The UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the international CSO, InterPeace, co-led the inaugural CSO-UN Peacebuilding Dialogue at the UN Headquarters in New York from 30 November-01 December 2023. ACCORD’s General Manager for Programmes, Karishma Rajoo, joined the 2-day forum virtually and has been part of the core group of thematically and regionally represented international CSOs in the planning of the dialogue.
In opening the dialogue, Ms Elizabeth Spehar, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support highlighted that CSOs are on the frontlines of peacebuilding across the world and are an unwavering force for peace suggesting that they must be enabled to better contribute to the UN’s peacebuilding agenda.
ACCORD nominated two of its Training of Trainers alumni, Ms Susan Wamalwa, Executive Director, International Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Development (IPHRD-Africa) and Mr Marot Touloung, Co-Founder and Team Lead of the African Youth Action Network (AYAN) who were able to join the discussions in New York. Ms Wamalwa co-facilitated a main session that focused on strengthening collaboration for local peacebuilding, where civil society and UN representatives shared experiences and best practices on enhancing accountability and measuring impact. Mr Marot served as one of five regional experts from the dialogue to present the key recommendations with a focus on messages from the local level to the Peacebuilding Commission members.
The Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) on behalf of DPPA launched this initiative in June 2023 to convene CSOs to produce actionable recommendations to inform the UN’s work on peacebuilding. The dialogue stressed the critical role that CSOs consistently play in the UN’s peacebuilding agenda at global, national and local levels, which is further emphasised in the Secretary General’s New Agenda for Peace. The dialogue fostered interactions and exchanges between diverse global peacebuilders, the DPPA/PBSO and other UN related entities and agencies; and provided a platform for South-South and triangular cooperation around peacebuilding priorities and practices.
