Such intervention not only might forestall conflicts but also may restore the world’s crumbling faith in international institutions like the U.N., Eliasson said.  Preventive measures also could help strengthen local and national institutions and boost economic development, he said.

The U.N. panel is developing a 'responsibility index' that will track increases in per capita income in wealthy countries and match them against their charitable contributions. – Kristalina Georgieva, European Commission Vice President for Budget and Human Resources.

“If there’s a lack of belief in institutions and if we don’t deliver peace, development and human rights, where do people go in frustration?” Eliasson said in the Nov. 3 discussion, which highlighted this year’s 70th anniversary of the U.N. and was part of a USIP series on the intersection of violent conflict and state fragility—when governments are weak or illegitimate and leave their societies vulnerable to shocks or unable to cope peacefully with rising tensions.

People affected by conflict often turn to “religious sects, national and local identities, and then they divide with the help of extremist groups,” leading to a spiral of violence that compounds the rifts, Eliasson said. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the Human Rights up Front Initiative in December 2013, proposing what a U.N. statement called “a cultural change within the U.N. system, so that human rights and the protection of civilians are seen as a system-wide, core responsibility.”

“It encourages staff to take a principled stance and to act with moral courage to prevent serious and large-scale violations,” according to the statement. It also “pledges Headquarters support for those who do so.”

Eliasson said that means “instead of waking up to a crisis at the humanitarian-crisis stage or peacekeeping stage, when houses are burning and people are dying, why don’t we instead act on human rights violations,” because they’re “the first vibrations on the ground that things will go wrong.”

The global body is working with member states to overcome objections that such early intervention by the U.N. would amount to interference in internal affairs. He cited  the successful example of Nigeria, where he said the U.N.’s role after the country’s elections in April led to a peaceful transfer of power to President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Sustainable Development Goals

The U.N., created in the aftermath of World War II to prevent violent conflict, also has drawn up a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in September during the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly and intended to follow on from the Millennium Development Goals for the next 15 years, to advance peace and end poverty. One of the new targets, Goal 16, calls for promoting “peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, the provision of access to justice for all and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.”

Those aiming to reach those goals are hampered by the spread of violence and conflict in an arc stretching across Africa and the Middle East that has led to millions of people fleeing their homes and seeking shelter in fragile states nearby and as far away as Europe.

“There’s a heightened sense of conflict,” USIP President Nancy Lindborg said at the event. “And we are struggling as a globe with 60 million people who are displaced out of their homes by violent conflict.”

Violence contributes to “a more fragile world,” despite the vast global wealth and improvements in medicine that enable humans to live as long as 120 years of age, said Kristalina Georgieva, vice president for budget and human resources at the European Commission, who spoke at the USIP event.

The combination of climate change, violent extremism and population growth has left as many as 120 million men, women and children dependent “on our goodwill, and on U.N. capabilities for their very survival,” said Georgieva, who also serves as the co-chair of the U.N. High-Level Panel on Humanitarian Financing. The board is charged with finding ways to raise additional funds to meet the needs of displaced people.

That 120 million people, which includes the 60 million displaced by violent conflict, would rank as the 11th largest country in the world, she said.  

Although the world spent $25 billion last year on aiding displaced people – a 12-fold increase from $2 billion in 2000 – that amount still fell short of meeting the needs, Georgieva said. “Never before has our generosity been so insufficient.”

Previewing Recommendations

The High-Level Panel is looking for new ways to generate money and resources, including examining the role of the private sector and drawing on previously untapped resources such as Islamic financing, she said.

While 90 percent of the world’s people affected by war and violence come from Islamic societies, almost three-fourths of the financial aid for the displaced populations continues to come from traditional funders such as the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada, Georgieva said. Meanwhile, she said, Islamic charities throughout the world raised about $600 billion last year from zakat – a mandatory contribution demanded from all devout Muslims. “If you take 1 percent of zakat and channel it to the people in those countries, it’ll bring the gap down by half,” she said. “And it’s possible.”

The U.N. panel is developing a “responsibility index” that will track increases in per capita income in wealthy countries and match them against their charitable contributions, Georgieva said in previewing some of the panel’s recommendations.

“There are many wealthy, old economies that will find themselves embarrassed by this graph,” she said. The role of private corporations can extend beyond charity to include contributions in developing skills, creating jobs, bringing innovation and aiding with logistics, Georgieva said.

As for the broader Sustainable Development Goals, national governments must be strong, because the needed changes won’t happen “without institutions and rule of law,” she said.

It will be up to the member countries and their governments to translate the aims into action, Eliasson said.

“Yes the U.N. has done this,” he said. “But it has to be permeating, and no one escapes responsibility.”