The Liberia Peacebuilding Office (PBO) invited its partners, including ACCORD, to participate in a validation workshop whose aim was to examine the findings of the National Conflict Mapping Exercise (NCME). The validation workshop was held in Monrovia on 26 October 2016. The NCME was billed as an important process. Its findings are a crucial entry point which national and international peacebuilding actors can use in their programming in Liberia in the immediate and near future. The NCME was especially necessary for Liberia with the drawdown of the United Nations Mission in Liberia taking place. The process sought to contribute to coordination and coherence of peacebuilding intervention in the country by providing actors with spaces for consultations on the structural issues as well as drivers of violence in the country. The aforementioned spaces also aimed to provide the opportunity for actors to consult on context specific interventions that would lead to conflict transformation in the country.
ACCORD’s participation in the workshop was against the backdrop of its technical and financial support of the NCME which was conducted from May to September 2016. Through the African Peacebuilding Coordination Programme (APCP), ACCORD has over the years had peacebuilding interventions in Liberia and lending support to the NCME was a crucial part of the APCP work plan for 2016.
During the validation workshop, the PBO presented the NCME findings and thereafter provided the participants with the opportunity to assess, critique and strengthen them. This would ensure that information collected during the NCME process was subjected to triangulation by peacebuilding practitioners. It is anticipated that after their incorporation, the inputs of the participants will strengthen the NCME findings report and make it an invaluable resource for peacebuilders in Liberia.
ACCORD will continue to engage partners in Liberia and remains committed to working with the PBO and other actors so as to take forward the recommendations of the NCME.
For more information about the NCME please contact John Ahere, the Peacebuilding Unit Coordinator through johna@accord.org.za.
