News & Events

Apply now to the Global Roster Vacancies: Peace and Development Advisor and Specialist Positions at P4 and P5 levels (deadline 27 September 2020) || The Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention is looking for experts in peace and development for its roster to work with national stakeholders to build, strengthen, and sustain nationally owned and driven efforts to prevent violent conflict and build just and peaceful societies. || The Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention is a signature cross-pillar initiative that aims to enhance UN support to national stakeholders on conflict prevention and sustaining peace. Since its inception in 2004, the Programme has engaged in more than 70 countries and provided catalytic support to UN Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams to advance the UN Secretary-General's conflict prevention agenda. The Joint Programme is widely recognized for providing thought leadership on conflict prevention and is considered a unique example of how the political and development pillars of the UN can successfully work together in pursuit of the prevention of violent conflict. Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) are at the forefront of the Programme's efforts to empower national stakeholders to strengthen existing mechanisms and capacities for inclusive dialogue, mediation and national peace architectures. PDAs also support the UN system to effectively adapt and respond to complex political situations and identify areas for preventive action. Over the years, the community of PDAs has grown significantly, reflecting the increasing need for conflict prevention as well as the realization of the value of embedding capacities for conflict analysis, conflict sensitive programming, and strategic leadership on conflict prevention within UN Country Teams. A global campaign has been launched aiming to expand the pool of highly skilled candidates with substantive, technical and multilingual skills to serve in challenging duty stations. It also purposes to have a more geographically diverse representation and, above all, gender parity in the rosters and deployments. Qualified female candidates are encouraged to apply! || Peace and Development Advisors || Peace and Development

Germany, UNDP-DPPA Joint Programme renew partnership for conflict prevention || With its contribution, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany renews this strategic partnership started in 2016. This agreement represents the largest annual contribution to-date to the Joint UNDP-DPPA Programme. || || Conflict Analysis || Building National Capacities for Prevention || Peace and Development Advisors || SDG 16 || Peace and Development

The UN’s Evolving “Peace and Security” Architecture- Is the World Body Becoming More Effective in this Core Mission? || “Sustaining Peace”. “Peace and conflict continuum”. The “hinge”. These are some of the terms that pepper discussions of the ongoing reform of the United Nations’ work on conflict prevention and resolution and peacebuilding. This interview with Oscar Fernández-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, discusses the meaning of these terms and whether the reform is making a difference. || || Sustaining Peace || Peace and Development

Sustaining peace at the local level - How to strengthen social cohesion at the Mauritania-Mali border || Short blog on a joint mission to Bassikounou in eastern Mauritania to develop a project proposal on building local capacities for conflict prevention for the PBF. || || Sustaining Peace || Peace and Development

How parliaments can work with women to create peace || The understanding of the role of gender in conflict prevention and peacebuilding has grown greatly in the past 20 years. || || Democratic Governance || Peace and Development

Take five: A successful peace process simply demands the active and meaningful participation of women at all levels || As of 2017, of 15 UN peacekeeping missions, only 9 missions have gender units with a total of 4 senior gender advisers and 53 gender advisers and officers, and there were only 4 per cent women among military troops in UN peace operations. || || Women in Peacebuilding || Peace and Development

Can we ‘innovate’ our way towards a more peaceful world? || As technology advances, are we getting closer to peace, or slipping further away? Resident Peace and Development Advisor Jessie Banfield weighs in. || || Conflict Prevention || Peace and Development

How Do You Show What Didn’t Happen? The Challenge of Illustrating Conflict Prevention || ​Q&A with Teresa Whitfield, head of DPA’s Policy and Mediation Division, about the recent publication “United Nations Conflict Prevention and Preventive Diplomacy in Action.” || || Conflict Prevention || Peace and Development

To Prevent Conflict, Sustain Peace || The best way to prevent conflict is to nurture peace in all societies. That’s, very broadly speaking, the idea behind “sustaining peace”, the term that formally entered the international policy makers’ lexicon in 2016 with the near-simultaneous adoption by the General Assembly and the Security Council of almost identical resolutions on how the UN could more effectively “do” peacebuilding and prevention. || || Conflict Prevention || Peace and Development

Inclusive electoral processes: A pathway to more peaceful societies || Responding to national requests for enhanced governance capacity, UNDP has supported elections and referenda in over 100 Member States since the early 1990s || || Political Processes || Peace and Development

Sustainable Development Goals are country-led and country-owned || Blog by Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support and Oscar Fernández-Taranco, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. || || SDG 16 || Peace and Development

Sustainable development and sustaining peace: Two sides of the same coin || Blog by Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support and Oscar Fernández-Taranco, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support. || || SDG 16 || Peace and Development

Supporting Political Dialogue in El Salvador || Q&A with Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman on how the UN sees the dialogue process in El Salvador. || || Dialogue Process || Peace and Development

Why the UN in Burkina Faso is listening to what young people are saying || There are 4.5 million people between 15-35 years old in Burkina Faso, according to the last general population and housing census of 2006. By 2025, this number will almost double to 8.6 million people, which means that roughly half of the population in Burkina Faso will be young. || || Youth & Peacebuilding || Peace and Development

To end famine and secure peace in South Sudan, women are vital || Supporting women and girls and amplifying their voices, especially as part of an inclusive national dialogue, will be vital to ending South Sudan’s escalating famine and building a peaceful, resilient nation in the months and years ahead. || || Women in Peacebuilding || Peace and Development

Monitoring the implementation of SDG 16 for peaceful, just and inclusive societies || Unlike many other aspects of the 2030 Agenda, monitoring of SDG16 is a relatively new area of engagement but it offers an unprecedented opportunity to drive improvements in governance issues that underpin peaceful, just, and inclusive societies and the attainment of the entire 2030 agenda. || || SDG 16 || Peace and Development

Effectively Including Women in Peace Processes || The recognition of the need to effectively include women in peace processes, self-evident as it mostly seems today, is relatively new. || || Women in Peacebuilding || Dialogue Process || Peace and Development

Bringing youth together to innovate is key to development in Africa || How do we harness the dividend from the African continent’s current youthful population? || || Youth & Peacebuilding || Peace and Development

Sri Lanka: Steps in Reconciliation and Accountability for Sustainable Peace || Following the work of the Peace and Development Advisor in Sri Lanka. || || Peace and Development Advisors || Building National Capacities for Prevention || Peace and Development

'Inclusive dialogue' the key to fixing Thailand's ills [Bangkok Post] || Op-ed by Luc Stevens, UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand || || Dialogue Process || Conflict Prevention || Peace and Development

We need more women in politics - Here’s how to make quotas work || The low representation of women in politics remains one of the most obvious obstacles preventing us from achieving gender equality in the world. || || Women in Peacebuilding || Peace and Development

Why building peaceful societies is part of the sustainable development agenda || Where safety is routinely and casually under threat, it will be impossible to generate lasting improvements in most aspects of people’s lives. || || Conflict Prevention || Peace and Development

If prevention is the best cure, we have to do better in fragile states || In this blog series leading up to the World Humanitarian Summit, UNDP experts and practitioners share their experiences and views on responding to conflict and disasters. || || Conflict Prevention || Infrastructures for Peace || Conflict Sensitivity || Peace and Development

Colombia: Bringing the link between peace and development into focus || Follows the work of the Peace and Development Advisor in Colombia. || || Building National Capacities for Prevention || Peace and Development Advisors || Peace and Development

Sri Lanka: Supporting long-term peace by combining political and development analysis || Following the work of the Peace and Development Advisor in Sri Lanka. || || Building National Capacities for Prevention || Peace and Development Advisors || Conflict Analysis || Peace and Development

Young people are building peace in Colombia || Why have young people embraced the opportunity to lead and participate in the efforts to build peace in Colombia? || || Youth & Peacebuilding || Peace and Development

Peace Talk - What happens when Peace processes fail, and when they succeed? || The Philippines stands at a critical juncture. The Congress is currently deliberating on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, and its passage will be a critical milestone in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement || || Conflict Prevention || Peace and Development

The Power Of Joint Learning As Strategy For Peacebuilding - Insights From Southern Thailand || External Link The peacebuilding efforts in the Deep South of Thailand, respectively in Patani (as many Malay Muslims like to call the region), are a good example for the challenges of peacebuilding in the broader as well as in the more narrow sense. || || Insider Mediation || Infrastructures for Peace || Peace and Development

The way to stop violence against women and girls || ​An average of 1 in 3 women across the world suffer from violence at the hands of a partner, in their lifetime. Gender-based violence (GBV) disproportionately affects lower and middle income countries, poorer regions within these countries, and in particular vulnerable groups that include migrants, sex workers, and people living with HIV or disabilities.​​ || || Women Peacemakers || Peace and Development

Dominican Republic: 5 Steps to Develop a SDG Data Innovation Lab || This blog outlines the 5 steps taken to build a SDG data innovation lab in the Dominican Republic. || || SDG 16 || Recent Practices and Tools

No Durable Peace Without Inclusion || Promoting the Effective Participation of Women in Peace Processes. || || Women in Peacebuilding || Recent Practices and Tools

Innovative Conflict Prevention Programme Comes into its Own || Short blog post highlighting the first annual meeting of the Joint UNDP-DPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention. The meeting took place at NY Headquarters 19 June 2017. || || Building National Capacities for Prevention || Peace and Development Advisors || Recent Practices and Tools

UNDP, The EU and NGO Belun committed to strengthen conflict prevention capacity in Timor-Leste through early warning and early response || This project seeks to strengthen Timor-Leste’s existing conflict prevention and crisis managment capacity through the existing Early Warning, Early Response system (EWER), managed by Belun || || Conflict Prevention || Recent Practices and Tools

Learning about Conflict Sensitivity and Conflict-sensitive Programming - New Online Course || The Course is an innovative, online, self-paced, and free-of-charge learning tool, open to all parctitioners. ||   This new Course offers an opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding and hands-on skills to apply conflict-sensitive approaches in humanitarian, development, peacebuilding and security work led by the UN and its partner organizations. It is an online, self-paced, and free-of-charge learning tool, open to staff members as well as external partners.  It is part of a continuous efforts to ensure staff are equipped to effectively navigate challenging development environments, including complex political situations. Course Structure The Conflict Sensitivity Course is divided into two modules aligning theory to practice, as follows: Module 1: Basics of Conflict Sensitivity This module explores the basic concepts around conflict sensitivity. It also reflects on individual attitudes and behaviors and how we are affected by working in conflict-affected contexts. It highlights the relevance of conflict sensitivity at the organizational level by looking into how it can be embedded in projects, programmes and strategies. For instance, the course looks at how conflict sensitivity can be incorporated at each stage of the project cycle – from the situational analysis, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, to the phase-out. At the strategic level, it considers the policies and the organizational set up; including recruitment procedures, communication strategies, and reporting formats. Duration: 3 hours Module 2: Working in a Complex Situation/in a Situation with Acute Violence/ Working in a Post-Conflict Situation This module provides an opportunity to apply conflict-sensitive approaches in the fictitious country of Globalia, used across the course to present various conflict sensitivity concepts and approaches in a practical albeit simulated context. Depending on their interests, learners can choose to work in a complex situation, in a situation of acute violence, or in a post-conflict situation. Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes Course availability To ensure the Course is accessible to staff in the UN system, the Conflict Prevention Community of Practice, civil society and other practitioners, it has been made available on the following platforms: The UN System Staff College (UNSSC​) Internal learning platforms of UNDP, UNICEF and the EU [for staff members] The course will also be available on CD-ROM for distribution in areas with low internet bandwidth.   The Initiative Course content was developed by the UN Conflict Sensitivity Task Force comprised of UNDP, UNICEF, UNWomen, DOCO, DPA, OCHA, PBSO, UNSSC, DPKO, WFP, OHCHR, OSAPG and UNESCO and Swisspeace, with funding support from the Swiss Government, UNICEF, UNDP and UN Women. The roll-out of the course is currently facilitated by members of the UN Task Team on Conflict Prevention. UN Task Team on Conflict Prevention The Task Team on Conflict Prevention is an inter-agency mechanism established under the auspices of the UNDG-ECHA Working Group on Transitions as a UN-system wide platform for conflict prevention.   || Conflict Sensitivity || Conflict Analysis || Recent Practices and Tools

Re-thinking Orientation Workshops–Experience by UN’s Peace and Development Advisors || The induction for the new Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) currently deployed through the Joint UNDP-DPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention took place 1-7 June, 2015 at UN Headquarters in New York. The training workshop presented the opportunity to pilot an innovative approach for induction training for newly deployed PDAs in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Togo, and Uganda, as well as the Conflict Prevention Advisor in Pakistan and JPO working closely with the PDA in Timor-Leste. || ​The induction for the new Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) currently deployed through the Joint UNDP-DPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention took place 1-7 June, 2015 at UN Headquarters in New York.  The training workshop presented the opportunity to pilot an innovative approach for induction training for newly deployed PDAs in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Togo, and Uganda, as well as the Conflict Prevention Advisor in Pakistan and JPO working closely with the PDA in Timor-Leste.The week included meetings with colleagues from across the UN system as well as UNDP/BPPS Director, ASG Magdy Martínez-Solimán, and ASG Miroslav Jenča of DPA.The training, in partnership with Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy, adopted a ‘PDA Process Wisdom’ conceptual learning approach where the PDAs assiduously explored learning areas related to: Understanding > Designing > Implementing responses to conflict prevention and peacebuilding in a peer – to – peer  learning setting. The PDAs reflected on their roles and expectations as “analysts, brokers, accompaniers, and perception changers”.pda-wisdom.pngIn addition to the building of an ”esprit de corps” amongst the PDAs and course givers, the responses received from the workshop participants was a unanimous feeling it had reached its goal of preparing them to provide high-level and thought provoking strategic advice to UN Country teams and national partners. Importantly, the PDAs departed with a better understanding of their strategic roles, a stronger sense of belonging to community of practitioners, and renewed enthusiasm and confidence towards their work. Currently deployed in 34 countries, the work of PDAs represents an innovative approach for the UN in developing nationally tailored capacities to prevent conflicts and build sustainable peace.The next PDA induction course will be held in the Fall, 2015.  In addition, a global retreat which will take place in the last quarter of 2015 will provide the opportunity for the current corps of PDAs to share how they have progressed in applying the ‘Wisdom’ they gained from their innovative experience of the June course. || Peace and Development Advisors || Recent Practices and Tools

Issue #4 of the UN Constitutional Newsletter || ​Features an interview with the ​President of the Libya Constitutional Drafting Assembly. || || Conflict Prevention || Recent Practices and Tools

Issue #3 of the UN Constitutional Newsletter || Includes nterview with a senator and a civil society activist, and articles on constitutional reform in relation to peacebuilding and the social contract. || || Conflict Prevention || Recent Practices and Tools

Bridging the language gap: A new lexicon for electoral terminology || ​What happens when there are no words in a language to refer to a new situation or process? People naturally make up new ones, either using their own language, borrowing from others, or a combination of both. || || Conflict Prevention || Recent Practices and Tools

Local Peace Committees - Questions and Answers with Andries Odendaal (USIP Blog) || ​Andries Odendaal answers questions about his book A Crucial Link: Local Peace Committees and National Peacebuilding. Odendaal explains local peace committees and infrastructures for peace, the conditions under which they are successful, and how they can contribute to a reduction in violent conflict.​ || || Infrastructures for Peace || Recent Practices and Tools