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Romania co-chaired the Joint Meeting Economic and Social Council - Peacebuilding Commission
The Permanent Representative of Romania to the UN, Ambassador Ion Jinga, in his capacity as Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), co-chaired the Joint Meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the PBC, which took place on 13 November 2018, at the UN Headquarters in New York. This year, the topic of the joint event was dedicated to Linkages between Climate Change and Challenges to Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace in the Sahel.
Ambassador Ion Jinga welcomed the joint decision to discuss the situation in Sahel from the perspective of the impact that climate change has on peace and security in the region, taking into consideration that the region faces multidimensional risks and urgent needs for integrated coordination, analysis and support from the international community. Underscoring the fact that “the effects of climate change, such as desertification, droughts, floods and food insecurity pose grave threats to generations of human and development gains”, the Permanent Representative of Romania to the UN mentioned that ECOSOC and PBC can help the Sahel region to meet the challenges created by climate change and in the processes of sustaining peace, through coordination and policy coherence, partnership building, resource mobilization, and leadership and national ownership: “Based on their mandate, ECOSOCand PBC, acting together and complementarily, can provide expert guidance and support to promote national and regional ownership and leadership to initiatives on the ground”.
In the final remarks of the meeting, the Romanian diplomat underscored that climate change is one of the top priorities on the UN Agenda and that addressing the root causes of conflicts requires coherent and comprehensive action involving the entire institutional system of the organization: “Sustainable peace cannot exist without sustainable development, and for this, the countries in the Sahel region need investments for development. They also need sustainable support from the international community in order to build peace and combat extreme violence, to build resilience and combat climate change”.
The initiative of including on the agenda of the Joint Meeting ECOSOC-PBC the topic of the impact of climate change on the security risks in the Sahel region belonged to the Romanian Chairmanship of the Peacebuilding Commission, and it was agreed by consensus by all ECOSOC and PBC Member States. The ECOSOC resolution 2009/32, as well as the twin resolutions A/RES/70/262 and S/RES/2282 (2016), adopted by the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, on the peacebuilding architecture review called for closer cooperation and enhanced coherence between ECOSOC and PBC. The Joint Meeting ECOSOC-PBC took place after the PBC Annual Session dedicated to the Sahel region held on November 12, 2018, under the Romanian Chairmanship