Monrovia – The Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD) has organized its second Advocacy Engagement Policy Dialogue with Stakeholders of the Government of Liberia Covid-19 Household Food Support Program (COHFSP) at iCampus, on Carey Street.
The aim of the dialogue was to solicit solutions to improve Government of Liberia Covid-19 Household Food Support Program (COHFSP) implementation mechanism and information sharing.
The dialogue brought together several communities leaders, Civil Society Actors, and the government of Liberia to discuss plan to prevent resources from being mismanaged.
Speaking at the start of the dialogue, the COHFSP Steering Committee Chairperson and Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Prof. Wilson Tarpeh thanked IREDD for setting up the dialogue something he said the steering committee welcome.
“We look forward to the reports from IREDD; we look forward to the presentation of those reports. We will make sure that the facts are there and if there are any corrective measures to be taken then we (Steering Committee) will tell you from our side what we have been doing to address some of the problems.” Prof. Tarpeh said.
The COHFSP Chairperson also acknowledges that there has been a lack of information sharing from his team. He added that steps have been taken to improve on the situation.
MR. Tarpeh said: “One of the problems you underscored was the lack of information sharing. As Head of the steering committee that is something we are dealing with. We have to get information to the public.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director of IREDD Harold Aidoo says based on what has happened during the Ebola crisis –where public resources were mismanaged, they as civil society organization see it necessary that public resources are now use for the common good.
“So, we have followed the whole food distribution process, we have come out with a number of reports on some of the successes and the challenges and what should be done to improve the situation,” Mr. Aidoo said.
“We are hoping that this dialogue will begin to pave the way for people who are to receive the food, receive the food –because if not so, we will get to a point where the whole food distribution will become meaningless.
According to Aidoo, their research done in Montserrado and Margibi Counties has showed that the food distribution has gone only five percent in the entire country.
“So, if you look at the amount of time that we have spent, it means that we might spend the next one year talking about food business,” he said.