Under-Secretary-General Rosemary A. DiCarlo's
Opening Remarks at the 2025 CSO-UN Dialogue on Peacebuilding
Geneva, 10 December 2025
Distinguished civil society representatives, excellencies, colleagues,
It is a pleasure to address you today at this third annual CSO-UN Dialogue on Peacebuilding. I am grateful to see so many of you here today – peacebuilders, youth and women’s networks, community leaders and human rights defenders from across the globe.
Your presence reminds us that peacebuilding is at its core, a people-centered endeavor. Institutions matter, but it is people and communities who insist every day that peace is possible.
We meet at a moment of profound global turbulence. Geopolitical tensions continue to rise, adding to the already considerable strain on the tools for safeguarding international peace and security.
Armed conflicts have surged to unprecedented levels, with one in eight people regularly exposed to violent conflict. Climate change, environmental degradation, and competition over natural resources continue to exacerbate insecurity and stoke instability.
Even in places spared by war, polarization, manipulation of information and declining trust in institutions erode the social contract and threaten stability. All these factors make prevention harder and peace more fragile, while threatening sustainable development.
In short, we are facing complex, interconnected challenges. None of us – Member States, regional organizations, the UN, or civil society –can address them alone. This is why the theme of this Dialogue, focused on comprehensive, multi-level action, is so timely and relevant. And among the multiple actors that must come together to meet this defining moment, you play a critical role.
As the Secretary-General underscores in his policy brief on A New Agenda for Peace, civil society is one of the UN’s most valued partners.
You are often the first to detect risks, the first to respond to emerging tensions, and the first to support communities in crisis. You are indispensable in mediating disputes, documenting violations, rebuilding trust and holding institutions accountable.
We are proud to support this work, including through the Peacebuilding Fund. And as the following examples demonstrate, the impact of your work is undeniable:
- In Niger, local NGO Adkoul supported 60 mediators—half of them young women—in Tahoua, who helped resolve a decade-long conflict between two Tassara communities. Across the communes, they facilitated intergenerational dialogues on gender, youth, peace and Islam, resulting in a framework for youth participation in local decision-making.
- In Sri Lanka, civil society has revived regional and issue-based dialogue through a new common platform and launched joint initiatives on securing land rights. They provide psychosocial support for victims of violence, and address gender-based violence in their communities.
- In Burundi, a nationwide network of women mediators has trained more than 500 women in mediation, peacebuilding and trauma healing. They addressed over 34,000 conflicts—from family and land disputes to gender-based violence and political tensions—resolving more than 60% and referring the rest to local authorities. Such impact is the women, peace and security agenda in action.
This ongoing, often unseen, work by civil society is unfolding as an overwhelming majority of Member States at the global level reaffirms prevention and peacebuilding as collective priorities.
The Pact for the Future adopted last year reflects this renewed Member State focus, placing people at the center of peace efforts and emphasizing the importance of inclusive governance, civic space and the meaningful participation of women, youth, and broader civil society. It recognizes that peace is an endeavor that needs to engage the whole of society.
The twin resolutions from the recently concluded 2025 UN Peacebuilding Architecture Review reaffirm prevention as a highly cost-effective investment and emphasize that it must be nationally led and owned. The resolutions also stress the importance of partnerships with civil society organizations, especially local peacebuilders, grassroot organizations, and women- and youth-led organizations.
Ladies and gentlemen,
These commitments create momentum. But momentum only matters if it translates into better outcomes for communities.
This is where your insight, advocacy and leadership remain essential. The CSO-UN Dialogue should not be just another meeting – it should continue to reinforce an infrastructure for cooperation between global decision-making and local realities.
We should use this platform to elevate your insights into global policy spaces.
The Peacebuilding Commission is meeting during this Dialogue. It is an immediate opportunity to turn your recommendations into inputs for Member States as they consider how the recent Peacebuilding Architecture Review can lead to more effective implementation and impact.
My hope for this Dialogue is that we leave Geneva with a clear sense of how to keep this platform dynamic and relevant: how we maintain the network, how we ensure follow up and how we make our work for peace ever more consequential.
Thank you.