Partnerships with Regional Development Banks: Statement During UN Peacebuilding Commission Annual Session

Thank you, Chair, and I thank all the briefers for providing us with a cross-regional perspective on the important role of sustainable development, not only in the reduction of poverty, but also the role of development in addressing the root causes of conflict and enhancement of national peacebuilding priorities.

The UN membership, through the 2016 UN Peacebuilding Architecture twin resolutions, recognised peacebuilding as an inherently political process. Development is also a political process.

As we speak, the Horn of Africa is experiencing the worst drought in forty years, which has placed an estimated forty-two million people in need of urgent assistance, and this is exclusive of the actual economic impact of this climate-related challenge. According to the World Bank, the floods in Pakistan are estimated to cost over fifteen billion dollars in damages, and all this is against the one hundred billion dollars pledged annually for developing countries that has yet to be fulfilled. Simply put, climate financing for climate adaptation is no longer optional. It should be integral to any peacebuilding and development project in the most affected countries and regions, including in Africa.

We also need to make real progress in the development and deployment of the link between climate, peacebuilding and security. We are of the position that the PBC can open this space in a bigger way. On the 29th of November, Kenya and Norway will be co-hosting an Arria meeting on Climate, Peace and Security to allow for an exchange on how climate, security and peacebuilding interact. I welcome you all to this meeting. As co-hosts, we have prioritised countries engaging with the PBC to table ideas, based on real experiences, to broaden the Council's awareness of how this UN Climate, Peace and Security architecture could be enhanced.

Lastly, we need to see deliveries on financing for peacebuilding: the historic resolution 76/305 on financing for peacebuilding seeks to ensure adequate, predictable and sustainable financing for peacebuilding. This should remain a priority in all partnership arrangements between the PBC and international financial institutions, including regional development banks. Taking the African Development Bank as an example, its Transition Support Facility, which has existed since 2008, would benefit from enhanced partnership with the UN given the Bank's structure and mandate as a fast and flexible disbursement mechanism designed to support countries in consolidating peace, building resilient institutions, stabilising their economies and laying the foundations for inclusive growth and social cohesion. Indeed, as we have heard this morning, the Bank wields significant convening power to facilitate joint initiatives, including those pertaining to AU Agenda 2063, the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs.

As a co-facilitator of the intergovernmental process that led to this resolution, alongside Sweden, Kenya hopes that the regional banks represented here today, and other regional and financing institutions, including Regional Economic Communities and Mechanisms operating in peacebuilding settings and conflict-affected countries, will find entry points to give life to, and take action on, the relevant recommendations of the resolution. The PBC could capitalise on its convening mandate to establish regular working exchange programmes between regional banks and the Bretton Woods institutions, to explore how to create professional and technical synergies. This will prove an important partnership with the PBC and other UN development agencies, including UNDP, to provide targeted investments to build states' capacities and restore essential peace and development services to local communities.