UN Peacebuilding Week: Celebrating 20 years of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture
Statement delivered by Ms. Jillian Ray, Director, Multilateral Peace and Commonwealth, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
25 June 2026
Thank you, Chair,
This year marks two decades of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture.
Twenty years of advancing peace and stability, strengthening partnerships, and championing conflict prevention.
Australia has been proud to support this endeavour from the outset.
In 2015, alongside Angola, Australia co-facilitated the Peacebuilding Architecture Review that gave rise to the Sustaining Peace agenda.
Today, we are a member of the UN Peacebuilding Commission and a leading donor to the Peacebuilding Fund, having tripled our contribution in recent years.
But with conflicts growing in frequency and complexity, we must do more.
I will make three points.
First, we must invest in evidence-based prevention.
This week, Australia launched new Policy Guidance for National Prevention Strategies – a practical, voluntary resource to support Member States invest earlier and work with partners to drive outcomes.
Because prevention and peacebuilding financing remains profoundly underfunded, dwarfed by global military spending and falling drastically short of what is needed.
This must change.
Our Policy Guidance is about closing that financing gap.
To make the case for conflict prevention.
An investment which we know has extraordinary returns.
Second, we must strengthen the UN’s conflict prevention architecture.
The Peacebuilding Commission has a critical role to play.
We must shift from reacting to crises to preventing them.
We must address root causes such as poverty, exclusion, inequality, and climate change.
We must advance the inclusion of women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples.
And we must be clear. Protecting people is central to building and sustaining peace.
As a candidate for the UN Security Council for 2029-30, Australia will focus on both preventing conflict and protecting those affected by it.
We will drive practical initiatives that promote peace, uphold the rules-based order and strengthen accountability.
This is why we worked with partners to launch the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, which renews commitment to protecting those delivering life-saving assistance in conflict zones.
And finally, we must sustain focus on the Indo-Pacific.
A region which has ongoing conflict risks as well as world leading responses.
We will amplify approaches such as the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration and the ASEAN-Australia Joint Leaders’ Statement on Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management.
These are powerful statements of regional resolve that make clear our shared desire for peace and stability.
Australia will continue to champion regional efforts and work with partners to strengthen impact.
Chair,
After twenty years, there is much to be proud of, but much more still to do.
We must invest in prevention if we want peace.
We must act early and support vulnerable and conflict affected states.
Through renewed commitment and collective action, we can move towards lasting peace for the next twenty years and beyond.
Thank you.