Over 13 million people in 191 countries work for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the largest humanitarian “volunteer army” in the world. The IFRC reaches 160 million people each year through its 192-member National Societies. In 2019, IFRC celebrated 100 years of service, advocating for peace in the most conflict-affected regions of the world, before, during and after disasters.

Faced with growing challenges ahead – protracted conflict, global warming and migration – IFRC is now seeking to increase the long-term ability of thousands of beneficiaries to organize and overcome future crises. In order to have a sustainable impact, local resources must be put at the center of the strategy – if communities are more resilient, humanitarian needs will be less important.

L' World Health Organization (WHO) works with 194 Member States, across six regions of the world and has over 150 offices committed to achieve better health for everyone. WHO has strived to combat diseases around the world, supporting countries as they coordinate efforts of governments and partners to attain health objectives and support national health policies and strategies.

On 1 August 2018, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo notified WHO of a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in North Kivu Province, in the eastern part of the country.

The world is currently at its least peaceful since the end of the cold war – in the first half of the 2010s more armed conflicts started than ended. This has resulted in over 70 million people being forcibly displaced, which is the highest number on record, surpassing post-World War II numbers. Moreover, 90% of the active conflicts during 2000s were in countries that had already experienced a civil war. Therefore, there is an inability of countries to resolve their own conflict and the existing toolbox of the international community’s peace and security architecture is ineffective at addressing these peace and conflict challenges.

Globally, there are 52 on-going conflicts. At this critical time, with intense conflicts such as Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Libya and across the Sahel requiring enormous resources and humanitarian aid, effective peace processes are more important than ever.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children's lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfil their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. In 2016, 535 million children – nearly a quarter of the world’s children – lived in countries affected by armed conflict, violence, and/or protracted crisis.

UNICEF recognizes that lasting contributions towards children’s rights requires addressing root causes of fragility, conflict and violence rather than merely responding to their consequences. To ensure that UNICEF investments and results are sustained in these contexts, it is imperative to move beyond service provision and humanitarian response and strategically invest in peacebuilding and sustaining peace interventions – including for violence and conflict prevention. As a result, UNICEF has committed to playing a more active role in the UN’s work on sustaining peace.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. As recent news from Yemen, the Horn of Africa, and other contexts has shown, eradicating hunger remains a preeminent challenge of our time. It is also illustrative that the majority of severe hunger crises occur in situations affected by violent conflict. It is now widely recognized that none of the Sustainable Development Goals, including the eradication of hunger, can be achieved without finding better ways to address and prevent violent conflict through joint efforts of national stakeholders and the international community.

In this vein, FAO has been developing a corporate framework outlining and defining how it intends to contribute to sustaining peace through its interventions. FAO has established a body of work and tools over the years for addressing conflicts related to their immediate areas of engagement, including natural resource management, land tenure and forestry, amongst others. It is now seeking to take these efforts and practices a step further by more systematically incorporating conflict analyses and conflict-sensitive approaches in its work.