UNIS/INF/170
12 October 2006
The Peacebuilding Fund
Fact sheet
The Peacebuilding Fund is a multi-year standing Trust Fund and is designed to cover several post conflict situations simultaneously. The PBF will support interventions of direct and immediate relevance to the peacebuilding process and seek to address critical gaps in the peacebuilding process especially in areas for which no other funding mechanism is available. This could include activities related to the implementation of a peace process or interventions to mitigate against threats to a peace process. PBF funding is meant to have a catalytic effect in helping to bring about other, more sustained support mechanisms. Support extended through the PBF must have a direct and positive impact on the sustainability of the peacebuilding process.
So far donors have pledged more than USD 140 million towards the PBF amounting to more than half of the projected requirements. The PBF is a multi-year fund and will require regular replenishments to maintain its ability to respond to new challenges.
The Secretary General has established the PBF at the request of the General Assembly. In designing the Terms of Reference for the Fund the Secretary General consulted extensively with Members States and advised the Genera Assembly of the outcome of this process through his report A/60/984.
The PBF is established by the Secretary-General and its day to day operations will be overseen by the Peacebuilding Support Office. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been appointed as Fund Manager and will assume responsibility for the financial administration of the Fund and its actual disbursements.
The Peacebuilding Commission may declare a country under its consideration as eligible to receive PBF funding, a designation which will formally trigger the allocation and disbursement process. Some countries emerging from conflict which are not under active consideration by the PBC can also be declared as eligible by the Secretary-General.
The Government and the UN system in the country concerned agree on a short term priority plan which contains a select number of critical interventions to strengthen and sustain the peacebuilding process. The plan will be reviewed by the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding in consultation with other UN stakeholders. Once concluded, a funding envelope for the country will be issued. Within that envelope and in light of the priorities identified, the actual decision to approve projects is then delegated to the UN at country level, acting jointly with the Government authorities.
Government authorities, Non-Governmental organizations, the bodies of the United nations and other international organizations are eligible to receive funding from the PBF through project agreements.
Should a country emerging from conflict require access to immediate funding in order to respond to an unforeseen and imminent threat to the peace process, the PBF will allow for emergency disbursements of up to USD 1 million, at the request of the senior UN official in the country.
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