17 March 2008

GPPi conducts field research in Liberia

From 10–17 March 2008, the GPPi “Learning to Build Peace” research team spent a week in Liberia conducting field research. Thorsten Benner, Stephan Mergenthaler, Philipp Rotmann and GPPi Fellow Ricardo Soares de Oliveira met with officials from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) as well as representatives of UN agencies, donors and the international financial institutions in the West African country.

The team interviewed some thirty officials and experts to analyze the organization of the UN mission and knowledge management efforts in the areas of police reform, judicial reform and mission integration, and the mid-term perspectives for UN involvement in Liberia. Interviewees included Jordan Ryan, Deputy Special-Representative of the Secretary-General for Recovery and Governance and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator; Henrietta J.A.N. Mensa-Bonsu, Deputy Special-Representative of the Secretary-General for Operations and the Rule of Law; Lieutenant-General C. Isaac Obiakor, UNMIL Force Commander; Henrik Stiernblad, UNMIL Deputy Police Commissioner; Ambassador Ilse Lindemann-Macha of Germany; and Ambassador Zhou Yuxiao of China. The trip was part of GPPi’s two-year research project “Learning to Build Peace? UN Peacebuilding and Organizational Learning” funded by the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF).

GPPi is particularly grateful to Dionne Maxwell (UNMIL) and Ulrich Schiefelbein (UNMIL Police) for facilitating our research in Liberia.

For more information on the project "Learning to Build Peace", please click here.

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