UN adviser says community dialogue key to building trust at WUF13

Dialogue between communities plays an important role in strengthening security and building trust, Antonio Sampaio, adviser at the UN Climate Security Mechanism (CSM), has stated at the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku.

He also highlighted the importance of strengthening institutional protection and security bodies, improving transparency, and combating corruption as key priorities, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

Sampayo said environmental peacebuilding can also be advanced through the joint management of scarce resources, citing water as an example.

“Another important area of environmental peacebuilding is the use of resource management as a means of building trust and cooperation between communities,” he stressed, noting, for example, that if two communities are competing for a scarce water source, “they can be encouraged to jointly build a water distribution system.”

He added that such initiatives, though simple in concept, are based on the principle of shared management of natural resources.

Sampayo also pointed to dialogue platforms that bring communities together, describing them as a particularly important area of work.

“Together with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and several local organizations, I implemented an initiative in Nairobi called Dialogues for Common Security. This project delivered very successful results,” he said.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov