02 September 2010

Monrovia, Liberia: Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with two civil wars in the nineties having left the country’s infrastructure heavily damaged and its people deprived from basic social services and education. UNV volunteer Samuel Ndingi supports the national transitional government’s work on resettlement and reintegration to build sustainable peace and development for Liberia.

As UNV volunteer County Coordinator with UNDP’s Community Based Recovery and Development (CBRD) Programme and the Human Security Fund (HSF), Samuel is helping to promote sustainable livelihoods through micro-enterprise development and interest free credit allowances, training and other inputs to rehabilitate basic socio-economic structures in the communities.

The programmes assist in building the capacities of community members, local government officials and inclusion of community groups in identifying their own needs. Samuel’s many tasks include assessing projects, researching and analyzing socio-economic data and assisting the District Development Committees (DDCs) to decide on high priority goals and how to achieve them.

DDCs comprise representatives of all community groups – women, youth, elders, and clan and town chiefs – and they all work together with the communities to identify their needs and establish priority areas of intervention. “Working together in community groups builds social cohesion and inclusive participation in rebuilding communities and consolidating the peace process,” says Samuel.

“The programmes also aim to reduce poverty and thus encourage the use of indigenous resources as much as possible in community projects,” he continues. “Additionally, they use local labour so that skilled and unskilled community members can benefit from job opportunities.” This does not only help the country’s economy, but also strengthens social cohesion further.

The programme reaches the fifteen counties of Liberia, with children, men and women among beneficiaries. The Maryland and Grand Kru counties alone have approximately 75,000 beneficiaries who are using schools, clinics and health centres, farm-to-market roads and water wells funded by the programmes.

CBRD and HSF work in partnership with central and local government institutions, NGOs, Community-based Organizations and partner agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP). In partnership with the WFP, “food for work” is one of the most important components of the programme. Alone in the Maryland and Kru counties, some 5,000 participants in labour intensive jobs receive food as partial wage in addition to money.

Through jobs such as side brushing, digging of drainages and filling of potholes, workers contribute to the development of their county while also receiving an income and improving their own and their community’s living conditions.

CBRD and HSF are gender focused and provide opportunities for men and women to participate and perform similar roles on projects. Samuel’s contribution has been to advocate for women’s inclusion in decision making, as this is crucial to help bridge the gender gap. “Community projects in agriculture and micro-enterprise development involve an equal number of men and women as beneficiaries, with the same applying to the number of men and women who are members of the DDCs,” points out Samuel.

UNV’s greatest impact in Liberia can be seen in the increasing willingness of Liberians themselves to contribute to the development of their country. “Community members often say that if people can leave from far off places to help in Liberia’s recovery and development process, then why not Liberians themselves?”, explains Samuel.

The contribution of volunteers helping rebuild Liberia’s peace has been acknowledged at events worldwide. “Drawing inspiration on volunteer contributions in Liberia led the Economic Community of West African states to establish a volunteer scheme based on Liberia’s model, where volunteers are deployed in post-conflict communities to serve for a period of one or more years,” he concludes.