A Challenge for the UNPBA

At the 2005 World Summit in New York City, member states of the United Nations agreed to create " a dedicated institutional mechanism to address the special needs of countries emerging from conflict towards recovery, reintegration and reconstruction and to assist them in laying the foundation for sustainable development ". That new mechanism was the UN Peacebuilding Commission and two associated bodies: a Peacebuilding Support Office and a Peacebuilding Fund. Together , these new entities have been characterized as the UN's new peacebuilding architecture, or PBA. This Working Paper is one of nine essays that examine the possible future role of the UN's peacebuilding architecture. They were written as part of a project co-organized by the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. All of the contributors to the project were asked to identify realistic but ambitious " stretch targets " for the Peacebuild-ing Commission and its associated bodies over the next five to ten years. The resulting Working Papers, including this one, seek to stimulate fresh thinking about the UN's role in peacebuilding. The moment is ripe for such rethinking: During 2010, the UN will review the performance of the PBA to date, including the question of whether it has achieved its mandated objectives. Most of the contributors to this project believe that the PBA should pursue a more ambitious agenda over the next five years. While the PBC and its associated bodies have succeeded in carving out a niche for themselves, that niche remains a small one. Yet the need for more focused international attention, expertise, and coordinated and sustained assistance towards war-torn countries is undiminished. It remains to be seen whether UN officials and the organization's member states will rise to the challenge of delivering on the PBA's initial promise over the next five years and beyond, but doing so will at least require a vision of what the PBA can potentially accomplish in this period. The Working Papers produced in this project are intended to provide grist for this visioning effort. Summary 1 The private sector has become the darling of international and domestic organizations seeking strategic partners in building sustainable peace, including processes of demobilization of combatants, addressing victims' needs, and rebuilding wrecked economies. Arguments to attract the private sector combine economic (companies' economic performance suffers in violent contexts and is likely to improve in …