The UN Resident Coordinator Office

The UN Country Team (UNCT) Liberia is led by the UN Resident Coordinator who coordinates all the UN’s operations in Liberia with the support of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office.

The UN Resident Coordinator's Office provides direct support to the UN Resident Coordinator and the UN Country Team, including advisory, technical and management support. The office coordinates the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) and helps the UNCT operate more efficiently through harmonized business transaction and cost effectiveness. It is made up of three units namely; the Core Coordination Unit, the Peace, Political and Development Unit and the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF).

Core Coordination Unit:

The Core Resident Coordination Unit handles the daily coordination for results, programmatic work, operations, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and strategic communications and advocacy. It supports the UN Country Team in planning, policy, analysis and reporting. It also supports various working groups including: Inter-Agencies Programme Team (IAPT), Operations Management Team (OMT), Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Working Group, UN Communications Group (UNCG), Gender Thematic Group (GTG), Human Rights (HR) Working Group, Inter-Agency Youth Taskforce (IAYT), Disaster Management Working Group and UN Data Working Group. 

Peace, Political and Development Unit (PPDU)

Since the closure of UNMIL, the Resident Coordinator's Office was strengthened with the Political, Peace and Development Unit (PPDU), the first of its kind, to ensure that the transition does not exacerbate pre-existing political and social tensions, and that UN good offices continues. This unit provides political and conflict analysis and advice to the Resident Coordinator, supports the UN Country Team with conflict prevention, maintains contact with political and civil society networks, and maintains relationships with senior officials in government and the international community, including donor partners. The support is instrumental for the Resident Coordinator’s proactive engagement to sustain peace in Liberia.

In addition to eight staff working on political, peace and development issues in Monrovia, the unit has eleven field liaison officers based in Bomi, Bong, Gbarpolu, Grand Gedeh, Grand Kru, Lofa, Maryland, Nimba, Rivercess, River Gee and Sinoe counties who monitor political dynamics and support sub-national peace consolidation.

Peacebuilding Fund (PBF)

Since 2007, the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF) has been supporting Liberia’s peacebuilding efforts, partnering with the government through the United Nations Country Team headed by the UN Resident Coordinator, INGOs and Civil Society Organizations that continue to work closely with relevant institutions to promote and strengthen national reconciliation, security sector and policy reforms, access to justice and security, human rights, land governance, gender and economic empowerment for women and youth.

To ensure that its investments are strategically focused, coherent, predictable, and more measurable, the PBF requested and prepared along with the government, local and international partners the PBF Strategic Results Framework (SRF) in 2022. The PBF SRF is intended to guide PBF’s investments in the next five years through the following strategic areas: (i) Peace dividends, reconciliation, and conflict resolution (ii) Institutional accountability and strengthened social contract and (iii) Community access to and use of land. The PBF SRF is aligned with the Government Pro-poor Agenda for Development and Prosperity (PAPD) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).  The PBF has committed US$12 million for PBF SRF initial programming in addition to more than US$85 million investment in Liberia since 2007. Liberia became automatically eligible for the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) support through its dedicated PBC Country Configuration set-up, without needing to go through the usual formal request to the UN Secretary-General for eligibility, and it continues to be eligible through its status as a PBC Configuration Country.