CAIRO – Ambassador Osama Abdel-Khaleq, Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and current head of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), underlined on Thursday the importance of activating multilateral action mechanism to buttress international solidarity against Covid-19 and guarantee equitable access to vaccines for all countries.
Abdel Khaleq made the remarks while co-chairing the annual meeting of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and the Economic and Social Council that was dedicated to “Promoting Peace and Sustainable Development in the Context of Recovery from Covid‑19” with the participation of Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and representatives of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and youths.
The diplomat underlined the important timing of the meeting in light of continued suffering of world countries from the repercussions of the pandemic.
He reiterated the commitment of Egypt, as a co-chair of the current session of the committee, to foster co-operation with the economic council to figure out suitable solutions to achieve recovery.
He stressed the need to switch from a response-oriented system to a nationally led prevention system that will require the integration of crisis preparedness into national policies and systems.
Financing remains the most critical challenge facing the United Nations in peacebuilding and achieving development goals, he said, stressing the need to deepen partnerships with all relevant stakeholders including regional and subregional organisations as well as financial and development institutions.
Underscoring the need for enhanced collaboration between the Economic and Social Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, he called for the designation of an informal coordinator for the relations between the two.
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