Operationalising Sustaining Peace roundtable series
A series of invitation-only discussions in New York bringing together experts to discuss the implementation of the UN’s Sustaining Peace resolutions.
Despite the spirit of the parallel UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions 70/262 and 2282, and their endorsement of the term ‘Sustaining Peace’, there is still a gap in understanding what this means in practice and the implications of the changes called for at the regional and country levels.
The Operationalising Sustaining Peace roundtable series, launched in 2018, initially aimed to support and inform preparations for the 2019 and 2020 reports of the UN Secretary-General on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace.
Co-hosted by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, the Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, the series now seeks to support follow-up to the 2020 review of the UN’s peacebuilding architecture, with a particular focus on efforts needed to make the UN more effective in living up to its prevention mandate.
The objective of this series is to strengthen the implementation of the UN’s Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace Agenda by creating a space for developing a shared practical understanding of the agenda; contributing to the assessment of ongoing efforts undertaken by the UN and other actors to advance the agenda; and fostering discussions on how to advance efforts at sustaining peace in practice at the country and regional levels.
The roundtables bring together experts in peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace to discuss key thematic areas related to the implementation of the peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace resolutions. Participants include experts from civil society, member states, UN agencies, Funds, and programs, and the UN Secretariat.
Participation in the roundtables is by invitation only. While the discussions are off-the-record, this page provides links to brief summaries of each event.
August 2023
What is after the New Agenda for Peace? Assessing opportunities and next steps for the Peacebuilding Commission
The third roundtable of 2023 focussed on the recommendations in the New Agenda for Peace, and the importance of identifying avenues needed to continue to bolster action for the promotion of conflict prevention and sustaining peace.
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June 2023
The Political Accompaniment Role of the Peacebuilding Commission
In June 2023, participants explored the impact of the Peacebuilding Commission’s work at the country level. More specifically, the political accompaniment role of the Commission and how it can support national peacebuilding processes through its unique position within the UN system.
February 2023
How can integrated climate responses contribute to sustaining peace?
In the first roundtable of 2023, participants focused on strategies to better integrate local and regional knowledge to promote conflict- and gender-sensitive climate mitigation and adaptation work within the UN system. The conversation also touched on the unique role of the Peacebuilding Commission in bridging stakeholders to promote these efforts.
December 2022
UN Leadership for Peacebuilding at the Regional Level
In the last roundtable of 2022, the support and contribution of the UN to regional peacebuilding was analysed. Member States, regional organisations, civil society, and the UN shared reflections, as well as ideas for building partnerships and strengthening financing for action.
October 2022
Strengthening Financing for Peacebuilding
In the first roundtable since the adoption of the UN Resolution on Financing for Peacebuilding, participants discussed opportunities for the Peacebuilding Commission to support financing for peacebuilding through its advisory, bridging and convening mandate; through partnerships, and engagement with civil society.
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April 2022
The Advisory Role of the Peacebuilding Commission
In the twentieth roundtable discussion, participants focused on the role of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, and how it should best utilize its advisory and bridging roles to convene UN bodies beyond the Security Council, as well as non-UN entities.
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February 2022
Donors’ Support and Coordination at the Country Level
In this roundtable discussion, the participants unpacked some of the good practices and lessons learned from existing efforts to advance donor coordination at the country level.
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October 2021
At the crossroads of Climate, Gender and Sustaining Peace
The eighteenth roundtable discussion explored the unique role that the UN Peacebuilding Architecture could play in the global response to climate-fragility risks, in particular as experienced by women and girls.
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May 2021
Investing Smarter: Financing for impactful peacebuilding
The third roundtable for 2021 created space for reflection by Member State, civil society and UN representatives on innovative solutions to strengthen the quality of peacebuilding financing.
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March 2021
UN Leadership for Sustaining Peace at the country level
The sixteenth roundtable discussion explored the leadership traits and practices that are needed to support countries in preventing and resolving armed conflicts and building sustainable peace.
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February 2021
What comes after Resolution 2558?
In this first roundtable since the adoption of the 2020 dual resolutions on the review of the UN's peacebuilding architecture, participants reflected on the full scope of the review, including its informal and formal phases.
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December 2020
Financing Inclusive Peacebuilding
In this roundtable, held in the lead-up to the fifth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security, participants reflected on inclusive, accessible, sustainable, and adequate financing for peacebuilding initiatives.
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October 2020
No peace without us
While recognising that the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and the Sustaining Peace resolutions are distinct in their own right, this roundtable served to highlight the inherent link between these two transformative frameworks, and how they mutually reinforce one another.
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September 2020
Building and sustaining an inclusive peace
The twelfth event of the series provided a space to share examples of how meaningful partnerships can bring tangible impact at the country and community level; discuss challenges in community engagement; and identify concrete steps in which the normative commitment to inclusivity of diverse civil society and local community actors can be operationalised.
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June 2020
Lessons for peacebuilding from the COVID-19 pandemic
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this virtual roundtable provided a space for participants to discuss how the UN's peacebuilding architecture could be strengthened as a result of lessons from its country-level responses to the pandemic.
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April 2020
Investing in sustainable peace
This roundtable on financing for conflict prevention, peacebuilding and sustaining peace was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It built on previous discussions in 2020 focusing on the review of the UN's peacebuilding architecture and operationalising policy coherence in peacebuilding.
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March 2020
Policy coherence through meaningful inclusion
With the 2020 review of the UN's peacebuilding architecture currently underway, this roundtable provided an opportunity to reflect on the progress and lessons learned in operationalising policy coherence in peacebuilding.
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January 2020
The 2020 review of the UN's peacebuilding architecture
Roundtable participants used this discussion to reflect on planning for the 2020 review of the UN's peacebuilding architecture and share their expectations for and perspectives on the process.
December 2019
Advancing the nexus of human rights and peacebuilding
During this roundtable, experts from a variety of sectors came together to examine opportunities for further aligning perspectives and advancing the nexus of human rights and peacebuilding.
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October 2019
Women as pioneers in conflict prevention and peacebuilding
This roundtable provided a space in which to discuss progress in implementing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and how the lessons learnt can inform and strengthen the operationalisation of sustaining peace.
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September 2019
Building strategic partnerships for sustaining peace at the regional level
This roundtable focused on strategies to operationalise the Sustaining Peace resolutions at the regional level and the roles of regional actors, including regional intergovernmental organisations, in implementing them.
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May 2019
The UN development system reform and sustaining peace
This discussion focused on the ongoing reform of the UN development system and the implications of and opportunities from this process for the operationalisation of the UN’s Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace resolutions, understanding that these processes are intrinsically interlinked.
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March 2019
Young people as drivers of peace
This roundtable explored the ways in which the Sustaining Peace approach can be used to strengthen and catalyse the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions 2250 and 2419 on Youth, Peace and Security, and the Missing Peace report. The event also focused on how young people contribute to peacebuilding and sustaining peace in their communities.
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January 2019
Pathways for peace and sustaining peace
What is meant by the operationalisation of 'Sustaining Peace' among the UN, World Bank, Member States and civil society? In this second roundtable, twenty-five experts from across a number of sectors explored the linkages between the UN’s Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace agenda and the follow up on the UN–World Bank 2018 report, Pathways for Peace.
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December 2018
Glancing backward before moving ahead
On 6 December 2018, twenty-five peacebuilding experts from UN Member States, the UN Secretariat, UN agencies, funds, and programmes, and civil society gathered for the first roundtable discussion in this series to examine what is meant by the operationalisation of 'Sustaining Peace'.
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