ObjectivesFund scope
In the Great Lakes region of Africa, current cross-border peace and security responses are not comprehensive enough to uphold and sustain peace. The Cross-Border Fund pinpoints the most critical gaps and facilitates the design of coherent and integrated national interventions that address the root causes of instability and conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and affected border areas of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.
Efforts to achieve lasting peace in the region have, historically, been made by individual countries. However, border areas are strategic locations where transformation can take place—building community and individual confidence, growing trust, and establishing momentum for the peaceful resolution of conflict.
Strategic and results framework
The Fund promotes a joint United Nations approach towards collective regional action that address the root causes of conflict and instability in the Great Lakes Region. This framework embodies the United Nations’ New Way of Working, and capitalizes on ways different organization can collaborate according to niche areas, increasing the likelihood of delivering on the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to ‘Leave No One Behind’.
The Great Lakes Region Cross-Border Fund is structured along six thematic pillars:
- Sustainable natural resources and land management
- Economic integration, cross-border trade, and food security
- Mobility
- Youth and adolescents
- Gender and sexual and gender-based violence
- Justice and conflict prevention
Fund partners work along multiple pillars to promote cross-border solutions that meet regional and international peace and security commitments.