DAYS AFTER A bilateral meeting between His Excellency President George Manneh Weah and United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on the margins of the Seventy-Seventh Session of the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) has approved a US$3 million project to support the promotion of a peaceful electoral environment in Liberia ahead of the 2023 legislative and presidential elections.
EARLIER, IN SEPTEMBER, the United Nations, through its Peacebuilding Support Office along with the Liberia Configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission, renewed its commitment to support Liberia’s peacebuilding priorities, especially the 2023 legislative and presidential elections.
THE UNITED NATIONS initiative is “Promoting Peaceful Electoral Environment and Community Security in Liberia”, and aims to strengthen the inclusivity, coherence and effectiveness of electoral violence prevention initiatives in Liberia. Electoral violence, including violence against women, has tended to surface during electoral periods, especially in recent by-elections.
THE UN INITIATIVE further aims at strengthening the policy and institutional environment for a more inclusive and effective Early Warning and Response (EWER) mechanism, including the mainstreaming of human rights, gender and youth-based approaches.
DELVING INTO FURTHER challenges faced by Liberia’s young democracy, the initiative also seeks to address issue of electoral trucking and the increasing risk of misinformation and hate speech, which have been identified as triggers of electoral violence.
THE UN EFFORT at building on the gains of the Comprehensive Accra Peace Accord of 2003 was approved under the Peacebuilding Fund’s Immediate Response Facility following the review by the Peacebuilding Project Review Group and the recommendation of the Project Appraisal Committee, and will be implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for a period of twenty-four months.