The last day of her stay in New York, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusic led a panel discussion on the “Role of Women in Sustainable Development of Post-Conflict Societies”, attended a ministerial meeting of the OSCE as well as a discussion on the strengthening of the UN peacekeeping forces.
The panel, organized by Croatia, discussed the situations when women in post-war circumstances launch an initiative, project or business with or without the state’s support, and how that works. It was attended by Executive Director of UN Women, foreign ministers of Ghana and Rwanda, as well as women from Afghanistan, Croatia, Burma and South Africa who had launched development projects in post-conflict societies. “The conclusions of the discussion will be sent to various agencies dealing with development aid, notably the UN Development Programme and the EU, which has allocated EUR 72 billion for development aid in the last seven years,” Pusic told the press after the meeting.
The minister commented on the topics of a ministerial meeting of the OSCE dedicated to the situation in Ukraine. “Russia is on the one side, the rest of the countries on the other, so a productive discussion on what led to this situation will take a long time. Right now we can talk about how to get out of it, stop the conflict and create a sustainable peace in Ukraine. The current situation is bad for Ukraine, Russia and the EU as well, and not just in terms of energy and economy, but also in regard to security and stability. It also affects one of Europe’s major projects, and that is the normalization of the relations with Russia that has been going on for the past 20 years,” Pusic said.
The discussion on the strengthening and further development of the UN peacekeeping forces, apart from the big donors, underlined the increasingly important role of small donors too, as well as the need for them to participate in the development of the UN peacekeeping forces also.
Grading the opening of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, Pusic said that the role of the UN is more important now than it was two or three decades ago. “This is because numerous conflict, war and extremism flashpoints have sprung up around the world. Although in the last five to ten years the need to solve crisis hotspot around the globe didn’t seem so pressing, but the situation in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq and many other countries has brought the UN to the forefront again,” the minister said.
Watch the panel discussion on the role of women in post-conflict recovery here:
http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/other-meetingsevents/watch/integrated-approach-to-gender-dimension-of-sustainable-development-within-the-context-of-post-conflict-recovery/3808869589001
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