Excellencies, distinguished colleagues — South-South and Triangular Cooperation has an essential role to play in peacebuilding.

At its core, SSTC offers a pathway for countries to share knowledge, build peer partnerships, and exchange lessons learned. It is grounded in principles that align closely with the values of the Peacebuilding Commission: national ownership, mutual respect and solidarity. Areas like mediation, post-conflict recovery, judicial reform or strengthening local governance, which are each a cornerstone of sustainable peace have greatly benefitted from SSTC.

Our discussions today will benefit from a wealth of insights, including Sierra Leone’s experience in Fragile-to-Fragile Cooperation through the g7+ initiative, and the pivotal role of the Dili Resolution and Freetown Declaration in shaping a new narrative of resilience and peer-led engagement in fragile contexts. I express deep appreciation to Her Excellency Ms. Kenyeh Barlay, the Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Sierra Leone, who is also Chair of the Group of Seven Plus, for joining us online from Freetown. She has kindly taken time out of her busy schedule to tell us about Sierra Leone’s experience and discuss the G7+ model of Fragile-to-Fragile Cooperation.

Another key highlight of our meeting is Colombia’s groundbreaking initiative, “From Colombia to the World.” Through this South-South Cooperation Programme for Peacebuilding, Colombia has shown the transformative potential of learning from lived experience. By sharing lessons learned with countries like the Philippines, Cameroon, the DRC and Nigeria, Colombia is offering technical support and reinforcing solidarity among countries navigating post-conflict transitions. Its “Learning Route” model—focused on disarmament, regional development, financing for peace, and reparations—serves as an inspiring model of practical, scalable SSTC in action. We have the honourable Director-General Eleonora Betancur here with us from Colombia’s Presidential Agency for International Cooperation, who will brief us on this Programme.

The Peacebuilding Commission has a unique comparative advantage to support and promote such initiatives. As a platform, the PBC can facilitate the exchange of best practices, amplify local voices, and help mobilize political and financial support for peacebuilding partnerships, including through South-South and Triangular modalities. In that regard, we are lucky to have Ambassador Florbela Paraíba, President of the Camões Institute in Portugal, joining us online from Lisbon. She and her Institute have extensive experience in Triangular Cooperation and can impart wisdom in that regard.

Let us use today’s meeting to identify replicable models, strengthen synergies between the Peacebuilding Fund and SSTC-focused initiatives, and explore how multilateral support—including through the UN Development System—can help build horizontal networks of cooperation and trust among actors from the Global South.

To enrich our discussion, I am very grateful to Mr. Edmund Yakani for speaking to us from Juba. He is a civil society leader with a wealth of peacebuilding experience and will help us to connect the discussions we have here in New York with the realities on the ground.

I encourage all delegations to engage actively, share insights, and reflect on how we might build upon this momentum with concrete commitments.

Thank you.