In mid-December, the UN Peace Building Fund (PBF) awarded US$15 million to Liberia for short-term, catalytic peacebuilding efforts over the next 18 months based on Liberia’s Peace Building Priority Plan, developed together by the Government and UN. Liberia is the first country to receive support through the 2nd window of the PBF; Burundi and Sierra Leone were the only countries to receive support under the 1st window. A Joint Steering Committee (JSC), co-chaired by the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General (Recovery and Governance), and comprising members from government, UN, multilaterals, bilaterals, civil society, and the Liberian business community, will be convened in the coming weeks. The JSC is responsible for selecting projects and overseeing PBF implementation. This is an exciting moment in Liberia’s post-conflict reconstruction. We are moving beyond the security aspects of peacebuilding (though this still constitutes a very important component of the priority plan) to address the underlying ethnic tensions, political environment and institutional weaknesses that are important to consolidating peace. We are making every effort to ensure that the PBF allocations are transparent, wisely invested and contribute to building capacity within Liberian institutions (both government and non-government) through strong partnerships with UN organizations. One or more of the PBF projects will be independently evaluated, and the M&E components of all projects will be examined closely to ensure that we learn what works best in this environment. More to come as the JSC selects projects and implementation begins…
