Peace Dividends and Beyond: Contributions of Administrative and Social Services to Peacebuilding

This multi-partner United Nations study seeks to determine whether the peacebuilding fund (PBF) should increase its support to administrative and social services, and if so, to what types of programming. The study reviews current thinking and practices among United Nations agencies, funds and programmes alongside some of their partners in the areas of administrative services – specifically, the administrative (human and technical) capacities required to deliver services – and social services – including the areas of education, health (including water and sanitation) and food security. It proposes a framework for understanding these contributions and begins to identify promising practices and directions. This report identifies ways in which the United Nations can increase support for PBF, in order to strengthen programming in these areas that ultimately support peacebuilding. 

The report argues that there is significant evidence to include administrative and social services in the variety of ways in which organizations directly support peacebuilding. They assert that it the responsibility of the country in question to properly assess what methods are best to support peacebuilding within their borders, and that this decision should be inclusive of the many stakeholders within their nation, especially those who have been marginalized in the past.