Tanzanian Appointed to UN Fund Advisory Body

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed retired Tanzanian diplomat Liberata Mulamula as a member of the sixth Advisory Group of the Peacebuilding Fund.

Ambassador Mulamula is among the eminent individuals who have been appointed for a term of two

years, taking into consideration gender and regional balance.

Apart from Ambassador Mulamula, other members and their countries of origin in brackets are Anne Anderson, retired Ambassador (Ireland), Emmanuel Asante, chairperson, National Peace Council (Ghana), Lise Filiatrault, retired Ambassador (Canada) and Johannes Oljelund, Director- General for International Development Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Sweden).

Others are Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive, Overseas Development Institute, United Kingdom, Stéphane Rey, Head of Peace Policy, Deputy Head of the Human Security Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Switzerland), Gert Rosenthal, Ambassador (ret), Guatemala, Hanns Heinrich Schumacher, Ambassador (ret) (Germany).

The United Nations Peacebuilding Fund is the organisation's financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries or situations at risk or affected by violent conflict.

From 2006 to 2017, the Fund approved $772m to 41 recipient countries and from 2017 to 2019 it scaled up its commitments by approving $ 531m for 51 countries.

According to the UN, the unprecedented crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic requires sustained investment in peace building now more than ever.

It said countries already affected by violent conflict or the risk thereof needed support to adjust to the shock that the pandemic might cause on existing situations.

Without peace and security, access to health and humanitarian services is severely undermined.

That is why the secretary-general has called for a global ceasefire.

Consolidating opportunities to build peace as a result of this call is an important task for the international community and the Peace building Fund is designed to support programming that needs to be started quickly and flexibly where requested.

The Peacebuilding Fund's new strategy 2020-24 is designed to bolster the fund with a target of $ 1.5bn in financing for peace building, the most ambitious strategy for the Fund to date.

The secretary-general also expressed his gratitude to members of the fifth Advisory Group who ended their tenure in March for their advice and support which had considerably strengthened the impact of the Fund globally.