OCHA Situation Report No. 127
Liberia
22 - 27 November 2004


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

A. General Situation

Highlights

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno who
visited Liberia this week said that the international community will
commit to the pledges made earlier this year if the government and
Liberian people are seen managing the country's resources for the good of
the people. He urged Liberians to ensure the efforts of the international
community are sustained saying Liberians should take the lead with the
international community standing by as "good partners." He reaffirmed the
international community's commitment and support to the elections and said
the October 2005 date was irreversible.

The National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA) rejected the
electoral reform bill reconsideration motion filed by some of its members,
which was met with stiff resistance arguing that the bill has already been
passed and should be sent to the Chairman for approval. In retaining
Article 80(d) of the constitution, the NTLA maintained that it is not
recommending a census before October 2005 elections. The assembly is being
called upon to engage in a constructive dialogue with the National
Elections Commission and the transitional government and rethink the
importance of voter registration in determining the House of
Representatives. The Economic Community of West African States Executive
Secretary, Mohamed Chambas, has written the assembly asking them not to do
anything to derail the peace process. Mr. Chambas reminded the NTLA that
whatever agreement reached on the bill, it should conform to the spirit
and intent of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

WFP airlifted 50 tons of food through UNMIL helicopter during 20-22
November. to address the needs of more than 10,000 registered Ivorian
refugees have crossed into Liberia registered by UNHCR in Nimba County as
of 21 November. The refugees arrived in Liberia due to the recent unrest
in Cote d'Ivoire. WFP will start food distribution as soon as UNHCR
completes its verification process. WFP needs the verified registry to
calculate the beneficiary numbers and identify locations for distribution
points. Distribution so close to the border needs to be done with great
care as it can create mass influx of Ivorians into Liberia. While all
involved hope that tension in Cote d'Ivoire decreases so that Ivorians can
return home and focus on their harvest and livelihoods, the humanitarian
community is looking into an alternative plan in case of prolonged
tension. An UNMIL engineer mission is visiting the area to assess the road
and bridge conditions. HCR is considering transportation of refugees to a
more suitable location further away from the border. WFP plans to
replenish its food supplies in Saclepea during the week with food for
local programming activities as well as food for an additional 5,000
refugee beneficiaries for a period of 30 days at full ration (82.6 tons).

Liberian women joined their colleagues around the world on 25 November by
launching 16 days of activism against gender violence in the country.
Speaking at the launch, Health Adviser to the transitional government Ms.
Elizabeth Mulbah called on women to stand firm, work together and fight
against physical, sexual and psychological violence. Also speaking at the
occasion, UNICEF Representative to Liberia, Ms. Angela Kearney, called on
Liberians to collaborate with other organizations operating in the country
and develop programs that can prevent violence against women and girls.
The program was also marked by the dedication of a SGBV Resource Center
located at the Ministry of Gender by Mrs. Rose Bryant, wife of Chairman
Gyude Bryant of the Transitional Government of Liberia

The women wearing white-T-shirts and colorful handmade caps inscribed with
short messages on Sexual Gender-Based Violence, Liberian women, youths and
advocates of gender equality paraded the streets of Monrovia to observe 25
November 04 as the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women and
the launch of the 16 Days Campaign against Gender-Based Violence.

This year's theme is "For the health of women, for the health of the
World, No more Violence.

The campaign will run until December 10, International Human Rights Day
featuring varying activities geared towards creating an awareness on the
importance of upholding national and international instruments that
promote the rights of women and children.

B. COORDINATION

The humanitarian situation

HCS has recently completed a mission to the Southeast undertaken in two
phases, the first from 18 to 20 November and the second from 22 to 25
November 2004. The key objectives of the missions were to 1) follow up on
the new office operations and make arrangements for the second mission
that was to visit Grand Kru and River Gee Counties and 2) verify
information provided by the NGOs Emergency Rehabilitation Services (ERS),
Liberia Agro Systems (LAS) and SEED when applying for ERF funding.
Proposals from the former two organizations have been approved and are
awaiting disbursement of funds. The County Resettlement Assessment
Committee (CRAC) is already formed and functioning in Maryland and has
concluded two assessment teams and assessments in Harper and
Pleebo/Sodoken districts. The two districts have been recommended as
'safe' but with a note on the lack of basic social services mainly water
and sanitation, education and health services. A request from the local
leaders and the community is encouraging NGOs and other humanitarian
organizations to not only bring their activities to Harper but also move
to the other deserving districts/areas. Assessments are currently
continuing in Karluway and Barrobo districts.

Some NGOs are beginning to support activities in the three Southeastern
Counties. Reactivation of the JJ Dorssen hospital remains a critical
priority. Merlin is providing primary health services but keeps getting
referrals of an emergency nature from the community and clinics for which
they have no capacity to handle. Rehabilitation of the operation theatre
and provision of laboratory services is still a critical need. A good
percentage of the emergency cases referred are in need of emergency
obstetric care that is currently not available. The reactivation of the
hospital needs to remain high on the agenda of not only the humanitarian
community but also the Ministry of Health.

The HCS presence in Harper needs to be maintained to establish
coordination mechanisms, facilitate and participate actively in joint
assessments inorder to identify gaps as well as advocate for key issues
that need concerted support. With this information available, it is easy
to guide agencies that want to undertake activities on areas/sectors of
most need. Requests for better coordination in WATSAN and agricultural
activities have been raised by the NGOs and there is a request that the
transition of the OCHA functions to UNMIL should be completed as soon as
possible to enable HCS to go back to Harper and continue with operations.

Watsan and Sanitation

The first Water and Sanitation Technical Working Group meeting was held on
24 November. Prior to the meeting, HCS had held discussions with ICRC,
Solidarite and World Vision on the need for coordination. Technical issues
discussed included standard watsan designs, recommended pumps for the
country and also who is doing what, where. HCS was tasked to get the
current watsan technical guidelines from the Ministry of Rural Development
for the next meeting. HCS in collaboration with HIC is expected to develop
a matrix on 'Who, What, Where' broken down in County, district and
town/village. The Group will hold meetings once a month.

The lack of support to Grand Kru County was reconfirmed. The critical
areas were found to be in WATSAN, Education, Agriculture and the road
infrastructure and concerted advocacy needs to continue to help alleviate
the situation.

Parts of the County are completely inaccessible because of lack of
bridges, poor or no roads despite the need for intervention being great.
Vehicles are not able to reach the County capital of Barclayville and HCS
staff had to use a canoe to cross North River, and walk to Barclayville.

DDR Support initiatives

UNMIL continues to disarm special caseloads of ex-combatants in remote
areas of Lofa County in the North-West (Kola Hun, Foya) by mobile
disarmament teams.

November continues to be the grace period when weapons and ammunition can
be handed in at any UNMIL checkpoint voluntarily without prosecution or
benefits. Only ex-combatants who could not be legitimately disarmed before
the official end of the exercise on October 31 will receive full
Disarmament Demobilisation benefits. Interim Care Centers (ICCs) in
Voinjama, Harper, Ganta and Zwedru still have some cases of Children
Associated with Fighting Forces (CAFF) undergoing the demobilization
process. WFP continues to support the children in the ICCs through wet
feeding.

SGBV Resource Centre launched

UNHCR's SGVB partner, DEN-L has renovated and furnished the SGBV Resource
Centre at the start of 16 Days of Activism. Resource materials were also
donated by UNIFEM and UNHCR. Formal Minister of Gender, Musuleng Cooper
urged Liberians and partners in Liberia's recovery to help equip the
center with the necessary reading materials.

The idea of the centre was given birth during Mrs. Cooper's administration
three years ago, through the help of UNHCR, the support of other UN
Agencies and NGOs were solicited for the realization of the Centre.

C. HUMANITARIAN ACTIVITIES BY SECTOR

Food Aid

WFP pipeline situation

WFP Liberia plans to feed an average of 700,000 beneficiaries with 8,000
Mt. of food per month for the next six months from December 2004 through
April 2005. The current available resources will meet food needs up to
December 2004. WFP Liberia requires additional pledges and resources
estimated at US$ 18.7 Million to avert shortfalls of 18,373 Mt. of
cereals, 1,428 Mt. of Pulses, 1374 Mt. of Veg Oil, 3399 Mt. of CSB, 49 Mt.
of Salt and 33 Mt of Sugar from December 2004 through April 2005.

General food distribution

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees continue to return to
Counties declared 'safe' by UNMIL and the National Transition Government.
The second convoy of 209 returnees from the Laine Refugee Camp in Guinea
arrived in Liberia on November 18, 2004. Upon their arrival at the UNHCR
Transit Center in Gbarnga, Bong County, WFP distributed some 7 Mt. of
assorted food commodities as a two months return package. Additionally,
192 Liberians arrived from Nigeria in two groups on 17 and 20 November.
Distribution of the food package to the returnees from Nigeria is still
on-going.

Between 16- 23 November, a total of 1,276 IDPs were resettled to their
preferred places of return in three convoys. The first convoy comprising
of 542 IDP beneficiaries moved from Perry Town IDP Camp to Sinje, Grand
Cape Mount County, on Nov. 16, 2004. A second convoy left Seigbeh IDP Camp
on Nov. 18, 2004 with a total of 269 IDPs to Bo Waterside in Grand Cape
Mount County. The third convoy moved some 465 IDPs from Siegbeh to Sinje,
Grand Cape Mount County. All the convoys were organized and coordinated by
IOM and UNHCR in collaboration with WFP and LRRRC, as well as Camp
Leadership, the Camp Management Agencies and other concerned parties.
Registration of IDPs for the return and reintegration process continues in
six IDP camps including Wilson, Siegbeh, Perry, Blamasee, Plumkor and
Ricks.

Distribution of general food rations for the month of November continued
during the week. Some 122,373 IDPs were served one month's food rations
totaling 1,517 Mt of various food commodities. Food distribution to IDPs
was completed in Wilson camp, Blamasee, Perry Town, Plunkor, Jah-Tondo,
Brown Town, Massaquoi Town, Children Home, Civil compound, Horton Farm,
Maimu 1,2,3 and EJ Yancy camps. Distribution is in progress in Ricks and
Newland IDP camps. Spontaneous returnees settling in Perry Town and
Ivorian refugees residing in Monrovia were also served.

Food Support to Local initiatives

In preparation for the resumption of food support to some FSLI activities
in Liberia, the WFP Country Office organized a one day training workshop
for Partners on guidelines for the implementation of FSLI activities. The
training was held on November 24. WFP has suspended all food for work
activities since September 2004 due to resource constraints. An increasing
number of FSLI activities will be supported since the food pipeline has
gradually improved in recent weeks.

Education

UNICEF provided financial and technical support for the training of 30
trainers from the University of Liberia, the Cuttington University College
and the three Rural Teacher Training Institutes in Liberia. These 30
trainers are providing in-service training to more than 400 primary school
teachers from 100 schools across the country.

UNICEF facilitated a visit to Voinjama, Lofa County with the Minister of
Education and other partner organizations to assess the general education
situation in Voinjama. The education needs in this county are very urgent.
The team visited four public schools in Voinjama.

An 8-day training for 110 Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP) teachers
ended on Saturday, 19 November in Montserrado County. The training,
supported by UNICEF, will enable the ALP in 27 public schools, benefiting
about 2,000 ALP students and 30,000 non-ALP students. Almost all of the
benefiting schools have a large student enrollment of IDPs, CAFF and
former refugees. The training marks the start of the implementation of
advanced learning to the huge number of Liberian children who have missed
out on educational opportunities because of the conflict.

School Feeding program

Food deliveries to schools in Montserrado country continued during the
reporting period, with distribution of some 310 Mt. of food to benefit
70,170 school children.

Health and Nutrition/HIV/Aids interventions

During the reporting period, WFP held a series of planning meetings with
various partners for the planned Bomi County Nutrition and Food Security
survey. Survey training was carried out on November 25, 2004 in
Tubmanburg, Bomi County and thereafter, data collection will be from
November 28 to December 3, 2004. The survey will provide baseline data on
health & nutrition and food security situation in the county in order to
assist the planning and proper targeting of aid interventions and allow
proper impact assessment in future.

WFP held discussions with partners in health sector on the possibilities
of conducting an in-depth analysis of the nutrition situation of IDPs in
Monsterrado. World Vision Liberia, ACF and MSF expressed interest in
undertaking such analysis in December 2004. WFP will collaborate with
these partners in order to assess the impact of reduced rations on
nutritional status of the beneficiaries, including their coping
mechanisms.

During the reporting period, the chairman of the National Elections
Commission Cllr. Frances Johnson Morris launched the second round of the
National Immunization Days at the IDP Camp in Johnsonville (Mount
Barclay), Montserrado County about twenty minutes drive from Monrovia. The
campaign ran from 18-22 November, followed by two days of house-to-house
vaccination. The children are receiving vitamin 'A' supplement in the
second round. UNICEF is supporting the campaign in collaboration with the
WHO, the Ministry of Health and other anti-polio partners. More than
891,000 children are targeted for this round of the campaign.

Protection

UNICEF held a one-day workshop with Child Protection Agencies on 24
November 2004 on the implementation modalities of the Community Education
Investment Programme (CEIP). CEIP forms a cornerstone of UNICEF's
reintegration approach, providing support to schools and communities. CEIP
will benefit all children in communities to which demobilized children. A
total of 15 participants representing various Child Protection Agencies
attended.

The total caseload of demobilised children associated with fighting forces
since December 2003 is 10,795. Of this total, 8,352 are boys and 2,443 are
girls, including 17 pregnant girls and 88 babies. To date, 10,259 children
(7,908 boys and 2,351girls) have been reunified with their families,
representing 95% of all children demobilised. A total of 464 children are
awaiting reunification in UNICEF-supported Interim Care Centers (ICCs).
UNICEF is currently supporting 12 Interim Care Centers, providing
educational, health, recreational, psycho-social and tracing and
reunification services to demobilized CAFF.

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