Liberia

From 2003 to 2005, retired Lieutenant General Daniel Opande was the force commander of the peacekeepers of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Tough but diplomatic, the Kenya Defence Forces officer in 2004 got the commanders of Liberia’s warring factions to agree to the disarming of more than 100,000 former combatants. UNMIL also provided security, technical and logistical support for the electoral process that culminated in peaceful democratic elections in 2005. As the mission finally winds down operations in March 2018, Africa Renewal’s Zipporah Musau and Kingsley Ighobor interviewed Lieutenant General Opande on his experience leading a multinational force during a most challenging period in Liberia. These are excerpts.

Not long ago, images of child soldiers and the nation of Liberia were wedded in the minds of the international community. The country was struggling to end a horrific civil war, but military efforts were going nowhere.

Liberia is at an important juncture in its development trajectory. Since the last decade, the country has embraced a private sector led growth model, which is now gathering pace. The policy conversations have shifted from post-conflict reconstruction to greater involvement in global value chains, domestic market development and recently, the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in government and business. E-commerce is very much a nascent area and, as this assessment notes, each institution has its own interpretation of what e-commerce means and entails for the country. For some, it is a payment system, while for others it is a website. Cognizance of the overall ecosystem is only now starting to develop among the public and private sectors, as well as support actors such as academia, banks and telecommunication firms. The Government can help increase the momentum by integrating e-commerce in the national development agenda and facilitating steady policy and technical support.