Tunis, 25 August 2015 - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) convened a meeting with Member States, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and UN Agencies, Funds and Programs working on Libya on the support to a future Libyan Government of National Accord. It was intended to serve as a forum in which the international community discusses and agrees on principles for international assistance to Libya, a way forward and a coordination mechanism, should international assistance be requested by the GNA.

More than 15 member states and regional organizations (including the European Union and the League of Arab States), numerous INGOs, representatives of all the UN entities working on Libya as well as the World Bank and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) attended the meeting. The meeting provided the opportunity to the participants to express their readiness to support Libyan state institutions. The participants expressed their firm conviction that only a GNA can address the needs and desires of the Libyan people, and the international community should be ready to support the GNA as soon as it is established and takes office. They have reconfirmed the leading role of the United Nations in supporting Libya to coordinate the international assistance and encouraged that efforts are made to enhance the national capacity to absorb the international assistance offered to the GNA.

The participants stated that Libyan ownership and participation in defining the required international assistance to the country is of most importance and agreed to jointly work in consulting Libyan technical experts in defining the immediate priorities of support aimed at alleviating the living conditions of people affected by the armed conflict. It was agreed that sectoral working groups will be operationalized in a coordinated manner as soon as possible to allow focused discussions regarding potential international assistance on particular priority areas with the active participation of Libyan technical experts.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya, Bernardino Leon, highlighted that among others, stabilizing Libyan financial institutions and particularly the Central bank of Libya, and supporting the restarting of Libyan oil production, reconnecting the Libyan airports to the air traffic network are some of the priorities for the international assistance.

Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya, Ali Al-Za’tari, encouraged the member states to support the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the ones in need in Libya, based on the new Libya Humanitarian Response Plan which is under preparation and will be soon finalized. “There is a need to engage more actively with Libyan Humanitarian stakeholders and their engagement is crucial in addressing difficult humanitarian pockets such as Benghazi or Sirte.” He added: “There is a need to coordinate the various initiatives and programmes to support Libya, to ensure that the international community achieves better synergy and avoids duplication and waste of resources.”

The session also offered the opportunity to evaluate the possibility to integrate lessons learned in similar contexts in countries emerging out of conflict.