The former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, now candidate for UN Secretary-General, made his comments in a video message screened at the opening session of the second Lisbon Conferences, which is taking place on Thursday and Friday with the theme 'The Globalisation of Development".

The waning capacity of the international community to prevent and resolve conflicts makes the presence of humanitarian and development organisations necessary from the start in order for them to act to prevent and sustain peace, Guterres argued.

"When we look at countries such as Lebanon and Jordan, which have taken in millions of refugees, it becomes evident that they not only produce, in doing so, a global public good, but are also factors of essential stability in their regions and the first line of defence in relation to our collective security," he said.

"These countries should be a priority in the policies for aid for development... Peace and security, development, human rights and humanitarian action all contribute to what must be coherent action by the international community so that the fruits of development can reach everyone and so that they can contribute positively to resolving the dramatic humanitarian situations that we have."

Luís Amado, the former minister of foreign affairs who is chairing the Lisbon Conferences, the "structural and multi-dimensional crisis" that the world has experienced in recent decades is also a result of globalisation, a process that began in Lisbon itself five centuries ago.

"We shall enter a very critical period" Amado said. "By the end of this decade, have no doubt that great events, extraordinary situations will confront our lives and the lives of our organisations, in the short and in the long term."

This he went on demands serenity, prudence, capacity for dialogue and to anticipate and understand - among citizens and lower-level decision-makers as well as political leaders.