Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF)

The Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) is the United Nations’ instrument of first resort to respond to violent conflict. Since the General Assembly and the Security Council established the Fund in 2005, the PBF has supported over 60 countries recovering from or coping with violent conflict. The aim of the Fund is to support interventions that are of direct relevance to peacebuilding processes and address critical gaps in areas for which no other funding mechanisms are available. In response to the Security Council resolutions on sustaining peace1 and global conflict dynamics, the PBF has evolved from a post-conflict instrument to one that invests at all stages of conflict cycles: before, during and after conflict.2

The PBF works in the following Priority and Focus Areas:

Priority AreaFocus Area
  1. Responding to imminent threats to the peace process, support for the implementation of peace agreements and political dialogueSecurity Sector ReformRule of LawDisarmament, Demobilisation and ReintegrationPolitical dialogue (around specific time-bound peace/political agreements)
2. Building and/or strengthening national capacities to promote coexistence and peaceful resolution of conflictNational ReconciliationDemocratic GovernanceConflict Prevention/Management
3. Supporting efforts to revitalise the economy and generate immediate peace dividends for the population at large  EmploymentEquitable access to social services
4. Establishing or re-establishing essential administrative services and related human and technical capacitiesStrengthening of essential national state capacityExtension of state authority / local administrationGovernance of peacebuilding resources

1.     BACKGROUND

Since 2016, the Fund has launched the Gender Promotion Initiative (GPI) and the Youth Promotion Initiative (YPI) at the same time as the Gender and Youth Promotion Initiatives. While being launched together, the GPI and YPI are two separate initiatives with interconnected but distinct aims.

Gender Promotion Initiative

Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions on women, peace and security3 recognize women’s key role in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. The 2010 report of the Secretary-General, as requested by resolution 1889 (2009), contained a Seven-Point Action Plan on Gender-responsive Peacebuilding, which included a target of 15 per cent for UN peacebuilding allocations to be focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment. In

1 A/RES/70/262 and S/RES/2282 (2016)

2 PBSO (2017): What does “sustaining peace” mean?

3 1820 (2009); 1888 (2009); 1889 (2009); 1960 (2011); 2106 (2013); 2122 (2013); 2242 (2015), and 2467 (2019).

response, the PBF launched its first Gender Promotion Initiative (GPI) in 2011. The initiative called for targeted peacebuilding projects on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Fund allocated $6.4 million to the first round of GPI projects. This has continued to grow and in 2022 over

$23 million were invested in GPI projects. Since 2011, the Fund has invested over $137 million in 109 GPI projects in over 30 countries. In 2015, the PBF became the only UN Secretariat entity and first pooled UN fund to meet the 15 per cent target. The Fund has now exceeded the target for seven years in a row, reaching 47 per cent across its entire portfolio in 2022.

Youth Promotion Initiative

Security Council resolution 2250 (2015) and subsequent resolutions on Youth, Peace and Security recognizes the important and positive contribution of youth for the maintenance and promotion of international peace and security. In response, the PBF launched its first Youth Promotion Initiative (YPI) in 2016 calling for targeted peacebuilding projects on youth inclusion and participation. The Fund increased its funding to the YPI from $2.7 million in 2016 to over $23 million in 2022. Since 2016, the PBF has invested over $128 million in 97 YPI projects in close to 30 countries. To date, the YPI remains the largest funding measure in support of the implementation of resolutions 2250 (2015), 2419 (2018) and 2535 (2020).

Civil Society Engagement

Since 2016, the Fund has opened funding to civil society organizations (CSOs) through the initiatives, in addition to UN Agencies Funds and Programs (UN AFPs) and in 2020 joint UN-CSOs proposals was opened for the first time. Of the total investment since 2016, over $86 million, 34%, was allocated to CSOs and over $25 million, 10%, was allocated to joint UN-CSO projects. By providing direct funding to CSOs, PBF responds to the recommendations of the resolutions on sustaining peace 70/262 (1016) and 2282 (2016), the Secretary-General's report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace (2018) as well as the UN system-wide Community Engagement Guidelines on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace (2020). These recommendations aim at enhancing locally led peacebuilding impact, strengthening mutually respectful partnerships between the UN and civil society with a deeper understanding of local contexts, capitalizing on the expertise, broader networks and closer relationships of local organizations and communities and ensuring an inclusive approach, engaging the most hard-to-reach and marginalized populations. The Missing Peace: Independent Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security (2018) notes that it is also critical to support and nurture the work done by youth led CSOs, most of them being at the forefront of local peacebuilding initiatives but operating with extremely low support and funding. As per these recommendations, the initiatives not only provide direct funding to CSOs, but also requires that applicants demonstrate strong partnerships with local CSOs, in particular women-led organizations and networks for GPI applicants and youth-led organizations and networks for YPI applicants.

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