Check against delivery

Mr Chair, Distinguished members of the PBF Advisory Group,

First of all, let me congratulate the new members of the PBF Advisory Group on their appointment. With the upcoming Peacebuilding Architecture Review, 2025 will be an important year (congratulate Slovenia and Egypt on appointment as co-facilitators).

We very much welcome this exchange between the PBC and the PBF Advisory Group and also look forward to the Interactive Strategic Dialogue of the PBC on the PBF. More interaction between between the Commission, the Fund and the Advisory Group will allow for greater coherence in our priorities.

We are also grateful for the briefing by the PR of Chad. This type of exchange gives the PBC members a better understanding of the impact of the PBF. We encourage more communication about the PBF and its activities both here at the UN and with our representatives in country settings.

Let me outline a few priorities that we believe should be on top of the Advisory Group’s agenda:

First of all, we have seen tremendous momentum for the peacebuilding and conflict prevention agenda in the past years. With conflict on the rise, there is also recognition that we must invest more in prevention and that this ambition should be universal. The demand for PBF funding is bigger than ever. New countries are reaching out to the PBC. Unfortunately, we are also experiencing a crisis in funding for peacebuilding. Turning this situation around must be top of the Advisory Group’s Agenda.

With the addition of assessed contributions to PBF now finally a reality, we should revisit the 2022 Financing for Peacebuilding resolution to see how other sources of funding can be increased. This includes strengthening the cooperation between the UN and the IFIs. Such cooperation could leverage the comparative advantage of the respective organizations: on the one hand the large-scale funding of the IFIs and on the other hand the UN’s great expertise on peacebuilding. Second, this is the moment to implement the Pact for the Future. The Pact for the Future encourages that all countries to develop their nationally owned and led prevention strategies and approaches. While the ownership should always be national, the UN must be able to provide support. We believe the PBF should be one instrument through which to support national prevention strategies. However, again, this will require adequate resources.

Finally, let me assure you of the EU’s steadfast support for the Peacebuilding Fund. We are planning to continue our multi-annual support at the same level of ambition as previously, contributing EUR 6 million for 2025-26. In 2023, according to the PBF annual report, the EU and its members delivered 58.2% of the total contributions. Our commitment is of course also political and we are committed to engage actively in Peacebuilding Architecture Review.

Thank you.