PARTNERSHIP AND UNITY

Echoing Lajcak's view, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the need to strengthen partnerships around all efforts, and at every stage, from conflict prevention and resolution to peacekeeping, peacebuilding and long-term development.

Key partners include governments, the UN, other international, regional and sub-regional organizations, international financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society, including women's and youth groups, he added.

"Sustaining peace will only be realized through committed, inclusive national ownership that considers the needs of the most marginalized, including women, young people, minorities and people with disabilities," he said.

The UN chief said more countries are experiencing violent conflicts than at any time in nearly three decades, and that record numbers of people are on the move, displaced by violence, war and persecution.

"Inequalities are increasing. Whole regions, countries and communities can find themselves isolated from progress and left behind by growth. These are all indications that we need greater unity and courage, to ease the fears of the people we serve, to set the world on track to a better future, and to lay the foundations of sustainable peace and development," Guterres noted.

POTENTIAL OF YOUTH

Jayathma Wickramanayake, UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, called on member states to increase financing for the peacebuilding work led by youth and see young people as partners in the sustaining peace agenda.

Emphasizing the importance of tapping into the potential and creativity of youth, she noted that 408 million young people are living amid violence and armed conflicts. Greater support must be given to those working on peace and stability in their communities, often with little funding or support, and sometimes under personal threat.

She said two key issues must be immediately addressed: a growing mistrust among youth in political institutions and their exclusion from political and economic life.

Meaningful youth participation contributed to conflict prevention. For too long, young people had been calling on the United Nations to go beyond the immediate needs of war-torn countries by giving more attention to sustaining peace, she said.

"Financing for sustainable peace should be substantially increased, including the youth instrument of the Peacebuilding Fund," she said.

Concluding, she said young people must be seen as partners in peacebuilding, not as a problem to be dealt with, and reminded delegates that a generation is counting on them to make the right decisions.