Together is the most important word in the world today

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This week I have the pleasure of attending the annual World Bank Fragility Forum 2016, which convenes around 1,000 people from around the world working in development, Peacebuilding and related fields. The goals of the gathering are to foster improved practice, cooperation and understanding about how international and local institutions can respond to the challenges facing the 21st century.

The forum has a combination of panels, speakers, and workshops. World Bank President Kim opened the morning plenary with a powerful talk about the need for international institutions to break down silos and foster collaboration to respond to the many challenges facing fragile states. He emphasized a few key points. First, that history will judge us harshly if international institutions don't improve how they respond to the refugee and security crisis facing the world. Institutions need to get beyond their narrow mandates and self-interest, and instead of seeking only to sustain their operations work collaboratively for the common good. Second that the World Bank is late to working on Peacebuilding and refugees. The bank bank is taking action to integrate fragility and Peacebuilding into their operations. Third, that unfortunately there is insufficient funding in Overseas Development Aid to meet the challenges facing the world. That there is a need to find innovative ways of funding.

Jan Elliason from the United Nations made a powerful statement, There is no peace without development, there is no development with peace. And there is neither peace or development without respect for human rights. He went on to say, between 2007 and 2014, civil wars have almost tripled. Wars are becoming more complex, intractable. There is a glaring disrespect for international human law. Elliason emphasized three key points. First, we need to get better at preventing conflicts. We have to get better and stopping the flames of conflict before it destroys societies. We need to see conflict not just as the emergency crisis, we must to much more pre-prevention stage and post-conflict. if we don't do strong and sustainable post-conflict work, we get back into the vicious circles of conflict. We must reduce risk, build resilience. We must better link humanitarian relief and development. For protracted conflicts we need multi-year funding, instead of the year to year challenges.

Elliason also said we need to reduce humanitarian needs, that demand exceeds our capacity to respond. There are over 120 million people around the world who need humanitarian assistance. Last year, the UN asked for 16.4 billion in their annual humanitarian appeal, which is underfunded which means people are dying needlessly. We even't give decent lives to people in camps. We must work together. He stated, Together is the most important word in the world today. To sustain peace by achieving the SDGs. We need more funding, better national leadership, and support from international community. We need deeper awareness of the relationship between economic factors and conflict. We also need more predictable responses, effective complimentarity . We should put the problem at he center and then have division of labor.

We are faced with a great credibility test of institutions, both international and national. The sense of shared humanity has to be a priority. Unfortunately in too many countries, are blaming outsiders and refugees for their problems.

The international community has a responsibility to better integrate our responses to peace, security and human rights. None can be achieve without the other. We need to act early and not wait for mass atrocities. When human rights violations start to happen, action should take place much sooner.

Elliason ended by saying there are no easy fixes, to address the grievances, disillusionment, suffered by billions worldwide. The answer lies in pursuing the achievement of the SDGs. We have an opportunity to achieve an enduring legacy for a world of security, dignity and opportunity for all.

Nancy Lindborg, President of the United States Institute of Peace, stressed we don't have a refugee crisis. We have a fragility crisis, we need to look at the root causes and not just focus on the symptoms. She said we have been having the conversation for 20 years. We are now at a critical inflection point. We need to move beyond stove pipes and see how we can address the core challenges in SDG 16. How do we work across all sectors to take a systematic approach to addressing conflict? We need dedicated funds for Peacebuilding and conflict resolution work. Lindborg also put a challenge to the audience, to find more compelling language (and less wonky) to make Peacebuilding and SDG # 16 more accessible to world.

Catherine Panza-Samba, the interim president of the Central African Republic also spoke on the panel. Today the Supreme Court of CAR is set to confirm the election results which is a huge achievement President Panza-Samba. Her reflections on dealing with fragility as she leaves office include the following. When the crisis erupted in CAR she understood her country needed a leader and that only a female leader would be capable of getting rid of the various antagonisms facing the country. Leading the transitional government was not easy, in general, nor as a women.

I had to bring together our populations across the many divides, focused on conflict resolution at the grassroots to engage citizens, and to foster dialogue among the higher level. We had to engage the population to see their concerns were being hard. Our approach meant we had to improve security and also undertake development work. As soon as I came to office I ensured the voices of our citizens was conveyed to the international community. It was essential to mobilize international assistance, but this wouldn't be enough to change the conflict. We also needed to take our destiny in our own hands by working on security, humanitarian aid, rebooting administrative capacity and economic activity. I am convinced dialogue and consultation are essential and made sure dialogue was the key process, including the armed groups, which led to a cease fire agreement.

Several of the speakers mentioned the importance of the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit and to find innovative ways of funding, scaling and working across sectors.

Stay tuned for more news from the Fragility Forum. A number of the events are being livestreamed and questions can be placed online, see https://live.worldbank.org/fragility-forum-2016?cid=ECR_TT_WBLive_EN_EXT