Meeting of the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission
Statement by Ambassador Hjálmar W. Hannesson, Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council on June 27th 2007
Mr. Chairman,
Mr. Secretary General
President of the General Assembly
President of the Security Council
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
I wish to thank His Excellency, Ambassdor Ismael Gaspar Martins, Chairman of the Peacebuilding Commission for inviting the President of the Economic and Social Council to this important meeting to celebrate with you the completion of your first year of work. I am honoured that he has asked me, as one of his four Vice Presidents, to make this statement on his behalf. He regrets not being here with you but his duties required him to be in Geneva to address an NGO Forum in preparation for this year’s High-level Segment of the Council. I am pleased to offer to you, Sir, and the members of the Peacebuilding Commission, warm congratulations on behalf of the Bureau of the Economic and Social Council for successfully completing this challenging year - one which has set the course for your future work.
The Bureau of the Economic and Social Council is particularly pleased that PBC has recognized the link between poverty, weak state capacity and conflict and has ensured that the integrated peacebuilding strategies that you have endorsed include job creation, especially for youth, capacity development and the delivery of basic social services as priorities. Only by making substantial progress in these areas can the PBC help to ensure the sustainability of national peacebuilding efforts.
As the Economic and Social Council begins its 2007 annual session in Geneva next week with its first ever Annual Ministerial Review of the implementation of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and the launch of the Development Cooperation Forum, I can assure you that the best practices and lessons learned that are relevant to the economic and social recovery of countries emerging from conflict will be transmitted to you for your consideration.
Mr. Chairman,
The various discussions that have taken place in the General Assembly, the Security Council and in the PBC itself seem to suggest that there is consensus that the Council and the Commission will need to establish an appropriate institutional relationship to ensure coherence and synergy of their respective roles towards the economic, social, humanitarian and environmental aspects of recovery, integration and reconstruction in countries emerging from conflict. As the President reiterated in his statement to the Security Council and the General Assembly on the work of the Peacebuidling Commission early this year, the Council is ready to explore practical modalities for interaction between ECOSOC and the PBC, in line with General Assembly resolutions 60/180 on the establishment of the Commission and 61/16 on ECOSOC reform.
The results from a close working relationship could help to enrich the PBC's deliberations on country situations, which will in turn be able to inform the activities of ECOSOC, including evaluating lessons learned in the economic, social, humanitarian and environmental fields of peacebuilding and integrating these into policy guidance for the UN Funds, Programmes and Specialised Agencies, thereby strengthening the Council’s own mandate on coordination in these areas.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Council also stands ready to respond to and implement the recommendations of the Peacebuilding Commission, as appropriate, when they are made available. Our common objective should be to mobilize the whole institutional machinery of the United Nations, including the Council’s own subsidiary bodies, to promote a wide array of policy approaches and best practices to develop answers to the complex and difficult needs of post-conflict countries and prevent their relapse into conflict. We in the Council want to work with you to bring tangible and sustained results to people who have suffered so much from conflict.
I thank you.
