Washington, DC, 11 January 2023 – United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support Elizabeth Spehar wrapped up a three-day visit to Washington, DC, today. During her visit, she exchanged views with the United States Government, the World Bank and civil society, on opportunities for prevention and peacebuilding across the globe.
At the White House, Ms. Spehar met with members of the National Security Council, including: Pierce Davis, Director for Multilateral Affairs; Andrea Freeman; Director for Fragility and Atrocity Response; Divya Kholsa, Director for Global Development; and Matthew Petit, Director for African Affairs.
At the State Department, Ms. Spehar met with Ambassador Michele J. Sison, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs. She also discussed partnership approaches under the US Fragility Act with Michael Heath, Deputy Assistant Secretary for West Africa and the Sahel. In addition, while at the State Department, she participated in a roundtable meeting with Anne Witkowsky, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations; James Saenz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counternarcotics and Stabilization Policy; and Robert Jenkins, Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization at USAID. In that gathering, participants explored opportunities to enhance complementarities in prevention and peacebuilding and galvanize coherent, multi-stakeholder approaches with the 缅北禁地system.
In a fruitful meeting on Capitol Hill, Ms. Spehar briefed Congressional staff – from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Committee on Foreign Affairs – on the work of her office. Meanwhile, she had multiple engagements at the World Bank, including with Victoria Kwakwa, Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Ousmane Diagana, Vice President for Western and Central Africa. They discussed how to enhance UN-World Bank collaboration on peacebuilding.
Showing her commitment to engaging with civil society, Ms. Spehar’s first meeting on this trip was with civil society leaders at a meeting hosted by Search for Common Ground, the world's largest dedicated peacebuilding NGO.
