Background and rationale

The adoption of the UN General Assembly's Resolution on Financing for Peacebuilding (A/RES/76/305) in 2022 marked a pivotal moment in the journey towards transforming how the international community finances peacebuilding efforts. This resolution not only reaffirmed the global commitment to peace but also set the stage for practical, scalable examples of how innovative and flexible financing mechanisms can be mobilized to support peacebuilding in conflict-affected regions. 

The Summit of the Future offers an important opportunity to harness the momentum generated by the resolution, and to advance the collective efforts to create a more inclusive, networked multilateralism. It encourages multistakeholder engagement and a new generation of partnerships to further explore how existing financing structures can be enhanced – and particularly the international financial institutions –towards collective peace and security. It offers a unique platform to discuss and promote innovative solutions for global challenges, and to accelerate efforts to meet our existing international commitments and take concrete steps to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities.  

In the 2018 Report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, called for “adequate, predictable and sustained” financing for peacebuilding and for a “quantum leap” in contributions to the PBF. In addition to proposals for increased voluntary contributions and other sources for multilateral peacebuilding funding, the UN Secretary- General also called for consideration of ‘innovative financing’ measures that contribute to achieving peacebuilding objectives and benefit conflict-affected countries directly. The Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda report further proposed that the multilateral system should be geared around the provision of global public goods, one of which is peace. This idea of peace as collective benefit was also taken up by the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (HLAB), which recommended exploring ways for the multilateral development bank system to deliver a range of global goods. Similarly, the Secretary-General's New Agenda for Peace expressed hope for the “International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to become agents for peace."  

Indeed, new solutions to finance peace and development are urgently needed. According to the OECD, some 1.9 billion people, almost a quarter of the world’s population and most of the world’s extreme poor, live in the world's 60 fragile and conflict-affected contexts. However, despite accelerating need, additional investment in peacebuilding has not been forthcoming to the extent required, including for key instruments such as the Secretary General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). The official development assistance (ODA) to conflict-affected countries declined in absolute terms in 2019 and its share directed to peacebuilding activities fell by almost one third between 2012 and 2019. 

We know that the costs of violent conflict are more than $14 trillion per year. We also know that for every $1 spent on peacebuilding, $16 is saved on “downstream” costs stemming from violent conflict, yet peacebuilding efforts are not financed at the scale needed to effectively prevent conflicts. The current modalities for allocating peacebuilding financing, largely through donor grants, are not enough to address the critical peace and developmental challenges. 

Purpose

Secretary-General’s proposals recognize the close relationship between financial and conflict prevention systems, and the need for “peace-positive investments.” Private enterprises can play an important role in peacebuilding by providing vital goods and services in conflict-affected countries and generating peace dividends – through job creation, connectivity, infrastructure, and access to basic services. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) manage large pools of capital to support private sector development in fragile settings – but it can be more difficult, costly and risky than necessary and at times be at risk of worsening underlying tensions and conflict rather than fostering peace.  

In response, a global momentum is building towards the need to establish a peace finance ecosystem consisting of investors, private sector actors, development finance institutions and other development actors, governments, peacebuilders, civil society, and communities, to ensure integrated solutions that catalyze resources for long-term peacebuilding solutions. There is an increasing number of solutions and innovative partnerships emerging which pave the way for the international community to address the challenges mentioned above.  

The purpose of this event is to portray the journey since the adoption of the Resolution (A/RES/76/305) which has spurred the development of concrete initiatives and partnerships that exemplify the principles it enshrines. For instance, the Investing for Peace (I4P) initiative and its Specialized Investment Vehicle (SPV) for Peace, proposed by a coalition led by Germany's Federal Foreign Office and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), embodies the spirit of the resolution. This initiative aims to finance peace-positive business models that not only benefit conflict-affected populations but also address the root causes of conflict and instability. By integrating peace-enhancing mechanisms into investments, the SPV lowers risks for investors while strengthening community resilience. 

Similarly, the Finance for Peace initiative, led by Interpeace, seeks to reshape how private and public investments support peace in fragile contexts. By co-developing market frameworks, standards, and partnerships, this initiative is working to build a market for "peace finance"—investments intentionally designed to improve peace conditions. The recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Interpeace and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to mainstream peace-responsive investment approaches further exemplifies the practical application of the resolution's principles. A joint African Development Bank (AfDB) – Interpeace engagement in Mozambique in implementing a new approach to peace and development finance to strengthen local private sector and build economic resilience.