Innovations from International Geneva for UN Peacebuilding

Peacebuilding is one of the principal tasks of the United Nations. The comprehensive Peacebuilding Architecture Review (PBAR) will take place in 2025. This is a process that is carried out every five years to evaluate the effectiveness of existing mechanisms in peacebuilding and to discuss new ways of stabilising and preventing conflict. International Geneva plays a particularly important role in this process, with its expertise and concentration of institutions making a significant contribution to the further development of global peace efforts.

“As seat of numerous diplomatic missions, international organisations, NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector, Geneva plays an indispensable role in securing and consolidating peace,” emphasised Julien Thöni, Switzerland's deputy ambassador to the UN in Geneva. The Geneva community makes a significant contribution to the PBAR by bringing practical insights and innovative solutions to the implementation process in New York.

In this context, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, together with the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform (GPP) and Interpeace, organised an expert conference, the ‘Geneva Consultations’, on 14 February 2025. Representatives from international organisations, civil society, the private sector and science came together to develop concrete recommendations for the PBAR final resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. Important topics included the financing of peacebuilding and the role of the private sector, as well as the inclusion of the human rights system at the global, regional and local level in conflict prevention.

A central topic of the PBAR 2025 is the question of how peace initiatives can be sustainably financed. Despite the limited financial resources of the UN member states, the UN General Assembly decided in December 2023 to strengthen the UN Peacebuilding Fund through fixed contributions. Nevertheless, the potential of the private sector and private investment in this area remains underdeveloped. ‘The private sector has many roles to play in relation to peace. For example, we see private investors advocating for standards of conflict prevention and social cohesion because this stabilises local markets, especially in insecure contexts,’ emphasised Christian Frutiger, Assistant Director General of the SDC, in Geneva.

Geneva is providing innovative approaches in this regard: financial institutions, investors and businesses are increasingly involved in developing new financing models for peacebuilding. During the PBAR discussions, Geneva's approaches to linking financial institutions and private sector companies with peace initiatives should therefore be presented and expanded. The roundtable discussion, organised by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Interpeace, and attended by representatives of the private sector and organisations such as Sustainable Finance Geneva, produced concrete proposals that could be incorporated into the PBAR outcome documents. These include a more systematic integration of the private sector into the peacebuilding architecture. This could be done, for example, by promoting and defining peacebuilding investments in the financial sector, as well as by providing peace-oriented market analysis strategies to create new partnerships at the local level.

Another priority area is the link between human rights and peacebuilding. The 2025 PBAR provides an opportunity to further strengthen the links between human rights, sustainable development and conflict prevention, as recognised in previous UN resolutions, and to reaffirm their critical relevance. Geneva, as the centre of the international human rights system, can play a decisive role here with its broad network of organisations and institutions. “The human rights system provides one of the most important early warning systems for violent conflict, and some of the most effective tools to prevent escalation. It is time to more meaningfully connect the human right and peacebuilding architectures,” said Adam Day, Director of the Geneva Office of the United Nations University (UNU), who moderated the roundtable discussion on human rights and just peace at the Geneva Consultations.

The panel of experts on this topic, which met today in Geneva, discussed, among other things, the question of how human rights mechanisms can be more effectively integrated into peace processes.This was also one of Switzerland's priorities during its term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from 2023–24. Greater cooperation between the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and other actors could contribute to the early identification of the causes of conflicts and the development of targeted conflict prevention measures.

The results of the Geneva discussions will contribute to the negotiations for the final resolutions of the 2025 PBAR, which are to be held this year in both the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. In addition, a follow-up conference will be held next October as part of the 12th Geneva Peace Week to reflect on the progress and challenges of the 2025 PBAR.

The close cooperation between Geneva and New York in peacebuilding – which Switzerland promotes, among other things, through the Geneva Consultations – shows how important innovative approaches are to developing sustainable solutions to global challenges. International Geneva thus remains an indispensable hub for peace initiatives and a key player in shaping a safer world.