The UN Peacebuilding Commission: Facts, Fictions, and Frustrations

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was created to assist countries making the transition from conflict to durable peace. It has undergone two five-year reviews, in 2010 and 2015. This chapter examines the performance of the PBC against the backdrop of the expectations of the first six African countries on the Commission’s agenda—Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—and highlights the progress made so far, as well as the major challenges encountered. The chapter argues that the PBC’s success will critically depend on how it handles three issues: its relations with peacebuilding actors in the field, including appropriate partnerships with national governments, regional institutions, and other stakeholders; its ability to support mobilisation of financial assistance for peacebuilding priorities in the countries on its agenda; and its relations with the UN Security Council.