Let me begin by thanking Japan, Mozambique and Guyana for organizing this meeting today.

In view of the many different, yet inter-related threats and challenges our world faces, today’s discussion on how to better support and streamline conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts is both relevant and urgent.

Germany agrees with the Secretary General’s assessment in his New Agenda for Peace: in order to successfully face these common challenges we need to adapt and enhance the existing UN toolbox.

As co-facilitators of the Summit of the Future we are encouraged by the respective substantive input provided by Member States and look forward to the upcoming discussions on the basis of the zero draft (that will be distributed this week).

Honorable Chairs,

Today’s meeting offers a great opportunity to identify existing good practices that we can jointly build on to strengthen the UN’s toolbox. I will focus on two concrete, promising examples, in which the UN are already successfully helping Member States address and/or prevent conflict through comprehensive, integrated approaches:

First, the Peacebuilding Fund, which, despite its limited volume, has supported many countries facing or emerging from conflict to address root causes of violence and instability.

The PBF’s approach is inherently comprehensive, since the peacebuilding projects it funds are jointly developed by national governments, civil society – ensuring strong national ownwership right from the beginning – and the UN Country team under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator. These projects are actively supported by both the Peacebuilding Support Office and the implementing UN agency. In addition to their operational support, they also provide guidance on the humanitarian-development-peace continuum as well as relevant cross-cutting issues, such as WPS or Climate and Security. For sustainable solutions we need to ensure the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in all their diversity in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. Research shows that reconstruction and recovery efforts after conflict typically underfund women’s priorities – also due to the lack of their participation in peace processes.

One way to further streamline peacebuilding approaches supported via the PBF and showcase best practices, would be to encourage more Member States benefitting from the fund’s support to present their prevention and peacebuilding strategies to the Peacebuilding Commission. In view of the Peacebuilding Fund’s focus on catalytic rather than long-term funding, the Peacebuilding Commission also offers a welcome platform to garner sustained funding on the basis of sustained national ownership.

Second, the UN Transitions Project is an innovative mechanism to strengthen UN-system-wide integrated planning in the context of transitions and UN mission withdrawals, which Germany and other donors have supported for several years.

The mechanism brings together all relevant UN actors and supports national governments and UN Country Teams in the development of transition plans. In doing so, it actively contributes to increasing cooperation and coherence towards sustaining peace and peacebuilding beyond mission withdrawal. It also helps to ensure a continued focus on UN peace operation priorities, such as the WPS agenda.

The UN Transition project’s tangible results in establishing a comprehensive approach to transitions during and following UN peace operations should be institutionalized while planning a mandate.

In the meantime, the Security Council and the PBC could establish regular Informal Interactive Dialogues on transition best practices and specific transition contexts to support the streamlining of the UN’s integrated approach in this crucial line of effort towards sustained peace.

Thank you!