The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) plays a central role in United Nations efforts to prevent deadly conflict and build sustainable peace around the world.
DPPA monitors and assesses global political developments with an eye to detecting potential crises and devising effective responses. The Department provides support to the Secretary-General and his envoys in their peace initiatives, as well as to UN political missions around the world.
DPPA is also an agile platform for crisis response, capable, with the assent of countries concerned, of rapidly deploying mediators and other peacemaking expertise worldwide and cooperating closely with regional organizations on the frontlines of conflicts.
DPPA provides staff support to the UN Security Council, advises the UN Special Committee on Decolonization on the 17 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories on the UN list through DPPA’s Decolonization Unit and services the Secretariat of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People through its Palestinian Rights Division. The Department also contributes directly to UN efforts to promote peace and prevent conflict by coordinating UN electoral assistance activities through its Electoral Assistance Division.
The Department was established on 1 January following the reform of the United Nations peace and security infrastructure, which brought together the former Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office. DPA and the former Department of Peacekeeping Operations (now the Department of Peace Operations, or DPO) also merged their previously parallel regional divisions to create a single structure to provide more coherent political analysis and strategic advice in the service of prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding after conflict.
Peacebuilding Support Office
The Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) fosters international support for nationally-owned and led peacebuilding efforts. The Office assists the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), manages the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) on behalf of the Secretary-General, and works to enhance system-wide coherence and partnerships with UN and non-UN actors to back building and sustaining peace in relevant countries. PBSO was established in 2005.
The Under-Secretary-General
Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary A. DiCarlo heads DPPA. The Under-Secretary-General manages the department, advises the Secretary-General on matters affecting global peace and security, carries out high-level diplomatic missions and provides guidance to peace envoys and political missions in the field.
Staff Worldwide
In addition to its more than 500 personnel at UN headquarters in New York, DPPA draws from the work of political and peace-building missions under its supervision, which employ about 4,000 national and international staff in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. This field presence enriches DPPA’s political analysis and provides a forward platform for good-offices missions and other preventive initiatives.