First of all, I would like to express our solidarity, sympathy and support for the people of China and Burma for their losses and their suffering because of recent natural disasters. Second, I would like to thank you Mr. Foreign Secretary for your leadership in organizing this Security Council debate on the important topic of post-conflict peacebuilding.

Mr. President,

A good metaphor for the immediate post-conflict period is the so-called “golden hour” – the period immediately after a person suffers a severe trauma and during which, if he or she receives treatment, the chances of recovery are much greater than if help comes later. If we can find better ways of improving people’s lives in the “golden hour” after a conflict ends or as territory begins to be stabilized in a conflict, we can dramatically improve the efficiency and success of later stabilization and reconstruction efforts.

We believe the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), which is less than two years old, could ultimately play an important role in UN peacebuilding by helping to marshal the necessary resources during this “golden hour” and subsequently ensure that peacebuilding is sustainable.

As the representative of France stated, the working methods of the PBC needs to be strengthened to make it as effective as possible.

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Three Key “Gaps” in Peacebuilding Capabilities
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I would like to say a few words Mr. President, about the three key “gaps” identified in the United Kingdom’s Concept Note as hampering international efforts for stabilization and building sustainable peace.

First, a need for strong leadership on the ground. It has been frequently noted that successful implementation of UN Security Council mandates must involve a huge number of UN, regional, and other international community actors. Leadership on the ground requires excellent coordination. The role of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General is critical, we must have a clear mandate, with needed authorities and resources. We support ongoing efforts to ensure proper integration of UN missions.

The SRSG will need training and support in promoting an integrated and coordinated approach to promoting stability that draws upon all the resources of the UN system. In doing so, the UN leadership should take advantage of the Peacebuilding Commission’s ability to convene all stakeholders and promote an integrated strategic vision in tackling threats to stability.

Second, an inability to rapidly deploy sufficient civilian capacity. We agree that skilled civilians, such as police officers, judges, relief workers, administrators, and other civilian experts are as important as troops during the “golden hour.”

We therefore urge member states to build up capacity for deployment of civilians with the relevant areas of expertise necessary for sustainable peacebuilding. We have been working on this effort in the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization through ongoing work to make ready more than 4,000 deployable civilians for post-conflict work who would be available to join international efforts as appropriate.

Just as critically, we need to devise ways to rapidly train local personnel and build host nation state institutions to carry out these functions as soon as possible.

Third, the need for rapid and flexible funding. Simply attracting adequate financial resources is often an enormous challenge for the international community in this field. We must recognize that intervening without sufficient resources is to court failure.

We stand ready to explore various ways of streamlining and improving these mechanisms, including the Peacebuilding Fund.

Also, we must fully utilize the surge of resources during an international civilian-military operation to ensure that reconstruction, stabilization, and development can later be sustained with more modest levels of donor assistance.

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Additional Issues and Measures
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In addition to the three key “gaps” identified in the Concept Note, I would like to highlight several additional issues that need to be taken into account in order to produce success.

• As the international community engages in a post-conflict situation, a compact should exist between local leaders and the international community but for these compacts to be productive they should consist of a clear articulation of goals, priorities, and benchmarks for both sides and a review process.

• The international community must do better in building security institutions and rule of law, particularly police forces, that can be trusted by all local communities and factions that in carrying out decommissioning, demobilization, and reconstruction programs with a more robust process for reintegrating former combatants.

• Peacebuilding strategies should build capacity in other local institutions and priorities should be placed on creating the ability of local leaders to manage public finances.

• Additional focus should be placed on energizing the private sector and especially removing obstacles to the creation of local businesses that can produce goods and services to meet local needs – that is, to jump start the private economy, not just engage in reconstruction contracting.

• We must take into account the regional dimensions of conflicts, which often require engagement to preclude local parties from receiving support from neighboring countries or creating sanctuaries in their territory. And leverage an environment conducive for success of this stabilization effort.

• Peacebuilding requires the international community to stay engaged as long as needed but to act in ways that encourages increasing shifts to self reliance by using and building local capacity and as Mr. Brahimi said, by getting themselves out of the job as soon as possible.

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Conclusion
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The international community can do better Mr. President. We must resolve to develop the kind of peacebuilding capacities that are required to fulfill our mandate to advance international peace and security and to improve the prospects for success in post-conflict situations.

Thank you Mr. President.