NEW YORK, AUGUST 29 – From Salerno, Italy, to the Peacebuilding Fund of the United Nations. UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Sara Pantuliano, Chief Executive of the leading global affairs think tank ODI (Overseas Development Institute, as a member of the seventh Advisory Group of the Peacebuilding Fund. Ms. Pantuliano, who is a British citizen but was born in Italy, will also serve as Chair of the Advisory Group.
Sara is the Editor-in-Chief of Disasters journal, Vice-Chair of the Board of Muslim Aid and a Trustee of The New Humanitarian. She has served on a range of executive and advisory boards, including SOS Sahel, Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre and the UN Association of the UK, and was a member of the Independent Team of Advisers established in 2016 by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to formulate recommendations on the reform of the UN development system. She previously led a high-profile UN response in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, headed the Peacebuilding Unit in UNDP Sudan, acted as an observer at the IGAD Sudan peace process and lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam.
Sara Pantuliano was born in Salerno in 1969. She holds a doctorate in Politics and International Studies from the University of Leeds and has written extensively on conflict, peacebuilding and humanitarian affairs. Her lower degrees are from the Universita’ ‘L’Orientale’ in Naples, Italy.
The Peacebuilding Fund is designed to support programming that needs to be started quickly and flexibly where requested. The Fund is the Organization’s financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries or situations at risk or affected by violent conflict. From 2006 to 2021, the Fund allocated nearly $1.67 billion to 65 recipient countries. In 2021, amid deteriorating political and security conditions, and against the backdrop of the continuing pandemic, the Fund scaled up its commitments and approved a record-high investment of $195 million in 32 countries.
Along with Ms. Pantuliano, the other members of the seventh Advisory Group are: Professor Emmanuel Asante, former Chairperson, National Peace Council, Ghana; Mr. Jingye Cheng, Ambassador (ret.), China; Ms. Kjersti Dale, Director, International Development CARE, Norway; Mr. Mohamed Edrees, Ambassador (ret.), Egypt; Ms. Lise Filiatrault, Ambassador (ret.), Canada; Mr. Macharia Kamau, Principal Secretary, Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenya; Mr. Stéphane Rey, Ambassador-designate of Switzerland to Zimbabwe, Zambia & Malawi, Switzerland; Ms. Marriët Schuurman, Director, Stability and Humanitarian Aid, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands; Ms. Almut Wieland-Karimi, Executive Director, Center for International Peace Operations, Germany. (@OnuItalia)