Guinea-Bissau: UN Fund to spend $6 million on peacebuilding efforts
28 April 2008 - The United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, set up to help countries emerging from conflict avoid relapsing into violence,
has agreed to provide Guinea-Bissau with $6 million to support the Government's efforts relating to the upcoming
legislative elections, security sector reform, the judiciary, the police and youth employment.
Senior UN peacebuilding officials have provisionally approved Guinea-Bissau's Interim Priority Plan on priority issues
for funding. This follows Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's decision last month to declare Guinea-Bissau eligible for
support from the Fund following the request of the Peacebuilding Commission.
A National Steering Committee co-chaired by the Secretary-General's Representative in Guinea-Bissau, Shola Omoregie, was
sworn in earlier this month, coinciding with the visit to the country of a delegation from the Peacebuilding Commission.
Bringing together representatives of the UN, the Government, bilateral and multilateral donors and civil society, the
Committee is tasked with overseeing the selection of projects and the allocation of funding.
Set up last year by the Secretary-General, the Peacebuilding Fund is designed to serve as a bridge between the phases of
conflict and recovery, a period when other forms of financing are often not available to struggling nations. So far more
than $248 million have been committed.
ENDS