Discorso pronunciato dall’Ambasciatore Maurizio Massari, Rappresentante Permanente dell’Italia presso le Nazioni Unite, all’Evento di Alto Livello dell’Assemblea Generale su “Peacebuilding Financing” —
Mr. President of the General Assembly, Excellencies
Italy fully aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union.
Preventing conflicts is one of the priorities of our time, and we share the view that preventive diplomacy should take a more prominent place in the activities of the UN system. Italy has consistently supported the Secretary-General’s commitment to changing the paradigm from crisis management to conflict prevention and sustaining peace.
We strongly believe that peace and security issues must be addressed with a multidimensional and inclusive approach that encompasses the development, political, security, justice and human rights dimensions, paying due consideration to the concept of peace continuum and to the peace-humanitarian-development nexus.
In this regard, we would like to express our appreciation to the President of the General Assembly for convening this High-level meeting, in line with the 2020 review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture that we actively supported, to discuss the crucial role of peace building and its funding.
In this context, the PBC has sistematically demonstrated a remarkable convening capacity as an effective tool for ensuring flexibility and inclusivity. Italy is among the top 20 contributors to the Peacebuilding Fund and we intend to increase our support in the coming years.
Nevertheless, voluntary contributions have proven to be insufficient to address the growing needs in this sector. In this vein, Italy, together with the UE, endorses the call from the Secretary-General, lastly in his report on “Our Common Agenda” and in his 2022 interim report on peacebuilding and sustaining peace, to ensure adequate, stable and predictable funding for UN peacebuilding.
We must seize the opportunity to shape consensual guiding principles on this matter. We commend the DPPA initiative to convene open round tables to address the issue from a broader perspective and we welcome the participation of the civil society. Peacebuilding must benefit from partnership-oriented strategies to advance an open and effective multi-stakeholder approach within and beyond the UN and to promote forward-looking initiatives driven by international financial institutions, the private sector, local authorities and NGOs. All relevant partners must work together in order to find innovative ways to mobilize investments.
Italy firmly believes in strengthening peacebuilding hand in hand with the civil society. Italian NGOs, as the Community of Sant’Egidio, showed their substantive role in contributing to this process.
Mr. President,
We recently presented our candidacy to the PBC for next year and, in this spirit, we will continue to work relentlessly to strengthen this body and its role in order to reinforce our action to forge peaceful societies, eradicating root causes of conflicts and inequalities, supporting rule of law and strong institutions in crisis contexts.
I thank you.
