Although the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was initially slow to start, over the last year it has begun to provide useful support to peacebuilding in Burundi and Sierra Leone, the first two countries on its agenda. “Consolidating the Peace?”, an external NGO review in June 2007, found that the PBC had made a contribution to improved governance in Burundi by facilitating a government-civil society dialogue on peacebuilding, though it also outlined a number of challenges. I have placed a copy of this report in the Library of both Houses.
Over the next year, for the PBC to continue to be effective, the strategic frameworks for peacebuilding agreed with the Governments of Burundi and Sierra Leone will need to be translated into action on the ground, and a framework will need to be agreed and implemented in Guinea-Bissau, which was referred to the PBC in December 2007. With the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), DFID will continue to play an active role in the PBC.