Supporter: Ruth Allen

More than 6.4 million Libyans are living out a historic transition: emerging from 42 years of harsh authoritarianism towards a democratic state wherein the people are the source of authority. There is urgent need for the international community to understand the country’s immediate governance issues in order to effectively support the people of Libya.

In July 2011, Mercy Corps and The Governance Network (TGN) teamed up to carry out an assessment of the immediate governance issues facing Libya.

Combining Mercy Corps’ world-wide experience in civil society capacity building and local governance with TGN’s expertise with governments in transition and public sector development, the assessment aimed to identify areas where international assistance would be of use in Libya and to examine the greatest potential barriers to success of internationally supported interventions.

The team traveled to Benghazi, Derna, Al Badyia and Tobruq to conduct interviews with over 40 NTC members, government officials and civil society leaders. The team held focus group discussions with youth, the media and academics, as well as hosted a civil society roundtable in Benghazi.

The fully qualitative process provides illustrative examples that depict the current context from which six major themes emerged. It was, however, only an initial step and more detailed assessments, in close partnership with Libyan groups, will be important to determine specific needs and programming options in what remains a very fast-evolving environment.

Download the 15-page paper below.

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What could a politician from Mozambique, a community leader from Nepal,a journalist from the United Kingdom and me possibly have in common? A whole lot it turns out! For one, we’re all here in Montréal, Canada with 700 more colleagues from 94 countries at the 9th CIVICUS World Assembly — a gathering of civil society leaders and our partners in governments and the private sector committed to positive social change.

The conference is an SOS! call to get serious about practical solutions to the interconnected issues of economic justice, development effectiveness and climate change — all issues close to Mercy Corps’ heart. It’s at once a sophisticated conversation about implementation of political agreements and a very human conversation about the impact of aid on real people’s lives. And that’s the point — that global civil society and its organisations bring proven local solutions and critical leadership to global relief and development decision-making.

The word “solutions” can be so daunting; it sounds long-term and all-encompassing, not something in the control of any one individual facing gigantic global challenges. Yet, as the CIVICUS Twitter feed shows, there’s a lot of learning, relationship building and real-time action having immediate impact as well as laying the foundation for longer-term efforts:

• “Learning a technique to create political will and awareness on poverty and climate justice.”
• “Excellent case study triggered discussion on building sustainable partnerships and developing solutions.”
• “Just met someone from Indonesia who can advise on our climate work in Sri Lanka!”

The assembly’s venue in Montréal also offers the chance to learn from this city’s great models of collaboration between civil society and government. For example, in a workshop today on youth participation in governance, I learned about a £1 million annual fund in which public monies are managed by a youth network for youth-led (and youth prioritized!) programmes in the city. Through this mechanism, the youth network and its grantees are learning the ropes of government reporting and constituent representation at the same time that communities get tangible benefits that could not have been dreamed up by anyone other than the youth groups themselves.

The young woman from Colombia I was sitting next to was furiously scribbling notes and literally ran up to the presenters afterwards to learn how she could adapt their idea back home. In the same session, people were eager to learn about Mercy Corps’ Global Citizen Corps programme and the linkages between youth in the United States, United Kingdom, Middle East and elsewhere educating themselves for local action.

For me, I’m taking away fresh energy, best practice ideas and potential partnerships I’ll share with Mercy Corps colleagues around the world — from our Mongolia team’s leadership with policy makers, to our Jordan team’s work with disabled people’s organisations, to our Sudan team’s support to women leading community-based organisations. They’re the ones forging the real solutions.

Find out more about CIVICUS and watch sessions of the World Assembly at http://www.civicus.org, or tune into the BBC’s “World Have Your Say” programme aired live from the World Assembly on Monday, August 23 at 12:30pm Eastern Time at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldhaveyoursay.

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Congratulations to the Mercy Corps Mongolia team for winning the 2010 Disability inclusion Award given by InterAction!

Their work is living proof of how major strides for disability inclusion can happen rapidly with focused interventions and strong public-private-civil society partnerships. People With Disabilities (PWDs) are among the most marginalised groups in the rural areas of Mongolia where Mercy Corps’ programmes are implemented. In only 15 months since our programming with PWDs began in Mongolia, the team has had nationwide impact through major policy change and fostering a culture of inclusion.

Mandal Urtnasan (Civil Society Director) and Oidov Vaanchig (FIELD Project Officer) hold the approved “National Standards for Accessible Construction and Walkways,” which Mercy Corps helped a task force write for the government of Mongolia. Photo: Mercy Corps Mongolia

As an initial step, Mercy Corps established a diverse multi-agency task force of leading Mongolian organisations and government and private sector representatives to deliver advocacy campaigns designed to improve the accessibility of public buildings and walkways for PWDs. Insufficient access to basic infrastructure prevents PWDs accessing basic public services such as education, health and social welfare, as well as limiting their ability to seek and find employment.

By consequence, most PWDs in Mongolia are housebound and isolated from community life. The task force also studied the legal environment and worked with engineers to design accessibility guidelines that were then presented to the Mongolian government.

In February 2010, the "National Standards for Accessible Construction and Walkways" became enforceable under Mongolian law. Although approval of the standards will alone not automatically result in greater access for PWDs, they do create the needed legal foundation and provide specific engineering regulations for all current and future buildings in the entire country.

This policy victory has also motivated disabled people’s organisations to strive for the full achievement of accessibility for PWDs in all aspects of life. As a result of the Mercy Corps campaign, 23 accessibility ramps have already been built by government and private sector agencies at their own cost and several agencies have also modified their facilities to accommodate the needs of PWDs (including Mercy Corps ourselves!).

The Mercy Corps Mongolia team has shown that successful public education, advocacy campaigns, collaboration with policy-makers and other activities supporting PWDs can be designed and delivered by and for local people without significant external resources.

Approval and implementation of the new National Standards is only a first step in ending the exclusion of PWDs from social, economic and political life in Mongolia. Real change will only be complete when PWDs are accepted as equals with all people in all spheres of life. As one programme participant said, “do not give us aid, give us a chance.” Mercy Corps is committed to continuing its work with all people in Mongolia to help realize that dream.

Again, congratulations to Country Director Dominic Graham, Civil Society Director Mandal Urtnasan, programme team members Nasandelger Zandan, Oidov Vaanchig, Erdenesuvd Nyam, Dashzeveg Enkhtaivan, Chimeg Chuluun, Odkhuu Sanjaa, Saruul Orsoo and all partner organisations that made these efforts possible.

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As long as I can remember, there’s been a world map hanging in my grandmother’s kitchen.

When I called to let her know I was off to Liberia soon, she was quiet for a minute and then yelped when she found the small west African country — just about the size of Tennessee — located between Cote d’Ivorie, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Over the coming few weeks we both learned a lot more about Liberia.

Crisscrossing the country to interview Liberians about issues important in their communities, it wasn’t surprising to hear food security as a recurring concern. Liberia is still emerging from decades of political turmoil and outright civil war, which decimated the country’s agriculture industry and killed or displaced a third of the population.

At a food security conference last year, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used an experience in Liberia to illustrate the severity and scale of the global food crisis. “The poorest of the poor spend two-thirds or more of their income on food. They will be the hardest hit. I have seen this for myself. In Liberia recently, I met people who normally would buy rice by the bag. Today, they buy it by the cup.”

Photo: Ruth Allen

But as I saw, it’s not just the UN and groups like Mercy Corps, farmers, or the government who are working on improving food security in Liberia. Some of the most creative and effective efforts are by local women’s organisations.

In the village of Bopolu, a community-based women’s organisation identified the biggest threat to their community’s development as “the hungry season” — the difficult months between the time when the rice stocks run out and the next harvest.

In just a year since forming, the group adapted a traditional savings and loan model to generate funds for several members to attend training about methods to improve crop yields, negotiated with the district commissioner for land, and solicited community donations from their personal stores of seeds. As a result, the chairwoman said, “this year has been good and women who are not even members watch us and are inspired to use the new method.”

Meanwhile back in the U.S., Grandma was learning all about Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first elected female head of state in Africa. “She’s quite a woman! I saw her on Larry King talking about how women helped lead the peace movement.”

Indeed she was right. Liberia is an exceptional case of women organising for peaceful change. Groups like the Women In Peace Network (WIPNET-Liberia) are now mobilizing those same women who rallied to end the civil war to tackle Liberia’s long-term development issues. Programme Coordinator Lindora Diawara summed up WIPNET’s new motivation by recalling what she hears all the time from network members: “We volunteered for peace and held the placards, but even now we can not read those same placards. We need to know [literacy] so we can make a living and feed our families.” Adult women’s literacy and food security are now top priorities for WIPNET.

When I returned home and told Grandma this story she said, “Well that’s smart. Mercy Corps should really listen to those women!”

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People in Liberia, especially women, have become more aware of their rights since the country's long civil war ended six years ago. Photo: Emmy Lang-Kennedy for Mercy Corps

In May, amidst headlines of new military activity in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, two other stories signaled an opening for a different kind of U.S. engagement in the world that has great significance for groups like Mercy Corps.

The first was the submission of House Resolution 416, calling on the U.S. to “become an international human rights leader” by ratifying and implementing several United Nations (UN) conventions — including rights for children and the disabled, as well as measures to eliminate discrimination against women. The second signal came when the U.S. won election to the UN Human Rights Council for the first time in history, after the Obama administration ended U.S. policy that boycotted the council earlier this year.

While the hard work has just begun, U.S. sleeves have been rolled up. The potential to do good is vast.

The U.S. track record of supporting the UN and international cooperation on conventions is decidedly mixed. While countless individual Americans and U.S.-based organisations have been instrumental in leading the charge for human rights since before the UN’s founding in the 1940s, the U.S. remains one of an increasingly small group of holdouts that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Take CEDAW for example— the most controversial of the three — a convention that is often described as “an international bill of rights for women.” Despite being one of the 64 states to sign CEDAW on the first day possible in 1980, the U.S. was not among the first 20 states to ratify the convention and put it into force — nor have we been among the 164 ratifying states since. Our leadership in crafting the document is well acknowledged, as are our advocacy efforts for its ratification in other countries. We've supported women using the Convention as an essential instrument for holding their governments accountable for equal treatment of women under the law.

However, American women have never themselves enjoyed the benefits of CEDAW.

The arguments against U.S. ratification are falling increasingly flat in 2009. One of the main concerns has been that the U.S. would relinquish too much power to the international community, with the provisions of the Convention superseding federal and state laws. CEDAW, like most international agreements, allows countries to express "reservations, understandings and declarations" where there are discrepancies between the international convention and domestic law.

This is a moot point, however, since U.S. law for the most part already complies with the requirements of the Convention — and, conversely, the principles of the Convention are already in line with the letter and values of U.S. Constitution. Regardless, ratifying CEDAW grants no enforcement authority to the UN.

As for America’s new role on the UN Human Rights Council, this is a perfect opportunity for reform from within. The Council has come under sharp criticism in recent years due to the membership of some of the world’s worst human rights offenders. With China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia joining the U.S. as newly-elected members, the incoming class is no exception. Yet, being on the Council puts countries in the international spotlight, which has aided organisations’ successful pressuring of many governments to adopt or implement existing laws that protect a wide array of human rights.

I recently returned from Liberia, the small West African nation founded by freed American slaves in 1847. In the six years since Liberia’s 14-year civil war ended, one of the major success stories is the general public’s awareness about their rights. Even women in rural counties who missed the opportunity for any formal education now pore over summaries of Liberia’s inheritance law as homework for adult literacy classes. Demand for peace has transformed into advocacy for the right to an education, to equal representation in government and fair treatment in the workplace.

It is inspiring to see Liberia turning this corner. It is also a stark reminder of the work still left to do — whether it’s earning access to education in Liberia or finally achieving equal pay for America’s female workforce. Conventions such as CEDAW and bodies like the UN Human Rights Council are well positioned to help the world accomplish these and other important goals.

The U.S. Congress should expedite passage of all UN conventions identified in House Resolution 416 and leverage U.S. membership on the UN Human Rights Council to renew its effective role in making human rights in the interest of every country — including ours.

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