Lessons from Liberia

The document analyzes the transition of Liberia from post-conflict security to a fragile peace, focusing on the collaboration between the Government of Liberia (GoL) and the United Nations (UNMIL and UNCT). It details a 'dual-track' approach to peacebuilding: infusing conflict-sensitive concerns into existing policy frameworks like the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), while simultaneously developing targeted programming via the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). The author argues that effective peacebuilding requires building consensus on 'conflict factors'—such as poor leadership, weak justice systems, and mismanagement of natural resources—and integrating these into national planning. The paper concludes that coherence in peacebuilding is a matter of degree rather than an end state, recommending that the UN include independent conflict specialists in mission planning and link mission drawdown benchmarks to government institutional capacity rather than just security indicators.

• Liberia faces persistent conflict challenges despite progress, including rising lawlessness, limited security sector capacity, and the illegal exploitation of natural resources by ex-combatants and disgruntled youth.
• The UN and the Government of Liberia (GoL) adopted a dual-track strategy for peacebuilding: infusing conflict-sensitive concerns into existing policy frameworks and developing specific programming priorities to address identified conflict factors.
• Key conflict factors identified in Liberia include poor leadership and misuse of power, weak justice systems, identity-based divisions, poverty, food insecurity, mismanagement of natural resources, and pressures on reintegration.
• The Government of Liberia's Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy (iPRS) initially omitted governance-related issues such as poor leadership and weak justice systems, though these were later pushed for inclusion by the Working Group on Conflict Sensitivity.
• A $15 million grant from the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) was utilized to focus on national reconciliation, critical interventions for at-risk youth in resource-rich areas, and strengthening state capacity for peace consolidation.
• UNMIL's consolidation, drawdown, and withdrawal (CDW) plan distinguishes between 'core' benchmarks (mandate and security essentials) and 'contextual' benchmarks (factors that could reignite conflict), but drawdown remains primarily linked to security-oriented markers.
• Severe capacity constraints within the GoL hindered the ability to develop and implement conflict-sensitive policies, necessitating a focus on building government capacity to ensure national ownership of peacebuilding.
• The author argues that coherence in peacebuilding is not an absolute end state but a matter of degree, as trade-offs are inevitable in dynamic, nonlinear post-conflict systems.

APA

McCandless, E. (2008). Lessons from Liberia. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper161.pdf

Chicago

McCandless, Erin. Lessons from Liberia. Institute for Security Studies, 2008. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper161.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=McCandless |first1=Erin |title=Lessons from Liberia |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=April 2008 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper161.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mccandless2008lessons, author = {McCandless, Erin}, title = {{Lessons from Liberia}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2008}, month = apr, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper161.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }