Nassir Abdelaziz al Nassir, Qatar’s ambassador to the UN, advised members of the global security body on Tuesday to "build on the concrete results achieved on the ground" in violence-wracked nations like Burundi and Sierra Leone.
“More states must benefit from peace building programmes, while giving due consideration to the different conditions and different manners in which the peacebuilding process should be managed in different countries," Al Nassir told the council.
The ambassador was speaking during a day-long open debate on post-conflict peacebuilding chaired by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and addressed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
World leaders discussed the experience gained from trying to restore peace and security to violence-afflicted states such as the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo, Liberia, Timor-Leste and Haiti.
Qatar’s Al Nassir warned members that restoring security to war-ravaged nations was becoming increasingly complicated and urged all humanitarian actors to coordinate their efforts.
"Peace building has become a multi-dimensional issue that requires the concerted efforts of all UN agencies and partnership with the international community based on the full respect for sovereignty of the state in question in accordance with the charter and international law while ensuring its national ownership," said the head of Qatar’s UN mission.
The ambassador’s message was similar to that delivered by Ban Ki-moon, who said the UN’s lengthy experience in helping countries emerge from conflict showed that while each country is different, there are always common short-term priorities.
Security and the rule of law must also be restored through the development of professional and accountable justice systems and the affected population must receive immediate and tangible benefits to strengthen their support in the long-term.
"We have put in place structures, planning and monitoring processes to support this effort in the immediate term and throughout the transition to longer-term peacebuilding," said the UN chief.
"Where we work together, as in Liberia and Sierra Leone, we deliver a vastly more effective response. Coordination and clarity of leadership is critical to ensuring that each partner brings its distinctive strength to the broad collective effort."
The secretary-general also stressed that the world body should expand its civilian expertise, citing the "small but agile" standing police capacity of the UN and the launch of a standby team of mediation experts as key steps in the right direction.
"But we remain desperately short of judges, prison wardens, state administrators and managers-particularly those with knowledge and experience of the countries and systems in which we operate. Not only should these be well-equipped when they are deployed; they need start-up funding at their disposal."
In a statement issued at the end of the debate, Karen Pierce, deputy permanent representative of the UK, which is currently president of the Security Council, said more money should be "available from the outset" for peacebuilding efforts.
The statement highlighted that the UN should lead the coordination in the field in countries emerging from conflict, working closely with regional organisations, international bodies, and individual states, etc.
It also welcomed efforts from the UN Peace Building Commission in providing advice and leadership and called on Ban to give advice within the next year on how best to improve the UN system’s handling of peacebuilding.
