Monrovia – Internal Affair Minister Varney Sirleaf said the attainment of a cohesive society is not only fundamental to achieving sustainable peace, but also supports achievements that will lift the poor and vulnerable out of poverty.
Minister Sirleaf told participants at the start of a two-day “Reflection, Realignment and Costing Dialogue” in Monrovia on Thursday, September 26, that a cohesive Liberian society must consider poverty reduction in order to address the root of conflict.
Minister Sirleaf said having a unified society will require the successful implementation of framework that will significantly contribute to achieving the objectives of Pillar three of government’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, (PAPD).
“The government views social cohesion as both a desirable end and a means to inclusive development that makes national reconciliation to very important to the overall development of our country,” Minister Sirleaf said.
While he is pushing the implementation of various intervention and initiative, Minister Sirleaf believes the overall reconciliation in Liberia is still at the slow pace as compare to security sector reform and rule of law.
This, according to him, is the results of a number of challenges including inadequate or weak coordination, inadequate or limited resources and gaps in the require leadership among others, which he said continued to undermine steady momentum to accelerate its progress.
“In order to address some of these challenges, the government recently constituted the National Peace building and Reconciliation Steering Committee articulated by the Roadmap. This body will ensure effective policy level coordination and advice the President on a monthly basis related to national reconciliation for political decisions and actions,” Sirleaf said.
Meanwhile, MIA boss stressed that boundary harmonization is key to the reconciliation process, which he said may lead to the next source of conflict across the country.
“How do we train traditional leaders to be able to fill in the gap and exercise authority in some of those areas like rape cases and other injustices, if we can make sustainable use of them that will be important because government cannot deploy police in every place?” Sirleaf inquired.
The event was organized by the Liberian Peace Building office at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in collaboration with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS). It is geared at putting together a three-year costing action plan through a Strategic Roadmap for National Healing, Peace building and Reconciliation.
CRS Country Representative, Bill Rasteetter said the roadmap is an 18-year framework that is expected to serve as a document, subject to review and updating.
In his overview, Liberia Peace Building Office Executive DirectorEdward Mulbah indicated that the roadmap aims at transforming individual community and society mindset, rebuild and strengthened inter-group relations as well as dismantle and replacing polarized institutions with more inclusive institutions as a safeguard to desist violence.
This process, according to him, is expected to effectively operationalize these critical benchmarks that will foster national reconciliation.
“The results of the Reflection, Realignment and Costing Dialogue will help the government determines the actual financial resources require in the short to medium, one to three years of the subsector on reconciliation, and thereby sets the basis for both national and international partnership engagements around resource mobilization,” he added.
He however asserted that disjointed approaches and parallel processes and initiatives are underlining factors that are hindering cumulative impact of peace building and national reconciliation.
Meanwhile, Liberia Peace Ambassador, Richard Tolbert Jr. said it is time for Liberia to take a new trend in achieving national peace and reconciliation that will avoid past mistakes.
He described reconciliation as the best way for “healing Liberia’s wound”, but stated that those affected must be willing to forgive.