A UN regional forum “Conflict and Fragility and the Post-2015 Development Agenda” in Monrovia, Liberia called for the post-2015 development framework to include: peace efforts that also address the drivers of violence; consideration of the g7+'s “New Deal”; better governance; and responses to inequalities, including those based on gender, ethnicity, religion, geography and caste.
4 December 2012: A UN regional forum on conflict and fragility held in Monrovia, Liberia, has called for peace and security to be reflected as one of four core dimensions in the post-2015 development framework, along with the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
The forum, “Conflict and Fragility and the Post-2015 Development Agenda,” hosted by the governments of Liberia and Finland, was organized as part of a series of UN-led consultations. Representatives from the African Union (AU), UN agencies, eight governments, civil society organizations, academia, the media, trade unions, and youth attended the event on 28-29 November 2012.
Participants agreed that the post-2015 development framework should include: peace efforts that also address the drivers of violence; consideration of the g7+’s “New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States,” and its peace-building and state-building goals, when crafting commitments; better governance, with accountability, inclusiveness, and fair-state-society relations; and responses to inequalities, including those based on gender, ethnicity, religion, geography and caste.
President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who co-chairs the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP), emphasized the promotion of peace and security, inclusiveness and youth involvement. Finland’s Under Secretary of State for Development Cooperation and Development Policy, Anne Sipiläinen, and UN representatives also spoke at the event.
The Monrovia meeting is second in a series of three regional events. The first event, on “Disasters and the Post-2015 Development Agenda,” took place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia on 22-25 October 2012, and the third, on “Organized Violence, Citizen Security, and the Post-2015 Development Agenda,” will take place in Panama at the end of January 2013. A high-level consultation in February 2013, in Helsinki, Finland, will deliberate on outcomes of the regional consultations to develop suggested goals, targets and indicators, as well as a global coalition and network of stakeholders to advocate for deeper understanding of the impact of conflict, violence and fragility on development. The outcomes will feed into HLP’s report due in May 2013.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), supported by the Government of Finland, are jointly organizing the thematic consultation on conflict and fragility, which is one of 11 themes being addressed in global consultations on the post-2015 development agenda. [World We Want Press Release] [UN Press Release] [Consultation Concept Note]