as local ownership of peace processes is key to the success of every peace mission.

Mr. President,
The emphasis on the resilience of individuals and communities is a more practical and effective peacebuilding strategy for addressing protracted crises. Failing to achieve the sustainable development goals exposes the fragilities of countries and reinforces the drivers of conflict. We have stated in this Council, before, and we repeat it today, that integrating effective resilience-building into peace operations must be a central preoccupation, if we are to remain a credible guarantor of peace and security around the world. Being a longstanding Troop Contributing Country, Ghana has observed for some time now the need to balance military approaches aimed at restoring peace and, peacebuilding measures focused on the resilience of the conflict communities to prevent relapse into violent conflict. As resilience involves multiple risks, sectors, and systems, we would continue to encourage coherent actions across the United Nations System that are targeted at the resilience-building agenda, for sustainable peace.

I thank you for your attention.