Gbarnga Hub
One of my duties here is to represent USAID and the US Government on the Justice and Security Task Force (JSTF in lingospeak), a working group of Liberian officials that work on security and justice issues (Ministry of Justice, Judiciary, Police, etc.) as well as donor representatives that meets on a monthly basis. Much of the support for the JSTF comes from a funding mechanism called the Peace Building Fund (PBF) which was created by the United Nations’ Peace Building Commission (PBC) [I’ve found Liberia’s acronym hell just as bad as Iraq’s]. Another of my roles is to sit on the committee that reviews and approves project proposals to use PBF monies.
This week I had the opportunity to go on a site visit to one of the PBF projects known as the Gbarnga Hub. Gbarnga [pronounced ‘Banga] is a major Liberian city (it’s more of a town) East/North East of Monrovia, a little more than half way to the Guinea border. The road to there is all hardball (Interstate so to speak because it’s the only paved road to Guinea) though much of it contains potholes that make DC streets just after the spring thaw look like a freshly paved parking lot. Really, it was not unusual for us to be on the extreme left hand side of the road (folks normally drive on the right here) swerving around a pothole the size of the vehicle, only to look 100 yards down the road to see a truck on the extreme right side of the road swerving around its own pothole. And of course in-between, both sides do this not-so-elegant dance of getting back to the correct lane without kissing bumpers. It’s a lot less stressful to just look out the side window at the surrounding landscape.
Once we arrived in Gbarnga we first met with several civil society leaders to talk about their work and then the Hub. I wouldn’t say the discussions were enlightening, because they affirmed much of what I had been reading (which means I’m not totally clueless about attitudes and work going on around here), but it was valuable. I got to see and hear first hand the distrust of the government that rural folk have in this country. I got to hear how little about the hub these civic leaders knew; and with the leaders that did know about it, the deep, genuine distrust they had that it would be properly managed and funded.
This shot is of the church where we met:
What is the Gbarnga Hub? The United Nations has developed an approach to community policing and emergency response in Post-Conflict countries that involves decentralization of security and justice sector participants in concentrated units called “hubs”. Liberia plans to have 5 hubs, with Gbarnga being the first.
The idea is to have, in one general location, emergency response troops, major police barracks, courthouses, prisons and facilities for community activist groups. The theory is that almost all of the country can be served within several hours of a major event by significant and capable criminal investigation services, have adequate access to the courts and emergency response teams available in the event of violent rebel activity. In the past, police presence in the rural areas was virtually non-existent, and it was nearly impossible for the average person to travel to Monrovia for court proceedings. The military presence is to discourage reformation of the types of lawless groups that terrorized the countryside for so many years and, in this instance, to replace the UNMIL troops that are posted throughout the country.
Given Liberia’s history, culture of corruption, and the general distrust by rural citizens of their government, one can understand the fear many have of large numbers security forces being situated out in the rural areas. More than one leader expressed his members’ concerns that the forces would wind up abusing them instead of protecting them. So while the need to provide security throughout the country (rural people also criticize the government for not providing security) is real, so too is the fear that such power will be abused.
At the Gbarnga Hub we saw a nearly completed training center, completed and just started barracks, a partially completed local civil society work building, and the building pad for the courthouse. We also drove over to the prison and nearly completed juvenile detention and separate women’s detention facilities. Overall it’s a massive complex spread out over dozens of acres.
The trip was one that I and several other donor groups tagged on to. The real purpose was to introduce the project to the new UNMIL chief (I will not even try to write the acronym that is his official title). Our group consisted of 4 vehicles from Monrovia that had 2 USAID people, one US International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) person, one person from GIZ (the government of Germany’s international development organization), one person from the government of Britain’s development organization (DFID), the Swedish Embassy’s local development person, 3 visiting guests from the Swedish Foreign Affairs Office that work on the PBC and PBF issues, and two people (a staff worker and a researcher) from the NY office of the PBC.
Arriving separately were people from UNMIL that work for UN Operations [UN OPS], the Peace Building program, UNMIL Units (Bangladeshi, Pakistani [lunch there was great!], and Nigerian), local Liberians, the Liberian National Police, and Liberian military. It was interesting to see just how many different organizations are trying to pool their resources to bring lasting peace to this country.
It was a long and hot, but worthwhile, day.
I’ll leave you with a photo of one of the hills hear the Gbarnga Hub.
