Poverty, Underdevelopment, and Conflict: Implications for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security
Expected Council Action
As the signature event of its presidency, Guyana is planning to hold a high-level open debate on “Poverty, Underdevelopment, and Conflict: Implications for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security”. Invited briefers include Secretary-General António Guterres, an official from the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and an African Union (AU) Commission official. President Mohamed Irfaan Ali of Guyana is expected to chair the meeting.
A presidential statement is a possible outcome.
Background and Key Recent Developments
The peace, security and development nexus has been a recurring theme in the work of the UN, including the Security Council, since the 1990s. As early as January 1992, the Council held a meeting at the heads of state and government level that resulted in a statement in which members recognised that “lasting peace and stability require effective international cooperation for the eradication of poverty and the promotion of a better life for all in larger freedom”. Over time—and particularly since the adoption of resolution 2282 in April 2016, which reframed peacebuilding as a proactive, inclusive, and integrated process aimed at preventing conflict—the Council has moved towards a more comprehensive approach to conflict prevention and peacebuilding that recognises the importance of addressing structural issues (that is, taking action to target underlying causes of conflict such as socioeconomic inequality, ethnic discrimination and the lack of participatory politics).
In the past decade, several Council presidents have initiated signature events that have highlighted how limited economic progress—especially when combined with inequality, resource scarcity, and political instability—can heighten the risk of violent conflict. These meetings have also explored how conflict disrupts development efforts.
Among others, these have included:
- An open debate initiated by China in November 2023 on promoting sustainable peace through common development.
- A high-level open debate convened by Mozambique in March 2023 on “Peace and security in Africa: the impact of development policies in the implementation of the Silencing the Guns initiative”.
- An open debate on “Peace and Security in Africa: capacity-building for sustaining peace” in August 2022 at China’s initiative.
- A ministerial-level open debate on “Security, Development, and the Root Causes of Conflict” convened by the UK in November 2015.
Over the years, several Council outcomes (resolutions and presidential statements) have also emphasised the interlinkages among peace, security, and development. This theme was highlighted, for example, in the presidential statements adopted on “Peace consolidation in West Africa” in May 2024 and on the “Central African region” in November 2024. It has also been a recurring aspect of the Council’s thematic products on conflict prevention and peacebuilding and sustaining peace, such as resolution 2282 in April 2016 and resolution 1625 on conflict prevention in September 2005, both of which recognise that peace, security and development are “mutually reinforcing”.
In August 2024, Sierra Leone hosted an open debate on “A New Agenda for Peace–Addressing Global, Regional and National Aspects of Conflict Prevention” in August 2024. The meeting aimed to facilitate a broad reflection on A New Agenda for Peace (NAfP)—one of the policy briefs produced by Secretary-General António Guterres in July 2023 for member states’ consideration in preparation for the UN’s Summit of the Future in September 2024—and how it can help promote conflict prevention at the national, regional and global levels. A common thread of the meeting was the call for comprehensive strategies to address the root causes of conflict, with numerous speakers drawing attention to the intrinsic link between sustainable development and lasting peace.
One of the NAfP’s innovations is the Secretary-General’s proposal that UN member states develop national prevention strategies. According to the NAfP, national prevention initiatives should entail “approaches grounded in sustainable development” and be “multidimensional, people-centred and inclusive of all the different components of society”. The NAfP recommends that the Peacebuilding Commission create a mechanism to mobilise political and financial support for national and regional prevention strategies of states that are interested in receiving international assistance for developing and implementing their strategies.
The Summit of the Future culminated in the adoption by member states of the “Pact for the Future”, a document agreed through intergovernmental negotiations that is meant to adapt international cooperation and institutions to today’s realities and the challenges of the future. In Chapter II of the Pact, which focuses on international peace and security, member states recognise “interdependence of international peace and security, sustainable development and human rights”. They further call for “accelerating investment in and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals” and helping states, upon their request, to build national capacity “to promote, develop and implement their nationally owned prevention efforts and address the root causes of violence and conflict in their countries”.
Key Issues and Options
A key issue for the Council is to enhance its understanding of the ways in which poverty, underdevelopment, and other root causes of conflict can be more effectively tackled.
Another key issue is how to establish more systematic and strategic partnerships with other parts of the UN system (such as the General Assembly, ECOSOC, and relevant funds, programs and agencies), international financial institutions, and regional and sub-regional organisations to support the UN’s conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts.
One option is to pursue a presidential statement that focuses on improving the UN’s efforts to address the linkages between underdevelopment and conflict.
Another option would be for Guyana, as the initiator of the open debate, to produce a chair’s summary that captures the key themes of the meeting and to circulate the summary as a public document.
Also an option would be for the Council to hold an informal interactive dialogue to explore synergies with other parts of the UN system, the international financial institutions, and regional and sub-regional organisations in pursuing efforts to promote sustainable development and build resilience to conflict risk factors in countries on the Council’s agenda that are emerging from conflict.
During the debate, Council members could also advocate for a more consistent role for the PBC in supporting the peacebuilding dimensions of mission mandates from formation to drawdown in a way that underscores the linkages between the review of the Peacebuilding Architecture currently underway and the upcoming review of UN peace operations.
Council and Wider Dynamics
There is widespread recognition in the Security Council that adverse socioeconomic conditions can heighten the risk of conflict, with many members frequently citing the need to address poverty and underdevelopment as key elements of effective conflict prevention strategies. This was a notable theme, for example, in the Council’s March 2024 open debate on “Promoting conflict prevention—empowering all actors including women and youth” held at Japan’s initiative. At the debate, several Council members, including China, Guyana, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia, cited the need to address poverty as a means of preventing conflict. In this regard, China, a long-time proponent of the need to address the root causes of conflict, stated, “Experience and lessons learned both show that resolving development issues, such as poverty, unemployment and income inequality, as a priority can help to prevent and respond to conflicts at their roots.”
One challenge, however, is that there are different views about what the structural causes of conflict are and what the Council’s role in addressing them should be. While some members believe that issues such as climate change, human rights, and gender inequality should be discussed by the Council, others do not believe that such factors are within the Council’s mandate and maintain that they should be handled by other parts of the UN system. More broadly, the Security Council has struggled to engage effectively in conflict prevention, in part because of concerns about interference in states’ internal affairs, a particular impediment to addressing intra-state conflict.
There appears to be rising interest among UN member states in having the PBC become more explicitly involved in prevention, given its mandate to address issues that lie between peace and development and the PBC’s practice of discussing situations only with the consent of the country concerned. Some member states remain hesitant, however, to endorse the PBC as a conflict prevention platform.
| Security Council Resolutions | |
| 21 August 2014S/RES/2171 | This resolution requested the Secretary-General to submit a report to the Council on actions taken to “promote and strengthen conflict prevention tools within the United Nations system” by 31 August 2015. |
| Security Council Presidential Statements | |
| 1 November 2024S/PRST/2024/7 | This statement expressed the Council’s full support for UNOCA. |
| 24 May 2024S/PRST/2024/3 | This presidential statement welcomed the appointment in May 2023 of Special Representative Leonardo Santos Simão; highlighted the importance of addressing the underlying conditions conducive to terrorism; and underscored the importance of the timely, nationally owned transition processes and restoration of constitutional order in concerned regional countries. |
| 31 January 1992S/23500 | This statement underlined the need for all member states to fulfil their obligations in relation to arms control and disarmament, to prevent the proliferation of WMD; to avoid excessive accumulations and transfers of arms; emphasised the importance of ratification and implementation by states of international and regional arms control arrangements; and recognised that the proliferation of WMD constitutes a threat to international peace and security. It also requested the Secretary-General recommend ways to strengthen and make the UN more efficient. |
| Security Council Meeting Records | |
| 21 August 2024S/PV.9710 | This was the meeting record of the Council’s 21 August open debate on “A New Agenda for Peace—addressing global, regional and national aspects of conflict prevention”. |
| 21 August 2024S/PV.9710 (Resumption I) | This was the meeting record of the second half of the Council’s open debate on “A New Agenda for Peace—addressing global, regional and national aspects of conflict prevention”. |
