At a formal meeting of the UN Peacebuilding Commission’s Organizational Committee on 30 January, the Committee elected Ambassador Abulkalam Abdul Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN, as the Chair of the PBC in its sixth session. Ambassador Ranko Vilović of Croatiaas was elected as one of two Vice-Chairs who will serve with Momen through 2012.
H.E. Ambassador Momen Prior to serving at the United Nations, Ambassador Momen was the Chairman of the Business Administration and Economics Department at the Framingham State University, Massachusetts.. In 2009 he became the Bengali Permanent Representative to the United Nations. During his time at the UN, Momen has held a number of leadership positions, serving as the Vice President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), as well as President of the UNICEF Executive Board. In addition, Momen has acted as the Coordinator for the Non-Aligned Movement Peacebuilding Caucus of the UN.
In his first address as Chair of the PBC, Momen expressed his hopes to advance the UN’s peacebuilding agenda through a “path of inclusion” aimed at improving the Peacebuilding Commission’s coordination, as well as the PBC’s relationship with the international community. Looking forward, the Chair is gearing up to deal with the specific tasks of “employment generation, infrastructure development and the management of natural resources”. He hopes to do this by focusing the Commission’s work on the more broad themes of “national ownership, local capacity-building and the gender dimension”.
Outgoing Chair's Remarks
During the course of the meeting, the PBC’s Organizational Committee also approved the “roadmap of actions for 2012” proposed by outgoing Commission Chair, Ambassador Eugène-Richard Gasana of Rwanda. Major elements of the roadmap include "enhancing [the PBC's] impact in the field and strengthening its relationship with key actors at the Headquarters...[and a]... need to place particular emphasis on improving the effectiveness of the configurations." Gasana stressed the PBC’s responsibility and commitment to states emerging from conflict. Further, he highlighted the potential the Commission has in redefining the “Organization’s role in post-conflict peacebuilding and reconstruction”. To reach its full potential, however, Gasana states that the Peacebuilding Commission needs to continue to “refine” its work with both the PBC agenda countries and its various partners. Finally, the outgoing Chair stressed the need to further develop the PBC’s rules and procedures; something that would help further develop the PBC in the coming year.
