Monrovia – A daylong national convening dialogue on the status of the post-Ebola recovery plan (PERP) has taken place in Monrovia between government and civil society organizations (CSOs).
The dialogue was organized by the Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD) with its objectives of supporting efforts for concerted approach, coordination and information sharing on the status of PERP to CSOs and communities and strengthening their role on its implementation.
Making the first presentation, the Ministry of Education’s Joe Karr said all schools in the 78 districts were assessed by the government before its reopening as Ebola protocols or guidelines were developed in consultation with the Ministry of Health
Karr said government had to clean and disinfect public schools, some of which were used by various organizations in the fight against Ebola.
He said the government procured and supplied anti-Ebola materials with the support of UNICEF.
Karr said school feeding programs were initiated and government provided subsidies to private schools’ teachers.
According to Karr, water, sanitation and hygiene teams (WASH) were set-up in 500 public schools with the support of Safe the Children as government encouraged private schools to complement its effort.
Responding to a question on what percentage of the budget that is funding teachers’ salaries, Karr sad the personnel responsible for that statistics couldn’t attend the dialogue due to conflicting schedules.
On the justice and security sector, Assistant Justice Minister Frederick Gbemie said government’s implementation of its Agenda for Transformation (AFT) was disrupted by Ebola.
Cllr. Gbemie said government then developed a one-year Economic Stabilization and Recovery Plan (ESRP) in which law enforcers and judicial workers were trained.
He said coordination mechanisms were developed while the assumption of gradual responsibility of UNMIL’s drawdown and formal handing over of the remaining security responsibilities were being worked on.
A communication, regulation and legal framework were also put in place to strengthen the justice and security sectors, Cllr. Gbemie said.
According to him, the national security strategy, which was launched in 2008, was reviewed on July 12 in order to enhance public safety.
Cllr. Gbemie said 12 counties now have security councils (including district councils), which is chaired by the superintendent and consists of paramount, town and clan chiefs; CSOs, youth and women groups to focus on security and governance issues.
Also speaking, Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) commissioner Lemuel Reeves commended IREDD for building their capacities to deal with infectious disease control.
The Ministries of Agriculture and Health, which were invited to do a post Ebola presentation, didn’t show-up.
Delivering an independent assessment of the PERP, Lester Tenny said Ebola exposed the health sector, which has experienced a US$480 million investment by government and its development partners since 2006.
Dr. Tenny said it was a mistake for the government to rely on natural resources to spur economic growth.
In order for government to get people out of poverty, he said, it must have a sustained development plan as the interim poverty reduction strategy, poverty reduction strategy and AFT among others were flawed documents that yielded no impact.
Dr. Tenny said it is regrettable that Liberia is still without a pathologist more than 10 years after Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became Africa’s first democratically elected Presidents.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Conciliation Resources’ West Africa program director Janet Adama-Mohammed encouraged CSOs to continuously dialogue with government.
“I think today’s gathering was successful. We achieved our objective of having a peaceful dialogue but I want to encourage civil society organizations to prepare themselves with education and proper research and to constructively engage their governments.
“I will not encourage them to engage their government in an adversarial manner. There was a time in Ghana when civil society organizations issued releases and press conferences.
“It took us nowhere. We then demonstrated and held placards. It took us nowhere. But when we started engaging the government by establishing think tanks on education, economy and agriculture, we were getting there and it took us somewhere. Liberian CSO can do the same,” Janet told FrontPageAfrica (FPA).
IREDD executive director Harold Aidoo was also pleased with the discussion despite the absence of two invited ministries.
Aidoo said IREDD decided to undertake the venture because of what appears to be government’s lukewarm posture at putting in place meaningful post Ebola measures.
“The engagement was healthy and positive. It is always good to take stock of everything you do in life because if you failed to plan then you have planned to fail. So we wanted to hear from government about their challenges and success stories after Ebola.
“We were glad that they yielded to our call after several engagements. The whole idea was about how civil society can help with its implementation. And I think this will be a continuous dialogue so that we, as CSOs, can engage the government in a positive and constructive way,” Aidoo told FPA at the Corina Hotel on August 11.
The dialogue also attended by representatives Trust Africa, IBIS/Oxfam-Liberia, NDI, Ministry of Internal Affairs and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
