UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21:
India has voiced concern over the insufficient political commitment by nations for “substantive” support to UN peacebuilding efforts, saying marginal funding severely limits the ability of the world body’s intergovernmental agency focussed on peace efforts in conflict affected countries.
“…There is little political commitment for commensurate action and substantive support to peacebuilding efforts. The funding available for such efforts remains marginal, severely limiting the ability of the Peacebuilding Commission,” India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Tanmaya Lal said here.
Participating in a General Assembly debate on the Peacebuilding Commission and Peacebuilding fund yesterday, Lal said there is no agreement on increasing funding for the Commission to even a one per cent level of that for peacekeeping operations annually.
“In the absence of funds, despite an understanding of the task at hand, there is little hope of it being achieved,” he said, adding that there are tendencies to re-allocate the already grossly inadequate international development cooperation funds to humanitarian and other emergency assistance.
This further reduces the overall development funding and is not helping the longer term development efforts required for peacebuilding.
He noted that according to the Report of the Secretary General on the issue, the Peacebuilding Fund’s financial health remains in question.
The total amount of USD 71 million allocated during 2016 for 17 countries, including the six countries where the Peacebuilding Commission is active, is grossly inadequate for the scale of the tasks at hand. (PTI)
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