Ministry Statements & Speeches:
We thank the representatives of Brazil and Sweden.
New Zealand welcomes this opportunity to discuss the annual report of the Peacebuilding Commission (S/2015/174). We support the report’s recommendations, in particular those focused on increasing the interactivity between the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and the Security Council. New Zealand believes there is great value in improved information flows between the two bodies, especially in order to improve the management of United Nations mission transitions. Most importantly, there should be more effective cooperation and coordination by United Nations actors on ground. We look forward to discussing these ideas further this afternoon.
New Zealand also commends the report’s recommendation that a strategy be developed to strengthen gender perspectives in country-specific engagement. We believe that broader engagement with women will have far-reaching, positive effects on peacebuilding efforts and that this should go beyond extractive engagement.
There are important lessons to be learned from recent and current drawdowns. We would like to highlight four.
First, we believe peacebuilding is a process, not an event, which must accompany and not simply follow peacekeeping. The goals, milestones and priorities should be aligned as much as possible.
Secondly, effective transition planning must be linked to peace operations mandates and therefore must be considered at the earliest stages of mission planning. Measurable benchmarks can play a helpful role in objectively assessing progress, although those must be jointly owned and flexibly applied.
Thirdly, missions tasked with targeted capacity building can play an important role, but face challenges in ensuring effectiveness and sustainability of outcomes. There is much we can learn from recent experience — for example, regarding options for rapidly sourcing the necessary expertise as well as mechanisms for enabling meaningful national ownership and more sustainable outcomes.
Fourthly, transition management should proceed in partnership between the United Nations and the host Government in close consultation with bilateral, regional and international partners and development actors. The focus of such efforts has to be in-country.
Finally, we note the broader review of the peacebuilding architecture and the reviews of peace operations and resolution 1325 (2005). New Zealand strongly supports those reviews and believes that through them we can strengthen the United Nations management of peace operations and peacebuilding.