UN Peacebuilding Fund:
Bridging the Gap Between Conflict and Recovery

The United Nations Peacebuilding Fund was launched on 11 October 2006 in response to the growing global demand for sustained support to countries emerging from conflict. The role of the Peacebuilding Fund is to establish a crucial bridge between conflict and recovery at a time when other funding mechanisms may not yet be available. In helping to address the most immediate out of the multiple challenges facing post-conflict countries, the PBF seeks to minimize the risk of a relapse into conflict. The Peacebuilding Fund supports countries before the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), but is also available to countries in similar circumstances as designated by the Secretary-General, as well as for individual projects funded under the PBF Emergency Window. With an initial funding target set at US$ 250 million, the Peacebuilding Fund aims at stabilising and strengthening government institutions thereby enhancing their capacity to sustain the peace process.

The Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), as stated in its Terms of Reference, aims to address countries’ immediate needs as they emerge from conflicts. The PBF thus focuses on providing support during the very early stages of a peacebuilding process, as well as addressing any gaps in the process, in four main areas:

• Activities in support of the implementation of peace agreements;
• Activities in support of efforts by the country to build and strengthen capacities which promote coexistence and the peaceful resolution of conflict;
• Establishment or re-establishment of essential administrative services and related human and technical capacities; and
• Critical interventions designed to respond to imminent threats to the peacebuilding process.

* The PBF allocation to Nepal is channeled through the UN Peace Fund for Nepal.