YouSaid · the spoken record

Von Der Schulenburg

lines on the record: 182
first: 2009-02-09
most recent: 2012-03-22
sittings or episodes: 9
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It is a transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding - if you want to put things in boxes - and from peacebuilding to the resident coordinator system. That would probably make some of the Council's decisions much easier.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“We are therefore really acting as a Member States organization, on behalf of Member States. Another point that I would like to make is that an integrated peacebuilding mission, if it is properly designed, makes an exit strategy actually relatively easy. In fact, the exit strategy in Sierra Leone is the Joint Vision. The Joint Vision is so geared towards development that a gradual transition into the development agenda, slowly leaving the political arena, will almost go unnoticed. The transition from a peacebuilding mission to the normal resident coordinator system is therefore much easier than it is when there are large military forces and a very visible change must be made. This is the conclusion I would like to make here: that when you talk about exit strategies, it would probably be better to always talk about transition strategies.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“This is a very important thing. We are no longer talking about negotiating conflicts; we are talking about State-building. There is always a political and a development aspect to this, and they are so intertwined that we cannot separate them. We have tried from the very beginning to encompass all development partners in peacebuilding. Peacebuilding is not an issue only for the United Nations missions. For that reason, we have taken the lead in donor coordination. It is also equally important that we provide considerable logistics and other services for Member States in order to make their work in the field much easier. Our regional field offices, the use of the helicopter, the use of our communication infrastructure, the medical clinic and many other things will help all the other countries in their work in Sierra Leone.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“What we have done is to build our strategy on top of that one, saying how the United Nations system as a whole can support it. That is what we call the Joint United Nations Vision. Peacebuilding requires the full integration of the political mandate of the mission with the various development mandates. I do not want to dwell too much on those, but the Council is aware that in Sierra Leone we have agreed for quite some time now, and with the help of the Peacebuilding Commission, that we will only have one strategy, that is the joint United Nations strategy. There is not a separate one for the political mission, a separate one for the development agencies and so forth. We have all agreed on this one. It is a very simple strategy, only seven pages, so everybody can read it, and 18 agencies have signed on to it.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“We have to realize that the transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding is a change in focus from peace and security to peace and development. The shift is really therefore from security to development. That is not to say that we do not have peacebuilding operations already under peacekeeping operations, but the focus has to change, and that change in focus is fundamental for understanding the other points. Peacebuilding missions will be successful only if they are based on a national agenda. That is why I have always been opposed to the peacebuilding frameworks drawn up by the Peacebuilding Commission. It has to be a national agenda. We cannot come from outside and develop another agenda. In the case of Sierra Leone, it is the Government's Agenda for Change. I think it is something that will work.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“They must develop their own character. That is exactly what we have tried to do in Sierra Leone. We are only one example and are not necessarily the model case, but there are a number of points I want to raise here. The first issue one has to raise, once all the soldiers have gone, is where is an Assistant Secretary- General getting his political weight from? Suddenly all the trappings of power that come with large peacekeeping operations are gone. The many soldiers, the helicopters, the cars and the huge chunk of resources that go all around the country - where have they gone? How does one maintain one's influence? I have come to some conclusions about how we should build an integrated mission. I want to mention here some of the most important aspects of it.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“I think that the conditions I see when I go through the country today and the very positive image we still have in Sierra Leone, despite having been engaged there since 1991, have to a very large extent to do with the fact that we did not keep soldiers for a longer time than they were absolutely needed. We all know that large contingents of soldiers also have negative effects, and those negative effects were largely prevented in Sierra Leone. So I think there is an additional advantage in peacebuilding missions. They are less intrusive and less Visible and hence more acceptable to the population in host countries. Let me come to the next point, which I think is even more important. If we have integrated peacebuilding missions, we must not see them as simply smaller peacekeeping missions without peacekeepers.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“That means that we can prove, with functioning integrated peacebuilding missions, that if the Council makes a decision even six months earlier - and I am not saying that this is the core of the whole thing - we could ensure considerable savings for Member States. We could, basically, for the cost of six months of operations, run 20 years of an integrated peacebuilding mission. However, I am not suggesting that we stay 20 years. In Sierra Leone there is also another aspect related to early withdrawal. I think Sierra Leone is probably one of the countries where we decided very quickly to draw down - and that might be for completely different reasons, of course.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“In a situation where there are no more peacekeepers, having a political mandate allows one to act. If that is possible, such a thing would have considerable financial benefits for Member States. Here again, I want to use the example of Sierra Leone. At the peacekeeping mission's peak, in 2004, we still had about 20,000 staff, of which 17,500 were peacekeepers. The total cost at the time was well over $600 million. Four years later, with the new integrated peacebuilding mission - and of course there is a slow transition with these things - we had only 77 staff members, of which half were actually national staff. The total costs had sunk to $15 million in 2009, a mere 2.5 per cent of the previous cost.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“I nonetheless would like to maintain that knowing that one have a less risky and less abrupt exit strategy through an integrated peacebuilding mission would make that decision much easier. From my point of view, a peacebuilding mission is basically an interim arrangement between a peacekeeping operation and the normal system of resident coordinators. If one compares our mandate to the resident coordinator system, the great advantage we have is that we still have a political mandate, and that allows us to make political interventions and promote conflict prevention measures. That is not the case with resident coordinators. I would suggest that, for instance, the way we handled the conflict we had in March of last year would not have been possible had we not had a political mandate.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“For this reason, I would like to limit my recommendations on this experience. Therefore, in the recommendations I will use the term "peacebuilding" or "peacebuilding mission" not in the general sense of State-building and that type of activity, but simply as a next phase, a successor arrangement to a peacekeeping operation. This is of course a limited use of the term, but I think it is useful for this purpose. Let me now come to the suggestions I have to make. The first point is that, if we can prove that integrated peacebuilding missions work, that may facilitate the decision to withdraw peacekeepers earlier. I am very much aware that this is a very touchy suggestion. I am also fully aware that the Council's decision to exit or close a peacekeeping mission will depend on many other factors.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“Mr. Von der Schulenburg: First of all, let me thank you, Mr. President, for inviting me to this very important discussion. It will have a great impact not only on Member States but also on how we in the field- your field commanders, so to speak - will work. I am therefore glad that the Council has taken this laudable initiative to listen to what we have to say. As I am the last speaker here, I thought I would only make one clarification and three suggestions. First is the clarification. Sierra Leone is probably the first example in the United Nations of a full transition from a once very large peacekeeping operation to a now small, fully civilian, integrated peacebuilding mission. There is a similar example in Burundi, but it is somewhat different, so I think that we are the first example.”
2010-02-12 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6270 (2010) · source
“I also hope that Member States will support the United Nations multi- donor trust fund and give our new approach to peacebuilding the credibility it will need to succeed.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Let me now turn to my last point, about funding. The success of Sierra Leone's road towards becoming a stable democratic country will largely depend on the level at which the Government will be able to provide a peace and democracy dividend for all Sierra Leoneans. This in turn will depend on Sierra Leone's ability to rally international financial support for its Agenda for Change. Also, the credibility of the new United Nations integrated peacebuilding mission will depend on our ability to generate resources for the Joint Vision. I hope that we will be able to count on the continuous support of the Security Council, and on the Peacebuilding Commission to call on Member States to participate in the forthcoming Consultative Group meeting in London in November and contribute towards Sierra Leone's development.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank especially Ambassador McNee for his great support and for bringing the international community behind our peacebuilding agenda. Finally, we have been able to set up UNIPSIL in a way that should make any future transition towards a normal development presence, with a resident coordinator system, easy. All programmes are implemented by United Nations agencies; we share professional staff with United Nations agencies; most joint services, such as the regional field offices, are already managed by different United Nations agencies; and our new compound has been built with a View to becoming a future United Nations House. In fact, it is our integrated strategy, the Joint United Nations 09-51020 Vision, that is the conduit for a smooth transition in the future.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Fifth, we are now working jointly with the World Bank and other development partners to improve aid coordination and increase national ownership, in line with the Paris Declaration. With the Ministry of Finance, we are presently finalizing a new and simple aid coordination structure. I am convinced that better aid coordination can utilize much more effectively the dollars that donors have pledged. Sixth, we have been able to strengthen our cooperation with the Peacebuilding Commission. The recent special session was, in my view, an excellent example of this cooperation between the Commission in New York and a United Nations peacebuilding mission in the field. The Peacebuilding Commission has been and remains important to Sierra Leone.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Fourth, in line with the Secretary-General's policy, we have been able to reach an exceptional level of operational integration between UNIPSIL and the United Nations country team that includes a joint strategic unit, a joint multi-donor trust fund, joint regional field offices, joint outreach initiatives, a joint medical clinic, joint security services and a joint vehicle repair shop. Let me take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues of the United Nations country team, as well as the World Bank and the African Development Bank, for their support and enthusiasm in bringing about a truly integrated peacebuilding operation. Our integration will be to the benefit of Sierra Leone and will help to improve aid efficiency.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“For this reason, we have developed a strategy that is based on integrating the political mandate of UNIPSIL with the development mandates of members of the United Nations country team. The result is the Joint United Nations Vision for Sierra Leone that was recently endorsed by the Government and the Peacebuilding Commission. In addition to UNIPSIL, 17 United Nations agencies, funds or programmes have signed up to the Joint Vision, working together on five priority areas, a set of joint benchmarks and 21 programmes. Let me take this opportunity to thank in particular the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Lynn Pascoe, for his support in getting the new strategy accepted within the United Nations.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Second, despite becoming a much leaner organizational structure, we have been able to maintain a strong role as a political facilitator in the country, as demonstrated by UNIPSIL's role in helping to solve the recent outbreak of political violence in Sierra Leone and in bringing about the joint communique. And despite the much smaller staff, we have been able to maintain a considerable field presence throughout the country by joining hands with our United Nations development partner agencies. Third, we have been able to give the peacebuilding mission a new orientation. Whereas the previous peacekeeping mission focused mainly on security, we are now focusing mainly on development.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“While at its height the peacekeeping operation had a staff strength of about 20,000, the new peacebuilding mission is now staffed by only 73. While the previous mission included 17,000 peacekeepers, the new peacebuilding mission no longer has any military personnel. The new peacebuilding mission has also become more national in character; almost half of its staff are now locally recruited, and 13 of them are national professionals. The peacebuilding mission includes more specialists, nationals and internationals, to develop sound technical advice, and has considerably fewer administrative and other support staff.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Sierra Leone will need the international community to continue providing political, financial and economic support, but let us not forget that we, too, will need Sierra Leone to foster regional peace and stability. 3 Let me now turn to the third issue - the new role of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone. I hope that, over the past year, we have been able to prove that the new concept of integrated peacebuilding missions works and that it is possible to draw down a large and expensive peacekeeping operation and replace it with a much cheaper and leaner peacebuilding mission. Let me here summarize one of the most important points. First, UNIPSIL today is a much leaner mission with a light footprint.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“On the other hand, a successful and peaceful Sierra Leone could have a positive influence on developments in the region. In fact, Sierra Leone, along with other countries such as Ghana, could become a model that could be followed by others and prove that peace and democracy can bring benefits and create prosperity. If we succeed in Sierra Leone, it would send a positive message that even one of the poorest countries in the world - a country that has gone through ll years of exceptionally brutal civil war - can build a functioning democratic State. Sierra Leone is on the way towards presenting us with such a success story. Let us not miss this chance.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“What Sierra Leone will need to succeed is time, patience, determined national leadership and continued international support. This brings me to the second issue - Sierra Leone's importance in the regional context. Sierra Leone's journey towards peace, democracy and prosperity is taking place in a difficult regional environment. The political and security situation in West Africa remains highly precarious, and we are seeing worrying signs of military coups, ethnic and interreligious conflicts, and political intolerance re-emerging. We are also seeing increasing threats from international crime, illicit drug trafficking, smuggling, the unfair exploration of natural resources, and illegal fishing taking hold in West Africa. Given the interdependence of most countries of the region, that could ultimately threaten Sierra Leone's achievements.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“We must pay tribute to the political 09-51020 leadership both in the Government and in the opposition, as well as to Sierra Leone's civil and religious society, for their efforts, their courage and their vision in having taken the difficult road towards peace, democracy and prosperity. The recently concluded joint communique that ended the March outbreak of violence is proof of the new democratic credentials of Sierra Leone's political leadership. We also have to recognize that the road to peace, democracy and prosperity for Sierra Leone will be a bumpy, long and, at times, dangerous one. We must anticipate derailments and mistakes. There is no magic switch that can be turned on that would catapult Sierra Leone into the future. There are no easy benchmarks that will tell us that Sierra Leone is out of the woods.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Also, more than 70 per cent of its young people remain unemployed, its child mortality rate is among the highest in the world and its State institutions remain weak. Sierra Leone's ethnic and linguistic diversity competes with its national identity, and traditional forms of governance compete with emerging modern Government institutions. The challenges that need to be addressed are therefore enormous. The question is how a poor country such as Sierra Leone can achieve peace, democracy and prosperity - something that most other countries could not easily achieve under much better circumstances. I am raising this historical comparison because I feel that we all have to recognize the magnitude and uniqueness of what countries such as Sierra Leone are trying to achieve.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Democracy came to many countries only after a certain level of economic prosperity had been achieved and only after a strong and educated middle class had developed. Economic prosperity was gained through long and difficult processes that too often were interrupted by economic crisis and misery. And, above all, the process of building nations and of creating functioning State institutions had taken most modern nations centuries to accomplish. We now expect Sierra Leone to make an enormous historic leap forward by achieving peace, democracy and prosperity - and this within a short time span of only a few years. But Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world. It does not have a large educated middle class, and more than 70 per cent of its population remains illiterate.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“During that short time, Sierra Leone has not only left behind the horrors of the civil war, but has also started to build a new national identity and create State institutions that will turn Sierra Leone into a functioning democratic society. Even more important, Sierra Leone wants to do so by maintaining its internal peace, promoting the rule of law, observing democratic processes and creating economic prosperity for its people. By any standard, that is a colossal task, especially within the short time frame within which we all want it to be achieved. If history is anything to go by, there are very few - if any - examples in the past in which nation- and State-building have been a peaceful and democratic affair.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“At the end of this month, UNIPSIL will complete its first year of operations, and the Security Council will consider the Secretary-General's recommendation that it be extended for one year. The Secretary- General's report before members outlines the progress made in the implementation of UNIPSIL's mandate and the remaining challenges to peace and security in Sierra Leone. Let me therefore take this opportunity to go beyond the report and raise three general issues and make one more specific point. As a first issue, I would like to highlight the magnitude and the uniqueness, from a historical perspective, of the task that Sierra Leone is trying to 09-51020 accomplish. Since the end of the civil war seven years ago, Sierra Leone has embarked on a remarkable journey towards becoming a stable, peaceful and democratic country.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“Mr. Von der Schulenburg: I thank the members of the Security Council for the opportunity to present the third report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) (S/2009/438). Today is a day of national mourning in Sierra Leone, following the death of approximately 100 people, who perished in the sea near Freetown when their ferry capsized. Most of the victims were schoolchildren. We in the United Nations country team have worked with the Government over the past several days to help recover the bodies and to provide immediate assistance to the survivors. Let me here express my condolences to the bereaved families. This incident is a reminder to all of us of the fragility of Sierra Leone's infrastructure and of how difficult life remains for the average Sierra Leonean.”
2009-09-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6187 (2009) · source
“In the framework of the Peacebuilding Commission, where we all meet together and look more at the development side of the issues, I think it is important to maintain that atmosphere. I am pleased with the new emphasis that the special session will place on taking more care to support what we do in the field, rather than having parallel tracks.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“I think that if we have a clear time frame - and I am not suggesting that the Council should take any decisions - that could help. But everybody knows that these are the areas we will work on for the next year, two years, three years or four years. Such clarity would thus help to keep us all together. Personally, I am very encouraged by the work in Sierra Leone and the exceptional cooperation that we get from the Government and the good cooperation we get from the opposition party. I think we are very well received there. There is a friendly and constructive atmosphere among all of us, including the development partners. I think that is the kind of atmosphere that we should all maintain.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“If donors go beyond the Joint Vision and want to finance their own projects, they will always find takers in the United Nations family. But that, of course, would break the solidarity we have. Therefore in my opinion, one of the most important roles of the Peacebuilding Commission is to keep the international community organized and disciplined behind certain plans we have made, because money speaks for itself and that is something we will not have. The other thing that I think is very important in keeping the mission together and working according to plan is that there must be more clarity on the future of UNIPSIL itself and the role of the Under-Secretary- General; these are short-term things and agencies think in the long term.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“I think the basic idea of peacebuilding is that it is essentially what I call development with a political agenda. So it was very important for me, from the very beginning, to fully integrate the mandate, which is a political mandate, from the Council, with the mandates that the various development agencies have. It is actually one thing, and that is why we developed the Joint Vision. I must say that, based on my 30 years of experience, I think that the cooperative spirit we have among the United Nations agencies is the best I have seen so far in those 30 years. I hope it will continue. I think that the challenge to our cooperation actually comes more from the outside. One of the challenges relates to donors.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“The second is that we have tried to take a different approach to peacebuilding than that used in peacekeeping. That meant that I wanted our posts to be more substantive. I replaced many general civil affairs officers with actual experts who could advise on matters such as anti-corruption, rule of law, constitutional issues, illicit drug trafficking, et cetera. Those people are unfortunately more difficult to find. Also contributing is the change in remuneration in the United Nations system and the very fact that there is no long-term view for UNIPSIL. Potential qualified candidates, therefore, even when we select them, are not interested in or have rejected taking posts in Sierra Leone. I think that is a structural issue that we have. The second issue concerns the links of cooperation with the United Nations system.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“Mr. Von der Schulenburg: First of all, I would like to thank all delegations for their support for our team and the work we are doing there. That is great encouragement for us. I would like to respond to two issues that were brought up by a number of delegations, in particular by the delegation of the United Kingdom. One is the level of recruitment at the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL). That issue is also of great concern to me. The number of vacancies, if we look at the substantive staff, is much higher than the percentage of vacancies that was mentioned. There are reasons for that. One reason is that the budget was approved only in December, after three months of operation, and that delayed any recruitment process.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“For this reason, UNIPSIL structures and approaches, through their integration with those of other United Nations agencies, are designed to facilitate a transition towards a more regular development set-up under a United Nations resident coordinator. Allow me to end here by thanking the Government and the people of Sierra Leone for continuing to welcome UNIPSIL and me so warmly in their midst. Sierra Leoneans are a peace-loving, gentle and charming people who are so ably represented here by their Foreign Minister, Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura. I would also like to thank my colleagues from the United Nations country team in Sierra Leone for all their support and for the excellent team spirit that exists among us. Finally, let me thank you, Mr. President, and the members of this Council for your patience in listening to me.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“To underline a change in attitudes from a peacekeeping to a peacebuilding mission, we have moved to smaller and less costly premises, which provide a friendlier and more approachable atmosphere. In building up UNIPSIL, we have also taken great care to maintain the temporary nature of the Integrated Peacebuilding Office. While we strive to give UNIPSIL a more forceful, focused and substantive configuration, we have, at the same time, tried to avoid the temptation of constructing permanent structures or creating long-term commitments that could inhibit a possible exit strategy if and when this will be decided 09-36192 by the Security Council.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“UNIPSIL is now in its ninth month of operations. By now, we have largely completed the build-up phase and have developed a common peacebuilding strategy. The emphasis has now shifted towards implementation. In transitioning from the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone to UNIPSIL, we have refocused our aims and reoriented our approaches in order to create a less dominant and more service- and support-oriented organization. We have reduced the staffing levels from 350 to about 70 staff members, but at the same time we have expanded our presence inside the country. In order to enable us to provide sound and reliable policy advice, we have increased considerably the share of professional national and international substantive staff and reduced the number of administrative and support staff.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“The Joint Vision includes a number of other innovative features, such as the joint multi-donor trust fund, a joint outreach initiative, a joint network of regional field offices and a number of joint support services. On Wednesday, we will present our Joint Vision at the special session and appeal to Member States to support us financially and politically. As the Joint Vision is, in many ways, the embodiment of the mandate that the Council has given us for creating a fully integrated peacebuilding mission in Sierra Leone, I hope that I can also count on the strong support of the Council. In September, the Council will have to decide on a possible extension of our mandate, and I feel that this may be the time to mention a few issues regarding UNIPSIL that may help in guiding the Council's future deliberations.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“The document outlines how the United Nations family will comply with the mandate of the Security Council, how we will support the Government in its development efforts and how our efforts will fit the wider development activities that are carried out by our international development partners. In the Joint Vision we have not only agreed five joint priorities and defined our joint benchmarks but have also identified risks and outlined options for mitigating those risks. With its 21 programmes, the Joint Vision will provide for much more focused interventions by the United Nations family and establish clearer responsibilities for the preparation, 09-36192 approval and implementation of those programmes. All those programmes are clearly aligned with the Government's Agenda for Change.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“In parallel to the Agenda for Change, the Joint Vision will cover a period of four years, from 2009 to 2012, and envisages a total financial envelope of $350 million. With the Joint Vision, we have tried to break new ground, to develop new, innovative approaches and to establish joint implementation mechanisms. The Joint Vision reflects the special requirements for peacebuilding in Sierra Leone and combines the political mandate given by the Security Council with the development and humanitarian mandates of United Nations agencies, programmes and funds into one single strategy. With the Joint Vision we will present a well-coordinated, transparent and integrated United Nations approach to peacebuilding.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“By rallying efforts around one single national document, the Peacebuilding Commission will set the stage for a successful Consultative Group meeting for Sierra Leone that will be held in London on 18 and 19 of November 2009, with the kind assistance of the Government of the United Kingdom. In Security Council resolution 1829 (2008) of this past August, the Council requested that a fully integrated peacebuilding office be set up in Sierra Leone. To achieve that, we have developed a joint strategy, the United Nations family's Joint Vision for Sierra Leone. The Joint Vision brings together UNIPSIL and all the 17 United Nations development and humanitarian agencies, programmes and funds that operate in Sierra Leone.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“We anticipate that the special session will set a clear strategic framework for development and peacebuilding in Sierra Leone by adopting the Government's Agenda for Change as the core strategy that will guide all future national and international development efforts. For this purpose, the special session is expected to call on all Member States to support the Government's Agenda and to adjust their bilateral and multilateral assistance programmes accordingly. With this decision, the special session will help the Government replace the approximately 32 different and often unrelated national, bilateral and multilateral strategies that have complicated development efforts in the past.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“At that session on Wednesday, we expect Member States to support all major local peacebuilding initiatives as an integrated package that includes the political parties' joint communique, the Government's Agenda for Change and the United Nations family's Joint Vision. The special session will be a confirmation of how the Peacebuilding Commission here in New York and the Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Freetown can mutually reinforce their respective responsibilities and activities for the benefit of Sierra Leone. I would like to take this opportunity to thank in particular the new chair of the Sierra Leone configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission, Ambassador John McNee, for his foresight, vision and leadership in bringing this special session about.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“In many ways, these bold political leaders decided to swim against the tide of polarization that had gripped parts of the political spectrum in the country, even within their own political parties. Allow me to therefore take this opportunity to salute the President, the leadership of the All People's Congress and the Sierra Leone People's Party and Sierra Leoneans in general for having chosen the way of dialogue over confrontation and for having agreed on such a far-reaching document as the joint communique. Peacebuilding must be defined in Sierra Leone. It cannot be done in New York or in any other place outside the country. I am therefore pleased with the new approach that the forthcoming special session of the Peacebuildinq Commission for Sierra Leone promised to take.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“On 13 June, 40,000 young men and women from all parties will gather at the national stadium to welcome the Artists for Peace and to launch their tour around the country. There is no better way to mobilize Sierra Leone's youth around the 3 message for peace than through music, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Artists for Peace for their valuable engagement. As a close observer, I witnessed the extraordinary courage and determination with which President Ernest Bai Koroma, the chairman of the main opposition party, John Benjamin, and the leadership of the political parties resisted the temptation to ride rising emotions or give in to long-established patterns of behaviour that re-emerged during the outbreak of political violence.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“I would also like to stress, in this context, the support that the joint communique has received from Sierra Leone's religious communities, civil society, women's organizations and groups of artists. A call to observe the joint communique's agreements was made by all religious communities at both Muslim and Christian religious services around the country. Civil society organizations have translated the joint communique into local languages and distributed it widely. Most importantly, however, a group of 26 young artists have formed the group Artists for Peace and developed two popular songs propagating the message of reconciliation and peace of the joint communique. Their songs can now be heard all over the country on radio stations and in youth centres.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“Leaders of all parties have repeatedly appeared together in public debates, including on national radio programmes, to call on all their supporters to work together and to reject all kinds of political violence. Regular multiparty talks have now started in Freetown, and it is planned to extend them into the regions. The youth wings of political parties are now meeting and planning joint confidence-building events. In consultation with the opposition, the President has now set up an independent inquiry into allegations of politically motivated sexual violence. We expect a further independent review to be launched within the coming days to look into the sequence of events that led to the political violence in March.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“I am therefore glad to note many encouraging signals in Sierra Leone from all political parties that they are serious in wanting to implement those agreements. In an unprecedented move, the leaders of all major political parties were invited to the recent congress of the governing All People's Congress, where they pledged publicly to work together and to put the interests of the country above those of their respective political parties. In a sign of reconciliation, President Ernest Bai Koroma visited the destroyed party headquarters of the opposition. In return, John Benjamin, the Chairman of the opposition party, visited the political party headquarters of the governing party.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source
“The joint communique further recognizes the need to develop multiparty consensus on key national policies, such as on youth integration and employment, on the mitigation of regional rivalries, on the development of an independent media and on fighting illicit drug trafficking and international crime. I believe that the joint communique, by combining a call for dialogue with an emerging multiparty consensus on core elements of State- building and national policies, is the quintessence of peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. I also believe that the joint communique could serve as a model for other countries that are in similar post-conflict circumstances. For those reasons, we should all work 09-36192 together to make the joint communique a success and to implement its various agreements in full.”
2009-06-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6137 (2009) · source