Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on “The United Nations and Land and Conflict” is endorsed!

Dear Colleagues,

I am very pleased to share with you, that this past Friday, 15 March 2019, the Secretary-General, Mr. António Guterres endorsed the Guidance Note of the Secretary General on "The United Nations and Land and Conflict". This is a milestone in the journey towards a sustained and coherent engagement of the UN System on land and conflict to prevent conflict and sustain peace.

Developed under the leadership of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and UN-Habitat in collaboration with a Core Group of other UN agencies including DESA, DPPA, DPO, FAO, OHCHR, PBSO, UNDP, UNEP, UNHCR and UN-Women, the Guidance Note is significant. For the first time, the UN system has developed a coherent review of its engagement and an approach to address land issues to prevent, mitigate and resolve conflicts.

Ample evidence shows that land is one of the key root causes of conflict and underlying factors hindering recovery and sustainable peace. In many countries, conflict management and resolution are often at the heart of UN and partners’ operations and land is one of the underlying factors that, so far, has not been tackled adequately. The criticality of the land and conflict nexus is only likely to increase in the coming years with the growing pressures of climate change, population growth, food insecurity, migration and urbanization.

Recent UN reform efforts on peacebuilding and peacekeeping have called for more attention to root causes of conflict and integration among the UN pillars of peace and security, development and human rights. The Guidance Note recognizes that land is fundamentally relevant across the three pillars and offers guiding principles and a framework for action to improve the capacity of the United Nations to engage on land along the peace continuum from conflict prevention and resolution to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and long-term development.

The UN system will continue to gradually map and develop the capacities of the UN system to address land and conflict issues, and to include land as part of joint conflict analyses that guide strategy development and programming at country level. There is also a commitment to further engage and support Member States on land and conflict, bilaterally and through their work in the Peacebuilding Commission and the Global Donor Working Group on Land. In addition, with the review of SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) on the agenda of the High-Level Political Forum in July 2019, the Guidance Note will help making explicit the link between conflicts, climate risks, natural resources’ management, displacement and land.

The Guidance Note also provides a solid base for the implementation of the new UN-Habitat Strategic Plan, particularly with regards to Domain of Change 4 on Effective urban crises prevention and response. Not only does the Note gives important entry points for programme development at global, regional and country level, but it also paves the way for the establishment of collaboration and partnership with other UN agencies.

UN-Habitat celebrates the UN for embracing this Note and looks forward to working closely with UN agencies, strategic and GLTN partners, and Member States to mobilise resources and increase our joint action on land and conflict at the country, regional and global level.

I would like to sincerely thank the UN-Habitat staff that made this possible, in particular Filiep Decorte who led the inter-agency negotiations in New York, Oumar Sylla and Ombretta Tempra who coordinated the content development, and Christopher Williams and Robert Lewis Lettington who provided support and inputs during the process of developing the Guidance Note.

Best regards,

Maimunah Mohd Sharif

Find the guidance note on the link below

https://habnet.unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/documents/SG%20Guidance...