21 April 2010

Monrovia, Liberia: "My role is peacebuilding," asserts Tomoko Semmyo, an Associate Protection Officer with UNHCR in Liberia. "In conflict-prone communities, small issues can become big issues. That's why I'm here."

Tomoko Semmyo is one of several Japanese UNV volunteers in the region working on the transition from conflict recovery to development. It's an assignment that puts her in a vital position, coordinating and monitoring varied work targeted at the grassroots while keeping people at high levels informed.

Liberia is receiving $15 million from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, she explains, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is overseeing how the money is spent on rule of law and community empowerment schemes.

In coordination with UNHCR field offices, it is Tomoko's task to monitor community-based work underway in three counties, and to report back to the Peacebuilding Fund. She also has a hand in strategic papers like the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.

For Tomoko, her UNV volunteer assignment fully funded by the Japan International Cooperation agency (JICA) is a perfect chance to put her training and experience into practice. "I graduated in Peace Studies – from the University for Peace in Costa Rica – before I came here," she reveals, "and I served as a JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency] volunteer in El Salvador, working with ex-combatants for more than two years."

"The peace education I monitor in the communities here is about training people on mediation, how to deal with conflict non-violently, and what are human rights and women's rights," she continues. "People have really got used to dealing with informal justice here. Advocating peace is an opportunity to stem harmful practices and to deal constructively with minor disputes and land issues."

"Coordination is not an easy task," she remarks. "I work a lot with local NGOs, with whom we implement the projects. Civil society here has good advocacy skills, but is not yet strong in institutional and financial management, or keeping records for example. So I feel that my role is to work on that."

But as well as sharing her knowledge with Liberian organizations, she also thinks she is discovering things from the Liberian way of working. It's all about capacity building and mutual learning: "Not only are we teaching something, but they are teaching us," she comments.

What makes someone like Tomoko Semmyo leave Japan to become a UNV volunteer? "I really wanted to work in a post-conflict environment," she says. "I saw a lot of difficult situations in El Salvador caused by poverty. Though 15 years had passed since the war, the root causes were discrepancies between the poor and the rich – which had not been resolved."

She continues: "I wanted to work in the nexus between peace and development so that I can contribute, and serve, and so that we can address these root causes."

Despite the difficulties and sometimes dangers of living in Liberia, Tomoko is clear that her work is something that she believes in. "Liberia now stands in a critical transitional period from conflict to peace," she concludes. "For peace to be lasting in Liberia, we really need to bridge the transitional period by addressing the root causes, establishing good governance and prevent further occurrence of the conflict. I think that our projects serve that purpose."