UN Resident Coordinator Office taps into UN Volunteers' skills for peacebuilding in Liberia

Pursuing its efforts to support the Liberian people, the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) works in close collaboration with the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV), to engage with the government, communities and civil partners at county level, in different peacebuilding programmes.

Since the end of the civil war in 2004, Liberia has faced many challenges, the most recent being the management of the Ebola epidemic, the closure of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and a historical democratic transition after the elections, to which UN Volunteers have made significant and effective contributions. 

14 UN Volunteers are currently assigned to the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Liberia, to work with the government, communities and civil society organizations throughout the country. These young Liberians are deployed mainly in counties where key challenges need to be adressed, like child protection, women’s empowerment, girl’s education, justice and human rights etc. 

Through various functions such as Liaison Officers, Monitoring Officers amongst others, UN Volunteers are improving the impact of the RC mission, through direct contact and support to local communities while providing weekly status reports of the counties where they serve, gathering updated information and results for the RC Office to better adress issues affecting most vulnerable communities in Liberia.

Ruth Cleopatra Engmann is one of the national UN Volunteers serving as Liaison Officer in Grand Bassa County, situated in the south-central part of Liberia, about 140 km from Monrovia.

Ruth goes frequently to the field to interact with Grand Bassa dwellers where she is from and works extensively with country authorities, traditional leaders, civil society groups etc, to tackle issues like Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), child protection etc.

She reports that in Grand Bassa, the issue of child abuse is a major concern. 

“In March 2019, 20 cases of child abuse were reported. For example a few weeks ago, a 10 year  old girl who was coming from school got raped by two unknown men who fled the scene. I intervened with the gender coordinator to follow up on this crime and report the perpetrators to the police. Actually, they have been put to trial and sentenced.”

“My passion in my work as a UN Volunteer is child protection, women empowerment and girls education. Through these interactions, I am able to give feedback to the RCO on a weekly basis about what is going on in Grand Bassa”, she concludes.

216 km from there, is Nimba county in the northeastern Liberia that shares borders with Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea, where a National UN Volunteer who also represents the RCO on the ground, sounds the alarm on the situation of detainees in the only prison of the second largest county of Liberia in terms of population.  

Roosevelt Gbamie Cooper, Associate Field Liaison Officer, reports that Nimba county central prison was constructed for 75 inmates. Currently, there are 164 people incarcerated in difficult conditions. For example, there is a lack of medicines at the prison’s medical clinic and many detainees are going through long pre-trial detention periods and undue lengthy court proceedings. 

“As a UN Volunteer, I support prison authorities and follow up on detention conditions of prisoners, reporting their cases for judicial authorities to speed up their trial procedure.” 

Another critical issue in Nimba is Gender based violence. According to the RCO’s focal point in the county, more than 20 cases were reported at the gender Office. Roosevelt conducts awareness-raising activities with the community to improve understanding of people’s rights and laws against the use of violence. 

Speaking about UN Volunteers, the UN Resident Coordinator for Liberia Mr Yacoub El Hillo, is “pleased that the United Nations in Liberia continues to tap into this incredible asset”:

“I am really satisfied with the contributions of UN Volunteers to the RCO mission, especially those who are Liberian nationals. They know the context, they know the country, they understand the issues because they are living them and they are using their being part of the UN system to actually bring the change that the country needs”

Currently, 50 international and national UN Volunteers work  across 17 different UN agencies, through different assignments, to generally entrench peace and stability in Liberia.

The mission to the counties documenting the work of these national UN Volunteers will be featured in a video documentary focusing on their invaluable contribtions to the strengthened Resident Coordinator’s Office as described by Mr. El Hillo. The documentary is expected by mid May 2019.