What subsequent for Liberia after 20 years of peace? A UN Resident Coordinator weblog

“After the civil conflict, which claimed the lives of over 200,000 individuals, a complete peace settlement was signed in August 2003 in Accra, Ghana. Since then, Liberia has sustained a interval of uninterrupted stability; remodeling from some of the risky to some of the peaceable nations in West Africa.

Through the years, this nation, the place I’m proud to function UN Resident Coordinator, has made important strides in its socio-economic growth journey. Liberians have demonstrated large resilience, battling the devastating impacts of Ebola and COVID-19, contending with rising inflation, mobilizing grassroots management, and making gradual however positive dents in tackling toddler mortality.

But to reap the total financial and social advantages of this hard-fought peace much more must be executed. 

Nationwide poverty ranges stay excessive. Gender and revenue inequalities are nonetheless pronounced, and it’s estimated that 57 per cent of school-aged youngsters stay outdoors the classroom.

On prime of this, rising prices of commodities following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have added to Liberia’s financial challenges.

UN Resident Coordinator in Liberia Christine Umutoni (far left) excursions a voters registration middle.

Now greater than ever, a long-term imaginative and prescient and coordinated plan to forge lasting, sustainable growth is required and the UN Nation Crew is working to assist the federal government along with our companions.

Knowledge-driven resolution making

Within the digital age, knowledge is an indispensable device for decision-making and is the baseline for efficient growth planning. On the finish of 2022, our UN nation group supported the Authorities to conduct the primary nationwide census in 14 years.

This included important knowledge on probably the most deprived communities and the elements comparable to an absence of entry to high quality healthcare and training, that are leaving them behind. 

Because the co-chair of the Nationwide Steering Committee on Nationwide Inhabitants and Housing Census, the UN facilitated the whole census train from starting to the top.

Together with the ECOWAS Ambassador, in my capability because the RC, we helped carry collectively political events and nationwide statistic establishments to construct consensus on the significance of the census for nationwide growth planning. 

Led by UNFPA, our Nation Crew offered the wanted technical experience on this endeavour. Our Knowledge Administration Officer, specifically, performed an important function in facilitating nationwide efforts within the assortment, evaluation, and utilization of the census knowledge.  

In August 2023, Liberians are celebrating 20 years of peace. (file)

The strong knowledge techniques which we helped set up are already enabling policymakers and growth companions make knowledgeable decisions, monitor progress, and adapt interventions in real-time.

That is additionally forming the premise of Liberia’s new nationwide growth plan and an upcoming examine on the ‘drivers of inclusive and sustainable growth’ led by the UN Growth Programme (UNDP) and supported by different UN businesses in addition to our growth companions. The examine will present a typical blueprint for Liberia to cross the end line in direction of 2030 agenda. 

Neighborhood led; youth centred

From tackling poverty, addressing youth unemployment, and strengthening rural agriculture, efficient growth coverage can’t be outsourced – it should come from the underside up. For this reason our interventions are designed and applied in a approach to encourage native possession and empower communities as brokers of their very own change. 

Because the census signifies, youth make up 79 per cent of the inhabitants. Two of our initiatives – the “Youth Rising” venture and “Youth at Threat” programme – are serving to sort out youth unemployment and vulnerability, and empowering the following era with abilities, vocational coaching and sensible jobs in sectors comparable to agriculture, development, timber and mining.

Such coaching helps stimulate native rural economies, enhance social cohesion, and counter the large migration of younger individuals to the town, the place work is commonly troublesome to search out. 

Realizing this demographic dividend is essential for Liberia’s growth journey, which is why our UN group is dedicated to supporting the Authorities broaden its investments in youth empowerment, broaden alternatives for respectable work, and revisit nationwide training plans from final yr’s Remodeling Schooling Summit. 

Partnering to finish violence in opposition to girls

Gender inequity and violence in opposition to girls continues to be widespread in lots of components of the nation. In 2020, it was estimated that 49 per cent of ladies aged 15-49 years who had been in relationships expertise intimate associate bodily and/or sexual violence at the least as soon as of their lifetime.

In truth, this sort of knowledge collected by UN-Ladies has helped paint a vivid image of simply how severe the issue is and helped carry this to the eye of coverage makers on the nationwide degree.  

In February 2022, by means of the assist of a devoted UN programme, ground-breaking progress was made with the signing of a three-year moratorium suspending Feminine Genital Mutilation (FGM), between the Authorities of Liberia and conventional practitioners.

Key to this success was the acceptance and purchase in from conventional leaders, achieved partly by means of our focused advocacy efforts to those leaders and the broader group.

Conventional FGM practitioners from the city of Sonkay be taught different livelihood practices following a ban on the process.

Past legislative progress, the UN’s partnership with the European Union and the Liberian authorities by means of the Highlight Initiative has additionally resulted within the institution of devoted studying facilities, which provided conventional FGM practitioners and younger girls a possibility to be taught new livelihood abilities, contributing to the broader aim of eradicating FGM in Liberia. 

In direction of the following chapter 

The individuals and communities I’ve met in my first 5 months as Resident Coordinator replicate Liberia’s immense potential for the longer term and the numerous strides it has made in direction of sustainable growth.  

What comes subsequent for Liberia will depend upon continued efforts to construct the economic system by means of home sources and harness the facility and voices of younger individuals. Because the UN, we stay steadfast in our assist and funding within the nation’s inclusive growth journey within the coming years.