18 June 2009

Monrovia, Liberia and Kinshasa, DRC: Top UN official Helen Clark has joined Government ministers and community leaders to launch a new UNV-supported volunteering initiative aimed at spreading a message of peace.

Speaking at the well-attended launch in the Liberian village of Kakata in Margibi County, Ms. Clarke described the new project, ‘Volunteers for Peace’, as a mechanism for promoting peace and reconciliation at the grassroots. She called for collective support for the national strategy, noting that the development of Liberia will involve the participation of all Liberians, particularly youth.

The Liberia Volunteers for Peace Programme seeks to establish a cadre of trained volunteers (or ‘Youth Peace Ambassadors’) to identify and diffuse potential violent conflicts in Liberia’s 15 counties.

The volunteers will spread a message of peace and non-violent conflict resolution through Training of Trainers workshops. These workshops should create a group of young people in the communities who will share messages of peace with their peers and other community members.

Speaking at the Volunteers for Peace launch, the Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, Hon. Amara Konneh, noted: “Government cannot create jobs for everybody, so engaging young people in volunteer service is good for peace and for professional development.”

Also in attendance was the Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Etmonia Tarpeh, who applauded the contribution both UNV volunteers and youth volunteers of the National Youth Volunteer Service were already making to the country’s development.

The National Youth Volunteer Service places urban youth volunteers in the Liberian countryside to work with communities on development issues, including education, gender equity, health and sanitation. First piloted in 2007 in four Liberian counties, it has since been expanded to two more.

During a regional conference on volunteerism in late May, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf praised the programme and expressed her wish to expand it nationwide. The Volunteers for Peace initiative launched in 2009 stems from the success of the UNV-sponsored National Youth Volunteer Service so far.

Liberia was the first leg of Ms. Clark’s inaugural visit of Africa as the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Her next stop was the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where she visited the agency’s operations in the capital Kinshasa and in the eastern town of Goma in North Kivu province.

The DRC currently hosts one of UNV’s largest operations. With close to 700 UNV volunteers working in such diverse areas as air traffic control and humanitarian assistance, one in three of the international UN civilians in the United Nations Organization Mission in DRC (MONUC) is a UNV volunteer.

While attending a meet and greet with UNDP staff in Kinshasa on 15 June, Helen Clark extended her thanks to all the UNV volunteers for their contribution towards peace and capacity-building in DRC. Present on behalf of the UNV family in DRC were UNV Programme Manager Marc Spurling, UNV Programme Officer Ludovic Lemoing and a group of UNV volunteers.

A former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark took charge as UNDP Administrator on 17 April 2009. UNV is administrated under UNDP.