MONROVIA – The Independent Information Commission (IIC) has validated “Liberia Access to Information Records Management Guidelines”. The validation exercise was done on Tuesday at a local resort in Congo Town.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Commissioner of the IIC, Cllr. Mark Bedor-Wla Freeman thanked UNESCO for the support in drafting the guidelines and bringing together stakeholders. He also extolled the participants for their interest in making the freedom of information regime successful in Liberia.
Also speaking at the occasion, Mr. Stevenson Seidi of UNESCO Liberia office expressed his organization’s willingness to assist Liberia in its access to information efforts. He called on the Government of Liberia to increase support to the Information Commission, stressing that ‘openness in government is a cardinal tool to democracy”. He said records management is very important in preserving history and other records.
In remarks, the Executive Director of the IIC, Mr. Emmanuel D. Howe, praised the Government of Liberia for the support to the Commission and said more needs to be done to have citizens make use of the Freedom of Information law. He praised UNESCO for the support to government’s efforts to have Liberia develop and validate its access to information records keeping and management guidelines.
The validated records keeping guidelines were drafted by Atty. Vaani Faati Kiawu with support from UNESCO under the public access to information as contained in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 16.10.2.
The workshop brought together stakeholders from government, civil society, and development partners.
