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SARR Conference, January 13-14, 2009
Monrovia, Liberia
Mano-River Region at Risk? Post-Conflict Conversations Within and
Across Borders
A States at Regional Risk (SARR) Conference
ICIS
convened its first off-site SARR conference on January 13 and 14, 2009 in
Monrovia, Liberia, entitled “Mano-River
Region at Risk? Post-Conflict Conversations Within and Across Borders." This
major international conference brought together over 20 government officials,
international scholarly experts, and key members of civil society from Liberia,
Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Senegal to consider the risks of civil and
governmental instability in West Africa through a regional perspective. A highlight of the meeting was the participation
of Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, who emphasized
the timeliness of collaborative peace-keeping and development efforts among
countries in the Mano River region. She thanked the
conference organizers and participants for coming together to address these
issues saying, “The importance of this union and what we can do to insure the
stability of this region is of utmost importance to all of us. . . . I do hope that some of the important insights [from this meeting] will be
captured and shared with us in an appropriate way as we try to develop our own agenda.”
Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia
The
conference marked a significant moment in the recent histories of Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone. Since 1980, all three countries have been members of
the Mano River Union (MRU), an association
established in 1973 to foster economic cooperation and trade among the member states. It was named for the Mano River which
begins in the Guinea highlands and forms a border between Liberia and Sierra
Leone. However, decades of violent
conflicts and the almost overwhelming task of rebuilding that followed had
prevented the MRU from fulfilling its original objectives. As President
Johnson-Sirleaf stated in her remarks, “Regional approaches have taken a back
seat simply because there is so much work to be done in the countries
themselves to move away from this long history of underdevelopment…” [to read the full transcript of her remarks, click here]
The two-day
conversation was framed around four provocative target questions concerning
Liberia and other countries in the Mano River region. Participants received the
questions in advance and submitted brief position papers addressing one of the
questions prior to the conference. Four sessions resulted with four to six
panelists in each.
Confernce Organizers (L-R: George Wah Williams, Bruce Knauft, Michael McGovern)
Panel facilitators were:
Dr. Michael
McGovern, Assistant Professor, Yale University; Ms. Frances Fortune, West and Central Africa Director, Search
for Common Ground; Mr. Hervé Ludovic de Lys, Head of Regional Office for West Africa, UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs; and Dr. Bruce Knauft, Executive Director, ICIS, Emory
University.
The conference was co-organized by Bruce Knauft, Executive Director of the Institute of Critical International Studies, Emory University and Mike McGovern, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Yale University. The conference implementing partner was Liberia Democracy Watch (LDW), based in Monrovia, George Wah Williams, CEO. Dr. Joanna Davidson, ICIS/SARR Post-doctoral Fellow coordinated the conference target questions and written position papers. The SARR project is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The
conference was widely reported in Monrovia’s news media.
Conference Participants (L-R: Oscar Bloh, Ruth Ceasar, Sékou Konneh)
For a
complete conference statement, schedule, session topics and panelists, selected
position papers, a transcript of President Johnson-Sirleaf’s remarks, and
photographs please click on the links below:
Transcript of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s Remarks
Photographs
A conference
report containing more detailed description of each session and an overview of
the discussions will be posted on this site in late March, 2009.
Mano River Region of West Africa