PBC Ministers Demand National Ownership Move Beyond Rhetoric to Practice

Over 25 foreign ministers and senior officials gathered at the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission's ministerial-level meeting on Sept. 24, making the case that lasting peace cannot be designed from abroad — and backing that argument with concrete financial pledges and hard-won national experience. The session, chaired by Morocco, produced a rare convergence: every delegation agreed that national ownership of peacebuilding must be operationalized through predictable financing, inclusive institutions, and measurable outcomes.

• Netherlands pledges €300 million over five years to the Peacebuilding Fund, DPPA, and UNDP
• African Development Bank reports $7 billion already mobilized for governance, resilience, and conflict-affected operations across fragile states
• Australia commits $55 million — $5 million for a new IFI Partnership Facility and $50 million to the Peacebuilding Fund — and launches the world's first national prevention strategy policy guidance
• Kenya proposes a peer learning platform under the PBC to connect countries on nationally led prevention
• Ministers from post-conflict states — Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Croatia, The Gambia, Cambodia, Liberia — share hard-won lessons on building peace from within
• Brazil highlights $2.8 trillion military spending dwarfs development aid by a factor of 16
• Chair's closing summary sets three action points: predictable resources, IFI engagement from the strategy design phase, and measurable outcome indicators

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Peace Cannot Be Imported: Morocco Sets the Frame

Why it matters: The chair's opening framework set the terms for three hours of debate and will guide the PBC's operational agenda through the remainder of Morocco's chairmanship and the implementation of the 2025 Peacebuilding Architecture Review.

Where things stand: Chair Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco, opened the ministerial with a six-point framework for national ownership. He argued that the concept must be multidimensional — political, institutional, and financial — and that strengthening national institutions is a direct investment in peace. He called for the PBC to get out of New York and engage more directly with countries on the ground.

"National ownership must not be boiled down to validation after the fact of programs and agendas designed from abroad. Peace cannot be imported. Peace is built from within," said Chair Bourita.

He warned that the PBC's added value lies in bridge-building — connecting peacebuilding to development financing, linking institutions to the communities they serve — and that financial predictability is essential for any of it to work. "Peacebuilding cannot be considered in New York alone," he added, calling for more outside-the-walls sessions.

What's next: Chair Bourita closed the meeting by distilling the day's discussion into three convergence points that will shape PBC work going forward: predictable resources for peacebuilding, engagement of international financial institutions from the strategy design phase rather than after adoption, and the development of measurable outcome indicators to track progress.

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$7 Billion and Counting: Development Banks Step Into Peacebuilding

The basics: The African Development Bank has historically focused on infrastructure and economic growth, but its leadership made the case that development finance and peacebuilding are inseparable — and that the bank is already deeply invested in fragile states.

Why it matters: Military spending worldwide exceeded $2.8 trillion in 2025, at least 16 times the resources allocated to international development assistance, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira of Brazil. Delegates argued that closing this gap requires not just donor pledges but the systematic involvement of development banks in peacebuilding strategy from the outset.

Where things stand: Principal Vice President Marie-Laure Akin Olugbade of the African Development Bank reported that the bank has already committed significant resources to conflict-affected countries. "Through the African Development Fund, the Bank has already mobilized more than $7 billion to support more than 400 operations which are focused on governance reforms, institutional strengthening, economic inclusion, prevention, recovery, and resilience in countries affected by fragility and conflict," she said.

She cited concrete results: a youth entrepreneurship bank in Liberia that supported 30,000 businesses and created 120,000 jobs, and resilience investments in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, that generated 24,000 jobs. The AfDB also committed to supporting eight African countries in preparing national prevention strategies by 2028.

The other side: Several delegations questioned whether international financial institutions are sufficiently embedded in peacebuilding planning. Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Toni Kajer of Slovenia cited the widely used metric that every dollar spent on prevention saves seven in post-conflict reconstruction, arguing the math alone should compel greater IFI involvement. Minister of State Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulayfi of Qatar noted his country has spent $7 billion in humanitarian and development aid across more than 100 countries.

Decisions: No formal votes were taken — the PBC operates by consensus at ministerial meetings — but the chair's closing summary explicitly called for IFIs and regional development banks to be engaged from the design stage of peacebuilding strategies, not brought in afterward.

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Netherlands and Australia Put Money Behind the Words

Why it matters: Financial pledges at multilateral meetings are common; pledges of this scale, linked to specific operational mechanisms, are not. The Netherlands and Australia between them committed more than €300 million and $55 million, respectively, with strings attached to institutional reform.

Where things stand: Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the Netherlands made the session's largest single financial announcement. "Yesterday the Netherlands announced a combined pledge to the UN Peacebuilding Fund, the DPPA and UNDP of over €300 million for the next 5 years," he said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong of Australia matched the ambition with a different approach — launching what she described as the world's first policy guidance for national prevention strategies and backing it with cash. "Australia has launched the world's first policy guidance for effective national prevention strategies to help countries develop their own plans for peace and resilience, tackling the drivers of conflict and fragility from inequality to climate change, and championing the voices too often absent from these rooms," Minister Wong said. Australia pledged $5 million for a new IFI Partnership Facility and a $50 million multi-year commitment to the Peacebuilding Fund.

Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul of Germany emphasized his country's role as the largest donor to the Peacebuilding Fund and noted Germany co-hosted the first Peace Finance Forum — an effort to build a broader coalition of funders beyond traditional donors.

What's next: These pledges will be tracked against the PBC's new emphasis on measurable outcome indicators, a framework the chair signaled would be developed during Morocco's ongoing chairmanship.

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Women and Youth: Partners, Not Afterthoughts

Why it matters: Research consistently shows that peace agreements last longer when women help shape them, yet delegates noted that inclusion of women, youth, and civil society is still treated as secondary in too many peacebuilding processes.

Where things stand: Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed of the United Nations set the tone by connecting institutional trust to sustainable peace. "Sustaining peace rests to a great extent on trust between people and the state, that if they are wronged, someone will listen, that if their child falls ill, someone will give them the medical care they have a right to, that a dispute over land will be settled in a courtroom rather than by force," she said.

She was blunt about the gap between rhetoric and practice on gender. "I would urge every partner here to bring women into the design of our support from the beginning and not as an afterthought, and to put money directly into women's organizations," DSG Mohammed said.

Multiple countries offered concrete evidence. Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheyser Khanal of Nepal reported that women now constitute over one-third of the federal parliament and 40% of elected local representatives, a direct result of the country's 2006 peace process and subsequent constitutional design. Minister of Foreign Affairs Muhammad Hassan of Malaysia noted his country hosted the 2025 ASEAN Women, Peace, and Security Summit. Secretary West Sibi George of India highlighted 1.4 million elected women representatives across the country's governance structures.

Minister for Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children Anna Atanusipol of Tanzania framed youth inclusion as a strategic imperative, noting that young people constitute 65% of the country's population. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humayun Kubir of Bangladesh proposed mainstreaming Women, Peace, and Security and Youth, Peace, and Security across all PBC efforts.

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From Bougainville to Bogotá: Countries That Built Peace From Within

Why it matters: The strongest evidence for national ownership came not from policy papers but from the countries that lived it — delegations that described their own transitions from war to functioning governance and drew lessons for the commission.

Where things stand: Minister for Foreign Affairs Justin Tkachenko of Papua New Guinea delivered one of the day's most personal briefings, describing 25 years of unbroken peace since the Bougainville conflict. "Our 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement established a political roadmap under the confines of our country's constitution that witnessed unbroken peace in our country for 25 years. 25 years," he said. PNG also announced it had launched its first national prevention strategy in partnership with the UN Secretary-General.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Gordan Grlić-Radman of Croatia reported that his country removed its last land mine this year after clearing more than 1,000 square kilometers of contaminated territory — while still searching for 1,725 missing persons from the 1990s conflict.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Lipavský of the Czech Republic drew on his country's post-1989 transformation to argue for a different success metric. "We should measure success not by how much assistance we provide, but by how much national capacity we leave behind. Because the true success of peacebuilding is not a country in which the international community must remain forever. It is a country that one day no longer needs us," he said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirink Modu of The Gambia highlighted the country's Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission and the need to operationalize the Special Prosecutor's Office to complete its transitional justice process. Secretary of State Halide Khan of Cambodia cited the country's win-win policy and mine action transformation. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mihai Popșoi of Moldova discussed efforts to reintegrate the Transnistrian region and called for Russian military withdrawal. State Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Omar of Somalia described the country's journey from conflict to institutional rebuilding with international partnership.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ibrahim El Bakri Nyesi of Liberia closed the general debate with a call that resonated with the room's central tension — the gap between conference-room consensus and ground-level reality. "Ownership that lives only in a strategy document, a resource matrix, or a box ticked in a conference room is not ownership. It is choreography. Real ownership is noisy, uneven, and felt," he said. Liberia described its democratic transitions and ongoing work to build a framework for a war and economic crimes court.

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Kenya Proposes Peer Learning Platform

Why it matters: One of the day's most concrete institutional proposals came from Nairobi, where Kenya's top official called for a new mechanism to connect countries learning from each other's peacebuilding experiences — rather than relying on external prescriptions.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi of Kenya proposed creating a peacebuilding peer learning platform under the commission. "Kenya therefore proposes a peacebuilding peer learning platform under the Commission to facilitate practical exchanges of lessons from nationally led prevention efforts and strengthen the link between peacebuilding fund investments and wider development financing," he said. He also highlighted Kenya's Owiyana Platform for Peace as an existing model for such South-South exchange.

What's next: The proposal will be considered as part of the PBC's operational work program. Several delegations from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific signaled support for peer mechanisms in their own statements.

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Minor Items

• Haiti's multidimensional crisis: Minister of Defence Marie-Andrée Sol described ongoing mobilization to restore security amid compounding governance, economic, and security challenges.
• Honduras climate-conflict nexus: Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Evelyn Batista noted 70% of the country's territory is under drought alert, compounding peacebuilding challenges.
• Armenia's national action plan: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Robert Abisogomyan described Armenia's National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security.
• El Salvador's violence prevention: Secretary of State and Vice Minister Adriana Mera shared the country's experience with violence prevention and institutional strengthening.
• South Sudan's transition: Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Cecilia Dong Myong addressed ongoing political transition challenges.
• Security Council and commission candidacies: Several countries announced candidacies for Security Council seats and PBC membership bids, linking peacebuilding to broader governance ambitions.
• Panama: Listed as the final speaker but was not heard due to time constraints; the chair invited unheard delegations to submit written statements.