Remarks by Ms. Rosemary A. DiCarlo
Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs at the Multi-Year Appeal Annual Donor Meeting
New York, 16 June 2026
Excellencies, partners, colleagues,
Thank you for attending today’s meeting and for your support throughout the years.
DPPA operates in some of the most fragile and complex contexts worldwide, working to prevent or resolve violent conflict.
I would like to speak to you today a about how we – with you - are making a difference. And how our impact can be even greater.
As the 2025 Annual Report before you shows, we delivered tangible results in an exceptionally difficult global environment, thanks to investments channeled through the Multi-Year Appeal.
Your contributions are helping sustain our presence in Damascus and enable the Special Envoy’s interaction with Syrian Interim Authorities on constitutional and political issues.
Thanks to donor funding, in Afghanistan, Sudan, and Haiti, our field-based analysis informs decisions by UN leadership and Member States, while our surge deployments respond quickly to emerging risks.
Your support strengthens inclusive electoral processes and expands participation, particularly for women and young people, in countries from Iraq to Malawi.
In Libya, voluntary funding enables UNSMIL to strengthen local governance and advance a Libyan-led political process toward elections and unification of the country.
These examples show how targeted, flexible resources can translate into meaningful political impact.
In a world in turmoil, there is no shortage of situations requiring our attention. Demand for preventive diplomacy, mediation expertise and electoral assistance continues to grow.
And in an environment of heightened global mistrust, it is significant that expectations of the UN, including DPPA, continue to be high around the world.
Two years ago the international community, in the Pact for the Future, committed UN member states to intensify preventive diplomacy and explicitly urged the Secretary-General to actively utilize his "good offices" to peacefully settle international disputes.
And last year, in resolution 2788, the Security Council similarly urged member states to effectively use the UN Charter's mechanisms to do the same.
Now, we live in a time of serious financial constraint.
That means, among other things, that translating the political commitment of UN Member States requires more judiciousness, efficiency and creativity than ever. This is particularly resonant for DPPA.
Over 90 per cent of our regular budget covers posts. Our programmatic work is nearly all paid for by voluntary funding.
This affords us the flexibility to act quickly to help nurture a nascent dialogue or provide expertise to assist parties in overcoming particularly difficult issues.
Practically all our electoral assistance is financed by the Multi-Year Appeal, as is all our work on innovation, women, peace and security and the impact of climate change.
The appointment of the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the Middle East this year, Jean Arnault, is a telling example.
Extrabudgetary funding made it possible for the Envoy to deploy immediately to the region, including Iran, to conduct regional consultations and explore the feasibility of a mediation process.
The envoy’s missions and many other MYA-funded activities were possible thanks to the steps we took to manage a substantial drop in voluntary contributions.
Last year, our Appeal was only 50 per cent funded. We drew down reserves and cut activities, even as the number and complexity of crises continued to rise.
The $44 million target for 2026 remains unchanged, but a decline in funding for the third consecutive year has had tangible consequences.
We were compelled to reduce funding for electoral assistance by 50 per cent and scale back our mediation capacity, including reducing the size of the Standby Team of mediators.
The funding shortfall has also constrained our preventive work and limited our ability to engage in early warning efforts.
As a result, resources have increasingly been redirected from prevention towards crisis management, as we grapple with major emergencies in Gaza, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Still, we are maximizing every dollar across four priorities.
First, strengthening diplomacy by bolstering our special political missions, or SPMs, including operations in Colombia, Libya, Yemen, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.
Our regional SPMs drive preventive diplomacy across West Africa and the Sahel, Central Africa, Central Asia, the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa.
We have also supported UN country teams, deploying experts on promoting inclusive dialogue, broader citizen participation and development of credible institutions – all key to long-term stability.
Our liaison presences extend this reach.
In Ukraine, a small office—funded entirely through voluntary contributions—provides essential political reporting and advice.
Second, deploying the full range of our good offices’ tools. The Standby Team of mediation experts deploys roughly 100 times a year in support of peace processes and political dialogue.
Third, electoral assistance remains a cornerstone of DPPA’s efforts to promote resilient and peaceful societies and building trust at a time of shrinking civic space and persistent barriers to participation, especially for women.
Demand remains high and on average we provide electoral assistance to around 50 countries in various contexts per year.
Fourth, supporting policymaking at headquarters.
This work - less visible but just as fundamental - helps us anticipate crises and guide responses worldwide. Last year alone, we supported 117 briefings by envoys and senior officials to the Security Council and General Assembly - one every three days.
Colleagues,
Your sustained financial and political support is indispensable. We face a funding gap of $23 million. Without additional resources, our ability to operate across the four areas I cited is at risk.
The Multi-Year Appeal funds core and non-core capacities, fills critical operational gaps left by the regular budget and enables us to respond rapidly when opportunities arise.
The return on investment in the Multi-Year Appeal is not always immediate, but it is tangible.
Most importantly, it is evident in the support it provides to communities as they work to achieve and sustain peace.
Thank you.
