Project profile — Building national capacities for conflict prevention

This project supports the United Nations (UN) Development Programme and UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Joint Programme to deploy Peace and Development Advisors (PDAs) to the offices of UN Resident Coordinators working in complex settings. PDAs work with the wider UN system in the host country to provide analytical, advisory, and capacity-development services to national stakeholders, including state and non-state actors. This is to enhance their capacities for dialogue, develop prevention policies and strategies, strengthen national institutions for peace, and help foster the engagement of women and youth. The project seeks to strengthen the UN’s capacities in integrated conflict analysis, conflict-sensitive development, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and preventive diplomacy, and contribute to system-wide learning. Project activities include: (1) providing analytical, advisory, facilitation, coordination, and capacity-development services to national actors to undertake conflict prevention initiatives. They also provide these services to women and women’s organizations to strengthen and create an enabling environment for their meaningful participation and level of influence in conflict prevention. They also assist UN stakeholders in understanding, monitoring, and anticipating conflict drivers and risks, implementing peacebuilding programmes, and undertaking preventive diplomacy actions; (2) strengthening the capacities of national stakeholders in understanding and responding to emerging conflict drivers and multi-dimensional risks on various topics. This includes health, natural resources, migration, climate change, disaster response, social protection, hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, and artificial intelligence; and (3) collaborating with UN and development partners, including international financial institutions, to support national peacebuilding efforts and priorities.

The expected outcome of this project includes enhanced national capacities for conflict prevention and infrastructures for peace and strengthened UN capacities for conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and conflict-sensitive programming.

Results achieved by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) Joint Programme through the support of the Government of Canada and other international donors as of March 2025 include: (1) deployed 119 peace and development advisors, supporting 70 countries across 5 regions; (2) supported 43 countries in developing and strengthening nationally led prevention strategies and policies through capacity building, technical support, and accompaniment. Also, helped build national infrastructures for peace in 33 countries. This included supporting creating a sub-committee on peacebuilding and social cohesion in the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; (3) supported efforts for enhancing women’s participation in prevention and peace efforts in 51 countries, and youth participation in 47 countries. This included bringing 150 women in Venezuela to combat gender-based violence and promote women’s political participation; (4) strengthened impactful and strategic UN Country Team programming by advising on programme design, facilitating inter-agency coordination, and fostering coherence across humanitarian, human rights, peacebuilding, and development efforts. This included developing a UN Bangladesh Hate Speech Action Plan; and (5) ensured continued UN support for peace efforts during UN mission drawdowns by strategically deploying peace and development advisors to Mali and Sudan.