IDPS forum calls for greater action to tackle global crisis

International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS) forum warns over threat of terrorism and refugee flow, calling for greater global action

A forum conducted by the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding said acts of violent extremism coupled with mass migration present major challenges to all nations.
Reuters

A forum conducted by the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding said acts of violent extremism coupled with mass migration present major challenges to all nations.

Leaders of an international forum on peace building met in Stockholm on Tuesday to call on global cooperation to tackle the causes of poverty and conflict.

The International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS) meeting is the first international peace forum since the United Nations 193 member-states agreed to 17 global goals to end poverty and promote peace by 2030, last year.

The leaders said that the threat of terrorism and mass refugee flow will grow worse in rich and poor nations without greater global cooperation to tackle the causes of poverty and conflict.

Minister for International Development Cooperation Isabella Lovin called for all nations to boost efforts to tackle the causes of conflict and meet global goals agreed last year to end poverty and inequality by 2030.

Studies show the number of conflicts globally had been stable for the last decade but are now on the rise and 2014 was the most lethal year since the end of the Cold War, she said.

"This is maybe the opportunity to see the world is one and we need to work long-term to help poor people in their countries and to create global security for all of us," she said at the fifth global IDPS meeting.

"The refugees that are coming into Europe right now remind us that the war going on in Syria is not so far away ... and we do have the instruments to try to stop new conflicts erupting."

Risks of violence increased

United Nations Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said the world was at a "critical juncture," facing turmoil and risks from various forms of violence as well as "glaring inequality."

"We see civilians continue to pay the highest price in today's crises ... We have to confront these threats together," said Eliasson, a former Swedish foreign minister.

In 2011, Lovin led a renewed commitment by the IDPS to the so-called New Deal agreed that outlined five peace and state building goals - legitimate politics, security, justice, economic foundations, revenues and services - with locally driven and locally led processes.

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