OCHA West Africa Newsletter No. 6

Weaving a Culture of Peace in the Mano River Union at the Hotel Camayenne in Conakry 24 May - 31 July 2002:
The Sierra Leonean weaver Mohamed Jeromy Konneh is currently weaving a Culture of Peace and showing his works of traditional West African weaving at the Hotel Camayenne in Conakry, Guinea. Having grown up in Kailahun district in Sierra Leone, and been a refugee in both Liberia and Guinea, Mr. Konneh knows well what the war has meant to the populations of the Mano River Union. By inviting visitors to sign the Manifesto for a Culture of Peace and promoting qualities such as tolerance, respect and sharing of time and resources, Mr. Konneh and his team are giving a voice to the many who for over a decade have been living the wars of the three Mano River countries.

This Plan of Action has three levels of implementation: a ministerial level Task Force on protection to promote ownership and advocacy, a coordination unit to monitor all activities and several camp management units.

The UN agencies have adopted a first set of measures to sensitize the UN staff and their implementing partners on their obligations towards beneficiaries and on the enforcement of legal procedures against sexual exploitation and other abuses. A Code of Conduct for the UN personnel has been adopted with a zero tolerance policy.

Organised by UNESCO and OCHA in kind collaboration with the Hotel Camayenne, the exhibition "Weaving a Culture of Peace in the Mano River Union" is an example of the many peace initiatives of artists' and civil society organisations in the sub-region towards conflict prevention and peace building.

Since 1992 when the Security Council pronounced the conflict in Liberia a threat to international peace and security, the United Nations has been an active partner with ECOWAS and the OAU in peacemaking and peace building in the Mano River basin area. During the course of this partnership, it has increasingly been realized that approaches to conflict management and resolution in the area have placed disproportionate emphasis on interventions characterized by state-based particularisms. Very few interventions in conflict management and resolution have been organized to address the sub-regional dimension of the conflict. In addition, very few interventions were designed to involve civil society in peacemaking and peace building undertakings.

Artists' and other people-driven initiatives for peace building are, however, not new to the Mano River countries. Since the beginning of the conflicts, civil society organizations such as women's groups, trade unions and journalist have taken initiatives to link up and collectively make their voices heard for peace. In the United Nation Development for Peace Programme in the Mano River Union sub-region, it is recognized that such activities need to be encouraged and strengthened.

West African traditional weavers such as Mr. Konneh have for centuries been weaving their cotton cloth in the three Mano River countries. With the exhibition "Weaving a Culture of Peace in the Mano River Union" Mr. Konneh is using his powers as an artist to remind us that we must think sub-regionally when weaving a culture of peace in any of the three Mano River countries.

Mohamed Jeromy Konneh is hoping to continue a promotion of a Culture of Peace in Sierra Leone and Liberia after showing his works in Conakry. The exhibition will run in Conakry through 31 July 2002. For further information and to sign the Manifesto for a Culture of Peace, see www.manoriverunion.org/mjk

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Protection in Liberia

The United Nations in Liberia have launched the implementation of the Action Plan developed to address the protection needs of the IDPs and refugees, in particular with respect to sexual exploitation and other abuses linked to the delivery of humanitarian services. The strategy adopted in the Plan of Action focuses on strengthening the capacity of key actors and stakeholders to prevent sexual exploitation and other forms of abuse and on providing enhanced protection services in the camps. This includes building the capacity of UN personnel, implementing partners and government counterparts, improving camp management guidelines and strengthening services for abused children and women, in particular measures to improve the accessibility of the legal system.

At the camp level, UN agencies are implementing with government partners and NGOs another set a measures with the view of improving the planning and the management of the camps, such as the separation of male and female facilities, the revision of leadership elections guidelines and the monitoring of distribution of relief items. UNICEF is in the process of establishing 4 child friendly spaces in IDP Camps using a rights-based integrated approach which includes access to health, education, psychosocial counseling, and early childhood care services. Priority attention is given to providing referral, counseling and support services to children who have been sexually exploited. UNICEF and UNHCR are supporting local NGOs to provide psycho-social counseling and trauma healing services to victims of SGBV.

The promotion of community empowerment and awareness on protection issues is at the center of the UN strategy with the view to responsibilize the communities on preventing and reporting exploitation and to sensitize the beneficiaries, in particular female children, about their rights and entitlements.

Based on UNHCR experience in refugee camps, UN Agencies have designed a confidential reporting mechanism for the cases of exploitation putting community services at the center of the reporting and monitoring mechanism. In each camp, one community-based organization will be trained and supported to report cases of exploitation.

UNDP has commited significant funding to the implementation of the Plan. In addition, one Protection Officer will be attached to OCHA to duplicate the mechanism in all IDP camps and to put in place a coordination structure of the humanitarian response to SGVB abuses with common services (common pool of lawyers, centralized statistical record etc.). UNICEF is in the process to recruit one Protection Officer funded by the Norwegian Refugee Council to address child protection while three additional protection officers are being recruited by UNHCR to reinforce their Protection unit.

The Government of Liberia has endorsed the concept of an action plan on protection and the creation of a protection Task Force involving the Ministry of Planning, Justice, Defense, Internal Affairs and LRRRC together with representatives of NGOs, donors and human rights groups. Concurrently, the UN will support the establishment of a follow up mechanism of cases with Police and Court and capacity building of Justice and Police staff and the Media.

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Sierra Leone update June 2002

Elections

Post-electoral glow

Sierra Leone and its people continue to bask in the post-electoral, serene atmosphere that covers the nation. Parliament convened for the first time on June 25th following last month's elections, selecting its Speaker and Deputy Speaker - both from the Majority party, the SLPP. The ruling Sierra Leone People's Party captured 83 of the 112 ordinary seats in the May elections, while the All People's Congress took 23. The remaining two seats went to Johnny Paul Koroma's Peace and Liberation Party. The twelve seats that had been reserved for paramount chiefs were filled earlier this month, following the Paramount Chieftaincy elections. The RUFP won no seats in the Parliament.

Ministers still on hold

The Ministers are yet to be approved and sworn in by Parliament. Ministries continue to work with out going Ministers and their Permanent Secretaries. The swearing in of the Chief Justice and Attorney General still remains an issue as the Sierra Leone Bar Association sees the post as an illegal one, holding a view that the two-in-one position must be separated as it compromises the effectiveness of the judiciary system.

Saying goodbye to the monitors

Having seen the elections through, the majority of the electoral observers has left the country. The British government are also scaling down their training troops in the country. The remaining forces will concentrate on restructuring the government army, the RSLAF. UNAMSIL will not go yet, however, they are now focusing activities on rebuilding communities and restoring government authority as they maintain a keen eye on the border with Liberia.

Peace for the wider region

In a bid to usher peace into the sub-region, women from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea met in Freetown and called for the Liberian government and the LURD rebels to engage in dialogue to end the growing conflict in the border region. The sub-regional group MARWOPNET - Mano River Union Women's Peace Network, called for President Kabbah and his government to help Liberia in solving its problems.

Sexual exploitation and abuse

The CCSEA

The Coordination Committee for the prevention for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse will hosts its roundtable conference on July 10. The committee sees this roundtable as a 'nuts and bolts' exercise to initiate a visible inter-agency dialogue on the issue, and determine what progress has been made so far by the various players. About 60 representatives from a variety of agencies have been invited to participate in this daylong event. The CCSEA is charged with the mandate to 'coordinate the response to the issue of sexual exploitation of displaced persons by humanitarian workers'.

Narrowing the scope of the problem

Before arriving at this, it took the Committee itself a number of meetings to agree on which aspect of the problem they should tackle. For some the problem was a global, societal and very complex issue. Others, approached the issue simply by addressing the Standards of Humanitarian Accountability for their humanitarian staff. In sum, the roundtable will try to reach a common understanding of the problem and then get agencies to come up with general and acceptable prevention and disciplinary measures. The ten-man and women committee comprises members of the GoSL, NGOs and UN agencies. A system is in place wherein feedback is provided to the rest of the other humanitarian actors, in order for them no to feel left out of the process.

Supporting the investigative process

The UN country team is in the process of hiring a consultant to help deal with this very broad and delicate problem. The OIOS have almost completed their investigation mission to Guinea and hope to be in Freetown in the days ahead. Depending on the security situation they will then move on to Liberia. They will present their report to the UN General Assembly later in the year.

Ongoing activities

Meanwhile, UNHCR has recruited a regional consultant, who is working with this committee, to look into these allegations that affect the MRU countries. They have held consultations with their partners and have made a series of documents on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse accessible. They have also produced a training manual, which is currently in use by some agencies. WFP has held a workshop in Kambia for their staff and beneficiaries on this issue. OCHA continues to provide the Standards of Accountability, the guideline document for humanitarian personnel, which was launched last month by the Humanitarian Coordinator, Alan Doss, and is in high demand.

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Addressing the issues of sexual exploitation and abuse in Guinea

Following the summary report released by UNHCR and Save the Children in February 2002 on allegations of sexual abuse in West African camps, the UN Country Team in Guinea has actively been addressing the issues of sexual exploitation and abuse of humanitarian beneficiaries throughout the country.

The immediate first step was to put in place the Inter-Agency Working Group on Exploitation and Abuse, which is comprised of representatives from UNHCR, OCHA, UNICEF, OMS, and WFP. The objective of this Working Group has been to establish a coordination mechanism and develop an Inter Agency Plan of Action in order to guide the UN Agencies on establishing appropriate tools and systems to address abuse and exploitation of all types. The Working Group also serves as a liaison between the field and the Heads of Agencies, facilitating the flow of communication and monitoring the implementation of activities.

In order to ensure a rapid and effective response, UNICEF has recruited a Resource Person for the UN to coordinate actions related to issues of exploitation and abuse and to assist the Inter Agency Working Group on Implementation of Inter Agency Plan of Action and on the Development of a Matrix of Humanitarian Aid Field Services and risk rating of all services.

On 14 June 2002 the Humanitarian Coordinator hosted two meetings where the Inter-Agency Code of Conduct and Plan of Action were presented to NGOs and donors. Both meetings were opened up to solicit comments and questions from the participants, which resulted in a great deal of productive dialogue.

As a result of the many collaborative meetings and discussions with Heads of Agencies, NGO's and donors, the Inter Agency Plan of Action has become an important tool for the UN Country Team to respond and prevent abuse and exploitations of humanitarian beneficiaries. It includes objectives such as:

- Strengthen standards of accountability of humanitarian workers;

- Minimize risks and opportunities for exploitation and abuse of refugees, IDP's and host communities;

- Improve data collection and information sharing amongst humanitarian agencies and counterparts on incidences of exploitation and abuse to strengthen understanding, prevention, and response;

- Strengthen inter-agency response capacity in the field;

- Ensure a swift response to support victims and sanction perpetrators of exploitation and abuse;

- Monitor, supervise, and report on the overall implementation of the inter-agency Plan of Action for the prevention and response to exploitation and abuse of beneficiaries of humanitarian aid in Guinea.

One of the main concerns that has arisen, however, is the mobilization of resources, both human and financial, in order to realize the objectives put forth in the Plan of Action. While many activities have already been initiated with the resources that are currently available, other activities will require additional inputs. It is important to keep in mind that the level to which exploitation and abuse can be minimized will also depend on the resources available to obtain this goal.

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Please note that the next West African Newsletter will come out of our new OCHA Regional Support Office (RSO) in Ivory Coast (Abidjan).

Disclaimer

This item is delivered to you by OCHA Geneva but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.

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