Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday asked the world body to return to the basics of peacebuilding to deal with challenges of sustaining peace amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2016, the Security Council and the General Assembly adopted historic joint resolutions on peacebuilding, which, together with the Sustainable Development Goals, serve as the United Nations' blueprint in assisting conflict-affected countries through peacebuilding efforts. The key messages from these landmark resolutions center on the importance of prioritizing prevention, addressing the root causes of conflict, and devising long-term, guiding strategies, Ban told the Security Council.

He was referring to Security Council Resolution 2282 and General Assembly Resolution 70/262, which were adopted on April 27, 2016.

"Even during the COVID-19 crisis, the ideals of sustaining peace and the underlying spirit of the twin resolutions, which empowers the crucial role of local communities, women, and young people, should be further built upon," he told an open debate of the Security Council on pandemics and the challenges of sustaining peace.

"Indeed, I believe the UN and its member states have a generational opportunity to use this concept to help build back better, further catalyze greater inclusivity, and steer humanity and our planet toward a more peaceful and sustainable future. The UN must elevate its efforts to harness this pandemic as a gateway to a brighter world," he said.

UN responses to the current pandemic should be in line with conflict-sensitivity, which enables it to address patterns of systematic exclusion and the other root causes of conflicts. In addition, one of the major peacebuilding goals at the moment should be to strengthen the socio-economic capacities of local communities and populations, said Ban.

"The experience of this crisis should also spur us to change our priorities and our understandings of what threats and values really matter. We need to address the inequalities in our own societies and the gaps in social protection. We see that this virus has flourished disproportionately among marginalized communities, such as migrants without access to decent health care or those working low wage jobs -- whether in the global South or in the richest countries in the world."

This pandemic also demonstrates the genuine utility of sustaining peace, and proves the benefits of enhancing the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. The pandemic has also shown that the United Nations must work more effectively with various partners, including regional organizations, international financial institutions, the private sector and civil society, said Ban.