In the extensive discourse on this topic the focus has remained on how to increase the quantity, predictability and leveraging of potential funding, rather than on how to improve the quality of this funding, including the consideration of who receives financial resources.II

Pooled funding mechanisms, including Multi-Partner Trust Funds (MPTF) can be catalytic in funding local peacebuilders by increasing local agency, ownership, and leadership for sustaining peace at the country level. Pooled funds have also been recognised as a transformative instrument to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 as envisaged in the Secretary-General’s Our Common Agenda.III

Against this backdrop, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) brought together a select group of development partner representatives, pooled fund managers and Member States in early 2022 to explore how pooled funding mechanisms can deliver on their potential to promote local agency for peace. This paper aims to capture the constraints and opportunities that were identified within these existing funding mechanisms in effectively resourcing locally led peacebuilding efforts.