Gbarnga, Bong County- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Liberian government have started a two-day joint Price Monitoring Technical Training in the central Liberian city of Gbarnga.
According to the WFP, the training of 30 price monitoring technicians from Liberia’s 15 counties opened on Thursday and it is being done through the Ministry of Agriculture and the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Service (LIGIS).
The workshop is aimed at capturing and facilitating experience-sharing and equipping the Agriculture Ministry and LIGIS field-level staff engaged in collection, analysis and reporting of market date.
This is to better communicate, improve the contents of the monthly market monitoring bulletins, and strengthen partnerships and networks.
The Acting Director of Food Security and Nutrition at the Agriculture Ministry, Mr. Tarnue Koiwou said: “We are being supported by our partners WFP and FAO. This is not their exercise. This is our responsibility and so we must take owenership of this going forward. WFP and other partners have been helping us establish our market information system and we must sustain it and make price monitoring work well for this country.”
WFP Liberia’s Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Officer, Emmanuel Anderson, lauded the Government of Liberia for its enduring partnership with the World Food Programme on price monitoring activities, a WFP press release said.
Mr. Anderson said WFP’s work in the country is carefully aligned to the Government of Liberia’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) priorities as WFP has a global mandate to support some of the most vulnerable members of society, with different social protection interventions.
Twenty-three (23) markets are currently being monitored with approximately 20 food commodities and other non-food items involving 27 data collection personnel and enumerators from LISGIS field offices in all 15 counties. This includes markets as far away as Foya in Lofa County; Saclepea, Nimba County; Barclayville, Grand Kru County and as close as markets in Monrovia among others.
Liberia is increasingly vulnerable to high food price shocks as has been witnessed since 2008.
The government has been concerned about the rise in food prices and as such, it has been undertaking regular joint Government-WFP market monitoring exercise for which an MOU was signed between the Government of Liberia (MoA, LISGIS)and WFP.