This Technical Note considers several recommendations to improve the UN’s Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). It provides a brief background on the PBC’s current mandate and areas of work. It then explores two sets of recommendations – one provided by the High-Level Advisory Body on Effective Multilateralism and the other by the New Agenda for Peace – and offers a brief comparison and some additional ideas from expert consultations.
On that basis, the Technical Note then concludes with several possible pathways and decisions for consideration by Member States in the lead-up to the Summit of the Future. These include:
- How a mandate expansion of the PBC can create positive synergies and not lead to ‘turfiness’ or confusion with other UN bodies.
- What a more formal relationship between the World Bank and other international financial institutions would look like – and what specific effects would indicate this partnership is working well.
- When increasing its investigative/reporting capabilities, how the PBC can find a balance that maintains the constrictive relationship it has forged with conflict-affected countries.
- In addition to briefings and consultations with the General Assembly, the Security Council and ECOSOC, how the PBC can better engage with the Human Rights Commissioner and other Geneva-based UN entities.
- How the PBC can connect more effectively with regional organizations, including the African Union and League of Arab States.
- How the PBC can bolster its resources – and where these resources would come from.
- How some proposed changes to the PBC – including changing the Commission’s core mandate and empowering it to generate peace operations – would require Security Council and/or General Assembly resolutions.
Read "Elevating the UN Peacebuilding Commission: Proposals for the Summit of the Future" here.
Suggested citation: Day Adam, Buddenhorn Sophie. Elevating the UN Peacebuilding Commission: Proposals for the Summit of the Future : UNU-CPR, 2024.
