The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Quaker United Nations Committee - New York are pleased to announce that Sarah Clarke will be assuming the role of Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) New York Director on November 1.

The Civil Society – UN Prevention Platform, co-facilitated by QUNO, hosted its first virtual event of 2021. This virtual convening, titled Advancing UN Prevention Efforts Across Sectors and Institutions: Collective Pathways for Effective Prevention, centered on the current state of prevention at the United Nations (UN), building on the Platform’s 2020 Discussion Series on Prevention.

The Global Launch of the UN System-wide Community Engagement Guidelines (UNCEG) was an opportunity to present key recommendations from this new tool, which was designed to help strengthen partnerships between the UN and civil society for peacebuilding and sustaining peace. QUNO’s Quaker UN Representative, Megan Schmidt, joined the panel of representatives from the UN and civil society to reflect on ways forward for implementation and practical application of the recommendations.

In recognition of the multifaceted and universal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s joint (virtual) session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) focused on fostering global solidarity and conflict-sensitive responses to the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic on development and peacebuilding efforts.  

As the Secretary-General boldly states in his 2020 report on Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace, “civil society engagement and participation is indispensable to peacebuilding.” Civil society organizations (CSOs), practitioners and individual leaders are often the primary peacebuilding agents, working directly to negotiate and mediate conflict, supporting community reconciliation and rebuilding, and carrying out a range of programs and efforts to strengthen the very social fabric of society.

As co-facilitator of the Civil Society – UN Prevention Platform, QUNO co-hosted a meeting entitled ‘Responding to Socio-economic and Humanitarian Impacts of COVID-19 Through Civil Society - Peace and Development Advisor Partnerships.’ This discussion was jointly hosted with the UN Development Programme (UNDP)-Department of Political Affairs (DPPA) Joint Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention, which currently deploys over 56 Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) around the world. 

QUNO was invited to lead the second session in the Friends World Committee for Consultation’s (FWCC) Quaker Conversations, FWCC’s monthly webinar series with Friends around the world. QUNO New York Director, Andrew Tomlinson, spoke about the topic “Changing the World from the Top Down," and began by recalling the Quaker presence at the United Nations (UN), which dates back to the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco in June, 1945 – almost exactly 75 years ago. When the UN began its work in New York and Geneva, the Quaker offices at the United Nations started right alongside them.

2020 marks a milestone year for the United Nations (UN) as it approaches the fifteenth anniversary of the creation of the Peacebuilding Architecture. Comprised of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) and the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), this combined architecture is dedicated to supporting countries emerging from violent conflict as they seek to identify and implement priorities to build and sustain peace. 

On 22 May, QUNO was very pleased to partner with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in co-hosting a virtual session on “Inclusion: What Have We Learned?” during the 2020 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. The annually held Forum brings together members of the peacebuilding, security, development, and humanitarian communities for interdisciplinary exchanges and dialogue. Aptly, this year’s theme of Sustaining Peace in the Time of COVID-19 fostered lively and productive discussion