Category: Civil Service
DSG/SM/836-SC/11735-PBC/103: Addressing Security Council, Deputy Secretary-General Calls upon Solid Commitment from All Sides to Fulfil ‘Original Vision’ for Peacekeeping Structures

14 JANUARY 2015
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General’s Jan Eliasson’s remarks to the Security Council on post-conflict peacebuilding, in New York today:
Thank you for giving me this opportunity to brief the Council on the Secretary-General’s report on Peacebuilding in the Aftermath of Conflict.
This report reminds us that peacebuilding is at the core of the United Nations’ aims and ambitions. The challenges and responses described in the report will directly affect the future of individuals, communities and societies and their chances of living in peace.
I would like to highlight five key features of the report.
First, peacebuilding is most effective when political, security and development actors support a common, comprehensive and clear strategy for consolidating peace.
We have seen examples of this in Guinea and Burundi.
In Guinea, the United Nations country team supported an inter-party agreement on parliamentary elections that was facilitated by the then-SRSG [Special Representative of the Secretary-General] for West Africa, Said Djinnit. The team held public meetings with local political leaders and helped train election monitors.
In Burundi, the Peacebuilding Commission and the country team supported the efforts of the UN Office in pursuit of a more inclusive political environment. They did this by facilitating broad consultations with political parties and civil society. This led to the adoption of a new electoral code and a code of conduct for the upcoming elections.
Second, strong and well-functioning institutions that are central to peacebuilding must be based on effective and inclusive political agreements.
Such agreements provide legitimacy and support for institutional development and reform. Without inclusive agreements, political divisions may persist and control of the State may indeed remain contested. Under such circumstances, nationally led peacebuilding strategies have a limited potential. Let’s admit that we have seen this in South Sudan, where extensive investments in institution-building were lost when weak and unstable political agreements between different factions resulted in a tragic relapse of conflict.
Third, peacebuilding requires sustained international political, technical and financial support.
Regretfully, we are seeing such gaps in several places, particularly where the establishment of basic Government functions and the provision of social services are required to sustain peace.
The Peacebuilding Fund can partially address the financial gaps in the short term. But, it remains problematic to ensure the necessary larger-scale and longer-term assistance and support.
I encourage the Peacebuilding Commission to continue its efforts to mobilize the support of Member States for the UN’s missions and mandates. Groups of Friends and Contact Groups can play an important role. Also, compacts between post-conflict States and key international partners can align international support with national priorities — as they did in Sierra Leone and Somalia.
Fourth, regional actors and neighbouring countries, working together with the United Nations, can play a critical role in creating an environment conducive to sustainable peace.
The Peacebuilding Commission can help support such efforts, as it has done recently in the Central African Republic and Guinea-Bissau, by convening meetings with regional organizations, neighbouring States and international partners.
This underlines how conflicts in today’s world more and more take on a regional dimension, which I am sure you in the Council have noted in your deliberations on so many issues. This regional dimension, in my view, should be better reflected in how we in the future deal generally with both conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding.
Fifthly, and lastly, at this part of my presentation — promoting inclusion means that we must ensure women’s equal participation in post-conflict political and development processes.
The Secretary-General’s report details innovative approaches from Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyzstan and Liberia, including an initiative in Guinea called the Women’s Situation Room. This provided support to a network of local women’s organizations, enabling women to play a crucial role as election monitors. It also facilitated inter-party trust and strengthened women’s political participation. We need more initiatives like this, and I particularly would like to say that this could be very valuable this year when we mark the 20 years after the important Beijing conference.
I would on this occasion like to present the Council with some reflections and thoughts on the important review of the United Nations peacebuilding architecture that was launched by the General Assembly and the Security Council last month.
It was my privilege, as President of the General Assembly 10 years ago, to be part of the creation of the peacebuilding structures — the Peacebuilding Commission, the Peacebuilding Fund and the Peacebuilding Support Office. You may recall that this work was in response to the troubling phenomenon at the time of frequent relapses into conflict.
Since then, we can see that peacebuilding efforts are more necessary than ever. In the recent past, the Central African Republic and South Sudan have tragically fallen back into conflict.
The three Ebola-affected countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, are all on the Peacebuilding Commission’s agenda. In addition to the large and tragic loss of life, the epidemic has also had a dramatic impact on social cohesion and State institutions. As the Peacebuilding Commission noted in its early meetings on the epidemic, there is a need for comprehensive support that will ensure the resilience of State institutions and of course rapid recovery.
The United Nations’ involvement in peacebuilding has evolved considerably since 2005, with broader mandates and more actors, working in ever more difficult environments. Our peacekeepers and special political missions are often in these situations called upon to support inclusive political processes and to build effective rule of law and security institutions, together with UN agencies, funds and programmes.
The Peacebuilding Commission was intended to be a diverse, flexible and dynamic political forum, which would focus sustained international attention on the challenges for countries at risk of relapse into violence. Although the Commission has made some important progress, many now agree that its structure and working methods need review, improvement and adaptation to a rapidly changing environment. Here, I would like to commend the efforts of the Permanent Representative of Brazil, Antonio [de Aguiar] Patriota, who has been Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission and set the direction in a very positive way, as also the new Head of the Peacebuilding Support office, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, who is behind me, and his predecessor. So, we are on the right track and I think we need to go with an open mind into this work.
We need a forum that can act quickly to mobilize the collective support of Member States for the UN’s mandates and missions. We also need to consider the circumstances in which the Peacebuilding Commission can be particularly useful. A more flexible, more dynamic and strategically oriented Commission could be more relevant to a broader range of situations in today’s world.
These and other ideas are included in the UN system’s input to the review. I hope you will give them your serious consideration. The UN system is committed to increase its support to and engagement with a dynamic, flexible and focused Peacebuilding Commission.
Your review will coincide with the Secretary-General’s review of peace operations and the Global Study to assess progress in implementing resolution 1325 (2000). The work and outcomes of these three reviews, and their follow-up, should be complementary, and in my view, mutually reinforcing.
These reviews come at a time of complex threats to peace, security and development. They provide us with an important opportunity to sharpen and re-shape our thinking and our actions.
We owe it to the people we serve to ensure that we are bold, ambitious, and above all, effective in our approach to modern-day peacebuilding. I urge Member States to be open, candid and constructive in their assessment of the peacebuilding challenges and potentials.
I would just like to add that, when we look at a conflict, the life of a conflict, we have a tendency to focus on the middle section of that life of a conflict — when you are at the “CNN stage” — when you are at the stage of suffering and taking urgent decisions on missions — peacebuilding and peacekeeping operations. I think we need all to think of extending that attention to the pre-stage and the post-stage. The life of a conflict which is discovered at the first vibrations on the ground — that is when we should start to act. And then, like the convalescence of a patient, at the end of a conflict with ceasefires and so forth, we need to know that there is post-conflict work to be done, so that we don’t get back to the vicious cycle of conflict.
We need a solid commitment from all sides to fulfil the original vision for the peacebuilding structures and to improve the UN system’s support for countries emerging from conflict.
This could make the difference, the crucial difference, between peace or continuing conflict for millions of people around the world. This is an opportunity the United Nations and its Member States should not miss.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE UNEMPLOYED (NAU) Press Statement 12 January 2015
Dear fellow Country Men and Women, happy New Year.
2014 was at all not an easy journey to travel. The climb was steep but we climbed to the top, the journey was long but we managed to get to our destination, the task seemed mountainous but we got to the peak. As NAU we can only say that was the end of the start.
National Association of the unemployed would like to take this opportunity to salute all of you, fellow Ugandans especially those who braved all the bad conditions prevailing in our country in form of unemployment and all its associated economic resultants, intransigence of government, arbitrary arrests of activists, brutality in the hands of the state to mention but a few.
In a special way NAU takes this opportunity to mention that we stand by and will continue to stand with our brothers and sisters from Kisekka market who were recently rendered unemployed by the actions and policies of the NRM regime. We will support you in any way we can and in all actions you chose to undertake to defend your rights. We want to tell you, that the demolition of this market was not driven by development need but the need by the regime to disperse these organised pro-democracy comrades who worked there. These hasty actions were not out of the need that you become better rather that you are isolated- dividing your effort is the point here. These are actions of a regime that is afraid of the citizens.
We take this opportunity to inform the world about the NAU nationwide rallies that will commence on 22nd Jan 2015. NAU registration was very successful and the achievements were way above our own expectation despite the brutal response from police. We know they wanted us to fail but they instead failed because we achieved. And we want to congratulate all the gallant members of NAU who refused to be intimidated and got registered both manually and online.
We want to disappoint this manuscript minded members of this government who thought by arresting our enumerators was to stop the registration and therefore cause the death of NAU. Our message to you is that this is the twenty first century. The online registration is still going on and in big numbers.
As the online registration is going on, the rallies that are intended to explain to Ugandans our side of the story. It must be noted that government propagandist tried in vain to link NAU to all illegal activities including armed rebellion intentionally ignoring the issues we raised in our concept paper. We left them to finish their side of the story and now we want to also explain our side of the story so that the common man can be able to judge who was truthful.
The other reason why we opt to begin public rallies is because government failure to give an ear to the documented suggestions we made as NAU. We therefore want to take this same issues to the common man so that we seek a possibility where these issues can be turned into a campaign issue and we intend to make it extremely risky for any candidate to simply ignore them. This should comfort NRM that NAU doesn’t exclusively target them but wants ears of all those who can be of help to the condition that has befallen the youth of this country. The NRM regime only finds itself in the firing line because they are in government and are duty bound to handle such issues.
In conclusion, we want to request every Ugandan to put making Uganda a country where we all feel part of as one of their New Year’s resolution. These 12 months are another opportunity God has given you to be recorded by history as part of those who stood firm in the face of extreme threat to make your country better.
You must get tired of government policies which perpetuate unemployment, you must get tired of anti-people KCCA actions, you must get tired of sectarianism, you must get tired of impunity, you must get tired of corruption, and you must get real tired and make your anger known to the appropriate authorities. We are aware that many may fear to engage now for fear of ruthless response by government. But I tell you if your only fear is that you may be shoot dead, poisoned to death or killed by any way. You must remember that the cost of inaction is always higher than that of action.
For my Baganda brothers and sisters, the proverb that “ekilya atabaala kyekilya nasigadde ewaka.” Must be always in your heads.
God Bless you,
For God and My Country
Contact; 0705856562 and 0701756756
Press Release: China urges efforts of G77 toward new type of international relations

Jan 9,2015 4:34 PM Xinhua
UNITED NATIONS — A Chinese envoy on Jan 8 called on the Group of 77 (G77) to promote establishment of a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core.
Liu Jieyi, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, made the remarks at a ceremony at the U.N. headquarters where Bolivia handed over the rotating chairmanship of the G77 to South Africa.
“We are convinced that under the leadership of South Africa, the Group of 77 and China will continue to carry forward the fine tradition of solidarity and cooperation, and further promote cooperation and common development of the developing world,” he said.
The year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of both the victory of the world anti-fascist war and the founding of the United Nations, Liu said, adding that it will be a year of great significance with milestones to be set: preserving world peace, promoting common development and establishing a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core.
The ambassador said that as a committed member of the developing world, China greatly values the role of the G77 and cherishes the G77 plus China mechanism.
“We will as always endeavor to strengthen coordination and cooperation with all members of the Group and give all our support to the work of South Africa as the chair of the Group for the year 2015,” Liu said.
The G77, established in 1964, is now a coalition of more than 130 developing U.N. member states plus China, and has more than 60 percent of the world’s population.
The group is the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries in the world body, aiming to promote collective economic interests and gain leverage within the international community.
The chairmanship, which sits atop the organizational structure of G77, rotates on a regional basis among countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean and is held for one year only.
Press Statement: IGAD Foreign Ministers arrive in Mogadishu for an extra-ordinary meeting (09.01.2015)
The EFF statement on the hollow recitals of the freedom charter by the ANC:
10 January 2015
The Economic Freedom Fighters notes the attempts by Mr. Jacob Zuma, the President of the ANC to restate the Freedom Charter as if it is the programme of the ANC, while all evidence is out there for all to see that the ANC has abandoned the Freedom Charter. In the speech delivered during the rally in Cape Town, Mr. Zuma recurrently mentioned key clauses of the Freedom Charter and ‘economic freedom’, yet made no concrete commitments and programme on how the ANC government will realise the Freedom Charter and economic freedom.
The EFF is aware that the whole intention of the ANC January 8 statement was an attempt to try to copy and therefore undermine the radical and militant programme of the Economic Freedom Fighters, because our programme is the only programme that finds true resonance with the people of South Africa. The EFF remains the only radical and militant movement which unapologetically pursues a radical economic revolution programme which will change the lives of our people. An attempt by the ANC to imitate the radical programme of the EFF only through rhetoric will always be exposed as pure farce because the ANC government is implementing a neo-liberal, right wing and capitalist programme called the National Development Plan: Vision 2030.
The NDP: Vision 2030 is the official programme of the ANC, adopted in their 53rd National Conference, and any talk of the Freedom Charter is meant to mislead the people of South Africa. What we know about the Freedom Charter, which the ANC government will never implement are the following:
- The Freedom Charter says ‘the mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industries shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole”, and this has been correctly understood in the former liberation movement as Nationalisation of Mines. What we know is that the ANC will never nationalise Mines because majority of its senior leaders are privately benefitting from privately owned Mines.
- The Freedom Charter says ‘all other trade and industry shall be controlled to assist the wellbeing of the people”. What we know is that the ANC is committed to free-market capitalism and will never control trade for the benefit of the people.
- The Freedom Charter says ‘land shall be shared amongst those who work it’. What we know as a fact is that the ANC has dismally failed to redistribute land and will continue to buy land from those who stole it, despite their admission that the willing-buyer willing-seller approach to land redistribution has dismally failed.
- The Freedom Charter says, “all shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose”. What we know is that the ANC government will never allow even landless people to occupy land wherever they choose, but will instead send murderous police to evict people from the land as they did in Lenasia and Lwandle.
- The Freedom Charter says ‘the doors of learning and culture shall be opened”. What we know is that the ANC government has dismally failed to provide free quality education as post secondary level and have not built adequate capacity to absorb the entirety of students who exit the secondary schooling level.
- The Freedom Charter says, “slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, creches and social centres”. What we know is that 21 years since the first inclusive elections with the ANC in power, more than 15% of the South African population lives in slums and informal settlements.
These key tenets of the Freedom Charter and many others are not contained in the National Development Plan, which is the official government plan of the ANC and the right wing political parties in Parliament.
The EFF speaks about the Freedom Charter because our Founding Manifesto says,
“The EFF draws inspiration from the radical, working class interpretation of the Freedom Charter, because, since its adoption in 1955, there have been various meanings given to the Freedom Charter. The EFF’s interpretation of the Freedom Charter is one which says South Africa indeed belongs to all who live in it, and ownership of South Africa’s economic resources and access to opportunities should reflect that indeed South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
The EFF’s interpretation of the Freedom Charter is that which says the transfer of mineral wealth beneath the soil, monopoly industries and banks means nationalisation of mines, banks and monopoly industries”.
The rhetorical commitment to the Freedom Charter by Mr. Zuma is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the genuinely radical economic freedom programme and struggle of the EFF. This is done because the ANC has run out of ideas. It is evidently clear that with age and many years of existence, the ANC is not maturing, but suffering from memory loss and lack of creativity and innovation. The ANC cannot think and always rely of imitating even Kwaito musicians hence their slogan of ANC Kuze Kose and ANC Y’tjukutja because they take ideas of Kwaito musicians, not vice versa. They even tried to imitate the runaway success of the EFF’s red beret and overalls.
The EFF remains the only hope for the people of South Africa and will inspire many generations to come because when we take over political power, we will capture the State, and redistribute the economy for the benefit of all. Once again, the EFF has proven that we are the vanguard of the working class and revolutionary ideas in South African society and those who copy us should do so with care because we will always expose fake imitatations that are not genuine.
ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS
LEHLOHONOLO FANA MOKOENA (Acting National Spokesperson)
Cell Number: +27817244799
Website: http://www.effighters.org.za/
Email: communications@effighters.org.za
Facebook: Fana L Mokoena || Twitter: @EconFreedomZA and @fanamokoena
African Water Facility to help tackle food insecurity, flooding and droughts in Uganda and South Sudan.

09/01/2015
The African Water Facility (AWF) announced on January 9, 2015 that it has offered a €1.97 million grant to the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP) to increase water availability for multiple purposes in the Nyimur region of Uganda and South Sudan. The grant will support the improvement of irrigated agriculture and food production, fisheries, electricity generation and sanitation as well as the prevention of flooding and droughts in the region.
The AWF grant will help prepare the construction of a multipurpose dam and a reservoir on the Nyimur River through feasibility studies, engineering design studies and environmental and social impact assessments. The planned infrastructure investment will allow approximately 5,105 ha of land to be irrigated through a community irrigation scheme, and enable 350 kW of electricity to be produced from a small hydropower facility. The project will directly benefit approximately 12,000 people.
The AWF will also support the mobilization of funds from donors through project preparation and fundraising activities such as donors’ roundtables.
“The project will improve the livelihoods of surrounding communities by reducing the ravages of flooding and droughts, as well as foster food and energy security and in the long run help consolidate peace and security in this fragile region” said AWF coordinator Akissa Bahri.
The Nyimur River runs through both South Sudan and Northern Uganda, an area plagued by conflict from the late 1980’s until 2004. Although the guns have generally fallen silent, the region is still considered fragile. The unrest in the region resulted in very low levels of investment and development of basic services or infrastructure. Agricultural production declined drastically during the period of turmoil and the current level of food insecurity is significant: in low yield seasons, 33% of the population in the area is dependent on food aid.
British High Commission Press Statement: British charity, UK Police Aid Convoys, gifts Tanzania medical equipment (09.01.2015)
Press Release No. 15/02: IMF Executive Board Completes First PSI Review for Tanzania

January 7, 2015
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund completed today the first review of Tanzania’s economic performance under the program supported by the Policy Support Instrument (PSI)1 and granted a waiver for the non-observance of the continuous assessment criterion on the non-accumulation of external arrears.
The PSI for Tanzania was approved by the Executive Board on July 16, 2014 (see Press Release No. 14/350). Tanzania’s program under the PSI supports the authorities’ medium-term objectives. These include: the maintenance of macroeconomic stability, the preservation of debt sustainability, and the promotion of more equitable growth and job creation.
Following the Board discussion, Mr. Min Zhu, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, made the following statement:
“Macroeconomic developments in Tanzania remain favorable. Economic growth was strong during the first half of 2014 and is expected to remain close to 7 percent. Inflation remains in mid-single digits, consistent with the authorities’ target of 5 percent by June 2015.“
Performance under the Policy Support Instrument was satisfactory through June, but has deteriorated since and risks have risen, stemming from delays in disbursements of donor assistance and external nonconcessional borrowing, and shortfalls in domestic revenues. Against this backdrop, the authorities’ commitment to keep the program on track is welcome, and they have reaffirmed their intention to meet the budget deficit target and will review revenues and adjust expenditures accordingly in the context of the mid-year budget review. It will be critical to the business environment to address the governance issues raised by the IPTL case, which would also unlock donor assistance.
“It will be important to strengthen the coordination between fiscal and monetary policies. The conversion of monetary policy instruments to financing papers facilitated the front-loading of capital expenditures but complicated monetary policy implementation. It will be more effective and less disruptive to accommodate the planned expenditure through better planning to align spending and financing.“
“The issue of domestic arrears, which continued to accumulate, needs to be addressed comprehensively and forcefully. Work to verify and eventually clear arrears to suppliers already incurred is ongoing. The authorities’ plan to prevent future arrears accumulation is appropriately ambitious and will require sustained implementation. Addressing arrears to pension funds and making government relations with them more transparent is also critical to their sustainability.”
1 The PSI is an instrument of the IMF designed for countries that do not need balance of payments financial support. The PSI helps countries design effective economic programs that, once approved by the IMF’s Executive Board, signal to donors, multilateral development banks, and markets the Fund’s endorsement of a member’s policies (seehttp://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/psi.htm). Details on Tanzania’s PSI program are available at www.imf.org/tanzania.













