THE country is now eligible to receive support from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund for the next five years.
This was declared by the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
This is following the submission in June this year by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to the Peace-building Commission for support in deepening peace-building efforts.
In his letter of 17th October 2017 to the Prime Minister, Mr Guterres confirmed that areas of assistance from the Peace-building Fund could include support for the implementation of the Communique from the June 2017 National Dialogue on Sustaining Peace and Stability.
“The Prime Minister was further invited by Secretary General Guterres to make another submission to the Peace-building Commission in the next few months on Solomon Islands’ peace-building strategy and how the support from the Peace-building Fund would help address them,” a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister said.
“The favourable decision by the United Nations is very timely as we need to continue to build peace following the departure of RAMSI,” Mr Sogavare said.
“We will now prioritise the putting together of our peace-building strategy in some details to advance our peace-building efforts,” he added.
“It will be a peace-building strategy that is aligned with our National Development Strategy and contributing to the achievement of our Sustainable Development Goals’ targets.”
Primarily to prevent post-conflict countries from slipping back to conflict and civil arrest, the Peace-building Commission supports the United Nations Security Council in helping such countries to rebuild peace and stability.
This is the first time Solomon Islands has been granted eligibility to access the Peace-building Fund at this scale.
Papua New Guinea has been the only other country in the Pacific to have received support from the UN Peace-building Fund for the purpose of rebuilding peace and stability in Bougainville.
The national government will work closely with the UN System here in Honiara in its preparation to submit a detailed peace-building strategy and priorities to the Peace-building Commission at UN headquarters, New York. – PMO Press
