UN Secretary-General Briefed on Morocco’s Presidency of UN Peacebuilding Commission

Omar Hilale,Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and President of the UN Peacebuilding Commission,has briefed UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the priorities and the progress of Morocco’s presidency of the 31-member body — an engagement that Maroc Diplomatique described as part of the ongoing high-level dialogue between the Commission’s leadership and the Secretary-General’s office on the consolidation of the multilateral peacebuilding architecture.

Hilale’s presidency,which began with his election by acclamation on January 29,2026,is built around a strategic framework that draws explicitly on the distinctive peacebuilding experiences of different world regions. Africa contributes its field-tested expertise in post-conflict reconstruction; Latin America brings models of transitional justice that have transformed deeply divided societies; Asia provides traditions of community dialogue and consensus-seeking. The integration of these regional approaches is intended to give the Commission’s work greater contextual grounding and implementation credibility.

A central institutional achievement of the Moroccan presidency to date has been the deepening of the partnership between the Peacebuilding Commission and the World Bank. In April,at the margins of the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development in New York,Hilale led a strategic dialogue with the World Bank’s executive directors,proposing a series of concrete coordination mechanisms: systematic sharing of PBC analyses with the Bank,joint preparation of prevention financing mechanisms,co-organization of thematic sessions in June,and networking of the Commission’s country configurations with the Bank’s Fragility,Conflict and Violence teams.

Hilale also used his January inaugural session to announce that the first-ever UN Peacebuilding Week would take place in New York from June 22 to 26 under Morocco’s presidency,under the theme “Partnership for Innovation,Inclusion and Impact.” He invited World Bank Group President Ajay Banga to participate in the event,describing his presence as a signal that both institutions are committed to moving from rhetoric to operational integration in fragile and conflict-affected settings. The week coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Commission’s establishment.

Morocco’s presidency of the Peacebuilding Commission is one of several simultaneous institutional mandates that have elevated Rabat’s UN profile in 2026. Alongside the PBC chairmanship,Morocco is engaged in the Gaza stabilization architecture through its participation in the Board of Peace and the International Stabilization Force,and serves as a consistent contributor to UN peacekeeping operations on the African continent. Hilale’s regular briefings to the Secretary-General,the Security Council,and the General Assembly have established a cadence of substantive UN engagement that reflects Morocco’s deliberate positioning as a constructive and reliable multilateral actor.