The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and Interpeace will co-host a high-level side event at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 2018 - Think globally, lead locally: the right partnerships for conflict prevention.

This high-level side event will provide new and innovative perspectives of UN Member States, civil society actors, peacebuilding practitioners and policymakers on how to enable effective local partnerships and local leadership to prevent conflict and foster peace. By practically demonstrating how these partnerships and mechanisms can sustain local leadership for peace in fragile and conflict affected settings, the event will seek to make a valuable contribution to the broader Sustaining Peace Agenda and provide a platform to showcase political leadership on prevention.

Date and place 

Monday, 24 September 2018, 15:00 – 16:30
United Nations, New York – Conference Room 2 (CR2)

Please register to attend by September 19, 2018.

Please note:  Special Event passes procedures apply during UNGA week and your registration for this event is an essential requirement for participation.

Important: UN “N” passes will not grant access to the UN building during UNGA week and a special event pass will be required. Details on where to pick up special event pass will be provided after registration.

Objectives of the conference 

Of the numerous recommendations of the Secretary-General’s Report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace and the UN-World Bank Pathways for Peace report, perhaps the most critical of both is the need to enhance policy coherence and local leadership in support of sustaining peace and conflict prevention. Now, there is a clear need to translate these recommendations into action.

To achieve this objective, the event aims to:

• Reiterate the policy challenge. It will restate the core principles for local leadership and dispel common misconceptions about the challenges of building local leadership. Key barriers to policy coherence and strategic/targeted collaboration between diplomatic, development, humanitarian and peacebuilding actors will be identified, clearly showing one of the key entry points for more effective conflict prevention through local leadership.
• Highlight successful examples. The event will showcase leading practical examples of more successful targeted policy coherence toward local leadership. This will draw on experiences in Tunisia and Colombia and emphasise what worked and what did not work from a local perspective.
• Identify and propose practical solutions. The event will present the latest emerging thoughts from leading peacebuilding actors operating at the local level on what works to achieve greater policy coherence between local and national actors and processes.

Participants and speakers 

Participants will include UN ambassadors and other Member States’ representatives, officials from the UN and other international/regional organizations, as well as representatives from think-tanks, Non-Governmental Organizations, academia and foundations.