Three women working in a wide field filled with bright yellow flowers bend and walk among the plants while collecting blossoms into containers under warm natural light.

22-26 June, 2026

ILO at the Peacebuilding week

At the Peacebuilding Week, the ILO is highlighting the role of decent work and social justice as cornerstones to sustaining peace by addressing the root causes of conflict.

Marking two decades of collective efforts, the first-ever Peacebuilding Week celebrates the 20th anniversary of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture Review. Mandated by the General Assembly and Security Council, the week brings together global, national, and local actors to honor peacebuilding achievements and focus on the future of those efforts. Throughout the week, the ILO will highlight how embedding social justice and decent work into sustainable development strategies is essential to preventing conflict and sustaining long lasting peace.

The ILO's engagement in Peacebuilding Week 2026 is grounded in its mandate, informed by a growing body of evidence, and reflected in its contribution to the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus:

A mandate for peace since 1919: Founded as part of the Treaty of Versailles, the ILO's mandate rests on the principle that "universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice."
Providing guidance: The ILO is a standard-setting organization, and through its unique process of bringing together governments, employers, and workers, it establishes international labor standards that serve as a global normative framework. Recommendation No. 205 on Employment and Decent Work for Peace and Resilience offers concrete guidance on generating decent employment, promoting regular labor standards, and fostering social dialogue in response to crises.
ILO and the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus (HDPN): While the ILO is not a humanitarian actor, it plays a critical role in crisis and post-crisis contexts through its Decent Work Agenda. Working closely with governments, employers' and workers' organizations, as well as UN partners and other development actors, the ILO promotes decent work as a key element of sustainable recovery, resilience and social cohesion. Through its contribution to the HDPN, the ILO and its constituents help address underlying socio-economic drivers of fragility and conflict while supporting pathways towards inclusive development and sustaining peace.

Joint events

Replay the event on UNTV

This joint meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) marks the beginning of the first ever Peacebuilding Week. It brings together Member States, United Nations entities, international financial institutions, private sector actors, and civil society representatives to exchange experiences, identify good practices, and promote integrated approaches that link employment generation with peacebuilding outcomes. It will provide an opportunity to highlight how job creation can strengthen social cohesion and resilience in peacebuilding contexts, drawing on evidence from ECOSOC, the PBC, and the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF)-supported initiatives.
Marking the 10th anniversary of the 2016 Joint Statement on Jobs for Peace, this event, co-organized by the ILO, UNDP, the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), and Switzerland, in partnership with the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform and the International Security and Development Center, reviews a decade of policy.

It highlights the shift from job creation to embedding "decent work" in conflict prevention, emphasizing how rights, social dialogue, and social protection address root grievances and sustain peace.

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Co-organized by the ILO, FAO, and the UN Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), this event explores how HDP nexus partnerships deliver local impact.

Showcasing a joint FAO-ILO initiative in Mauritania funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), the session highlights how an Agri-Accelerator model builds agrifood micro-enterprises and green jobs for young people in host and displaced communities. Panellists will examine how this conflict-sensitive model enhances livelihoods and fosters social cohesion, offering scalable insights globally.

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