Operationalizing the Prevention Agenda: Three Recommendations for the Peacebuilding Architecture Review
Over the past 18 months, CIC has facilitated a series of discussions on the United Nations secretary-general’s agenda on preventing violent conflict. This options paper consolidates key recommendations for operationalizing the prevention agenda in light of the 2020 peacebuilding architecture review.

Secretary-General António Guterres makes remarks at the meeting on the 2020 review of the peacebuilding architecture of the Peacebuilding Commission. (UNPhoto/Loey Felipe).
In the paper, Paige Arthur and Céline Monnier present recommendations based on the consultations CIC has held across the UN system, as well as with national actors, to support the operationalization of the 2016 sustaining peace resolutions—with a specific focus on upstream prevention that is nationally led and sovereignty supporting. The paper examines options to increase national demand for prevention approaches, opportunities to build and consolidate the UN system’s expertise on prevention, and options to increase cross-pillar approaches, which are critical to the success of prevention initiatives.
Read the full paper here: Operationalizing the Prevention Agenda: Three Recommendations for the Peacebuilding Architecture Review
More in the prevention series:
- Unpacking Prevention: Member State Perspectives (April 16, 2019)
- Nationally Led Prevention: Practical Examples of Approaches to Risk and Resilience (June 25, 2019)
- The Prevention Agenda: Mapping Out Member States' Concerns (July 2, 2019)
- Creating the Political Space for Prevention: How ECOWAS Supports Nationally Led Strategies (August 29, 2019)
- Breaking the Siloes: Pragmatic National Approaches to Prevention (August 30, 2019)
- Development and Prevention: National Examples of Linkages (August 31, 2019)