Statement by the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations, Ambassador Sérgio França Danese, at the Ambassadorial-Level meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) Configuration on Liberia - May 28th, 2025

Madam Chair,

I commend you for convening this timely meeting. I also thank all the briefers for their insightful remarks.

It is very important that we express our interest and support for countries on PBC’s agenda. Brazil warmly commends Liberia on more than two decades of sustained peace, marked by the orderly withdrawal of UNMIL, the successful 2023 general elections and its continuous engagement with the UN Peacebuilding Architecture.

We also welcome the launch of the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development 2025-2029. Its six pillars —economic transformation, infrastructure, rule of law, governance and anti-corruption, environmental sustainability and human-capital development — provide a comprehensive framework that rightly mainstreams peace, reconciliation and gender equality.

Liberian women have long been agents of peace, from the Palava Huts to the Women’s Peace Huts. However, structural barriers still limit their full, meaningful and equal participation in decision-making. Brazil therefore welcomes the Government’s decision to extend the second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security to the end of 2025 and its intention to begin work on a third plan.

This one will continue to focus on prevention, protection, participation, relief and recovery, and accountability. We stand ready to share lessons from Brazil’s own experience in implementing our National Action Plan, especially on inter-ministerial coordination and robust monitoring frameworks.

Removing structural obstacles through investments in girls’ education, gender-responsive budgeting and the reform of customary practices must go hand in hand with empowering young women, including survivors of conflict, and with mobilizing predictable, sustained financing.

Since 2007, the PBF has invested more than one hundred million US dollars in Liberia, with the current

portfolio already prioritizing women’s leadership and land governance — an effort that we encourage Member States and international financial institutions to scale up.

The PBC can add particular value to those efforts in many ways. By amplifying Liberian voices — especially those of civil society organizations such as WONGOSOL — to ensure national ownership of the forthcoming WPS strategy. By serving as a platform for knowledge exchange that matches Liberia’s priorities with relevant experiences from other regions, for example in quotas for women’s political participation and gender-sensitive security-sector reform. And by leveraging its convening power to align bilateral, multilateral and IFI funding and cooperation behind the ARREST pillars and a future third National Action Plan, including through joint programs that link gender equality to economic transformation and environmental sustainability.

Liberia’s story is one of resilience and leadership. By placing women and girls at the center of peacebuilding —and by forging synergies with youth empowerment,

transitional justice, and inclusive development — the country can consolidate the gains it has achieved and unlock new dividends of peace.

We look forward to the Chair’s summary of today’s discussions and to our continued collective engagement in support of Liberia’s aspirations for lasting peace and sustainable development.

Thank you.