By P. Clarence Jackson, latifahkpah172@gmail.com
With the growing threat to peace of land disputes, the Bong County Security Council has concluded a three day capacity building training of trainers workshop on land education for more than 60 local leaders from eleven of the county’s thirteen districts.
With support from the United States Agency for International development’s mitigating local disputes in Liberia program, the training of training workshop was part of efforts by the Bong County Security Council to build the capacity of local leaders in handling land dispute cases at the local level.
The head of the Bong County Security Council training team Mr. Joseph M. Urey told www.newspublictrust.coml that the resolution of land dispute cases is crucial to maintaining peace in Liberia and was important for the local leaders to be trained on how to resolve such cases in their various towns and villages.
“As you may know, the issues associated with land dispute cannot be over look no matter where it takes place, so we are training these local leaders to be able to carefully handle the situation”.
Mr. Urey said, after the training, the participants will go back to their respective communities and train others, because everyone needs to get involve and assist the government in the resolution of land cases.
“ We do not want a situation where people will result to violent because of a land dispute case before we come in as a government, so we are doing everything possible to ensure our local leaders get the requisite skills to ably resolve any land dispute or disputes at the village, town and community level Mr. Urey toldwww.newspublictrust.coml
Mr. Urey said, the local leaders were drawn from the eleven districts where the mitigating local dispute in Liberia program is not operating in Bong County.
“The mitigating local dispute in Liberia program is working in Suakoko and Kpaii districts in Bong County giving support to the Bong County Security Council by ensuring that local people serve as a first point of security for themselves in the various communities.
“We are using these three days to build the capacity of the participants on Land tenure, value of land as well as Inheritance right of women to own land, and we are also telling them about the kind of land disputes that are above them also”.
“We are exceptionally greatful to the mitigating local dispute program in Liberia, because the program is making a serious impact since it was launched in Bong County”.
According to Mr. Urey beacsue of the program, citizens in towns and villages across Bong County are now awared of the proper channel to follow in claiming the attention of the government when the feel disenchanted about any land dispute.
Also speaking to www.newspublictrust.com, the Coordinator of the Mitigating local disputes in Liberia program in Bong County Jonathan Tokpah Roberts commended the Bong County Security Council for bringing the local leaders together for the training.
“We are really impressed that the Bong County Security Council decided to take the lead by building the capacity of local leaders from districts where the program is not operating in the county for this training.”
Mr. Roberts believed the issues associated with land dispute in Liberia requires the collective efforts of all Liberians and was important for everyone to take advantage of any training aimed at resolving land cases at the community level.
Jonathan Tokpah Roberts, Coordinator of the Mitigating local dispute in Liberia Bong
The Training brought together District Commissioners, Paramount and Clan Chiefs, as well as City Mayors including women and youth leaders.
Headed by the Superintendent of Bong County, the Bong County Security Council was set up in 2016 through the Mitigating local dispute program in Liberia as a means of building the Institutional and human capacity of local government officials and citizens to manage disputes and security concerns by focusing on developing and expanding county security Councils, District Security Councils and Community forums.
The Kaizen Company is implementing the second phase of the Mitigating Local Disputes in Liberia (MLDL) project, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). Kaizen is working to build the institutional and human capacity of local government officials and citizens to manage disputes and security concerns by focusing on developing and expanding County Security Councils (CSCs), District Security Councils (DSCs) and Community Forums (CFs). Kaizen is supporting structures at multiple levels in Liberian society to give citizens the ability to bring disputes to authority figures as easily as possible with the aim of preventing minor disputes from becoming large scale conflicts. In this way, the project is working to foster peace by applying alternative dispute resolution and mediation techniques to supplant violence. This builds citizens’ trust and confidence in the government’s ability to fairly and rapidly respond to issues that are (or could become) larger security concerns.
Since Kaizen took over MLDL at the end of 2014, structure members trained under the program have addressed over 1,300 disputes, resolving 940 of them. Additionally, MLDL is providing direct support by procuring critical inputs such as solar panels, construction materials, computers, cameras, motorbikes, and office supplies to ensure that the councils and forums have the tools they need to conduct their work. The project currently supports 32 structures in Lofa, Nimba, Bong, and Grand Gedeh counties providing mediation and adjudication support at all levels of Liberian society across the region where the country’s bloody civil wars first erupted.
A customized issue tracking database launched in 2015 is now in its third iteration and allows the MLDL team to track security concerns as they arise and manage their progress through the structure system to resolution.
With a focus on long-term sustainability, Kaizen has tailored its Organizational, Self-Assessment and Transformation Program (OSTP) to support CSCs, DSCs, and CFs in conducting self-assessments of existing operational and technical capacities, while also supporting the leadership in developing and implementing five-year strategic plans, annual implementation plans, bylaws, and communication plans, thereby fostering the sustainability of these councils and forums beyond Phase II of MLDL.