Minister Ahern Announces €10 Million Funding for UN Peacebuilding Commission

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern T.D., today announced that the Government is to provide €10 million funding for the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.

Minister Ahern said: “I welcome the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission. This will enhance the institutional capacity of the UN as it works to ensure that countries emerging from conflicts do not revert to violence. I am pleased that as part of our commitment, the Irish Government is to contribute €10 million.”

The Peacebuilding Commission, one of the main elements of UN Reform proposed by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and promoted by the Minister as one of his Envoys on UN Reform, was endorsed by the UN World Summit last September.

The Minister said: “We know from our own long experience in peacekeeping and our recent term on the Security Council that peace is not merely the absence of armed conflict. Strengthening institutions, the reintegration of ex combatants into society, and reasonable prospects of social and economic progress are key if true peace is to be achieved.

“The Government is committed to working closely with the Peacebuilding Commission, which will be an essential bridge between peacekeeping and long term development cooperation.

“As part of our increased development budget and in line with the best traditions of Irish foreign policy, I am delighted that Ireland can make this substantial monetary contribution to the Peacebuilding Fund being set up to ensure the immediate release of resources needed to launch peacebuilding activities and the availability of appropriate financing for recovery.

“I have also asked officials of my Department to explore how Irish personnel, either seconded to the Commission's Peacebuilding Support Office, or working alongside it, can contribute to its work.”

Note for Editors

The Commission will be an advisory body, composed of the authorities of the country in question, members of the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the UN Secretariat and other relevant agencies, major donors and contributors to the relevant peace-keeping mission. It will aim to ensure a coordinated approach to the rehabilitation of countries emerging from conflict that places them firmly on the road to lasting stability and development. 

Ireland, during its EU Presidency, successfully proposed to its EU partners that the EU in its submission to the High Level Panel on UN Reform, support the creation of a political body that would mobilise and coordinate resources to keep fragile states from reverting to conflict, or from falling into it in the first place.

Arrangements for the new Peacebuilding Fund are in preparation in the UN Secretariat.

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21st December 2005