The IPCR is Cuttington University’s response to rounds of violence in West Africa and the Mano River Basin (Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and recently The Ivory Coast) in general and Liberia in particular. The program has both academic (teaching) and research based but largely student focused, giving students an opportunity (ies) to explore more into issues of conflict management, resolution and peacebuilding at the community level. The program was established in 2004 with significant logistical support from USAID. The institute started with barely five students in its certificate program but presently runs a full fledged academic program at three different levels: advanced certificate, diploma and a BA in Peace and Development Studies. Enrollment in the program is overwhelming. Hence also our great need for capacity building.
Like societies everywhere, Liberia has seen spirals of conflicts since it's inception as a state. Occasionally these conflicts have become violent with untold impact on the nation and its people. One of these violent conflicts erupted in 1989 and came to a shaky end in 1997. Another soon erupted right after and ended in 2003. Both of these crises reduced Liberia to a failed state. From our experience at Cuttington University, we can attest that conflicts can lead to the total collapse of educational services and it is a slow painful process to reestablish those services. It was against this background that the President of Cuttington found it imperative to establish the Institute in 2004 to respond to the need for conflict resolution and sustainable peace.
Train a cadre of competent professionals in peace and development studies adept at addressing emerging postwar realities and enhancing Liberia’s reconstruction efforts in particular as well as proffering solutions to present and future development challenges in the Mano River region – comprised of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – and the African continent at large.
Students that are enrolled in the Institute go out into the communities and villages and conduct peace workshops. The workshops have grown so large in numbers that the Institute is finding it difficult to fund the workshops.
The primary goal of the Institute is to determine the root causes of conflict in Liberia and the region by identifying relevant methodologies in the management and resolution of conflicts in the country. The secondary goal is to encourage collaborative research among Liberian and other African scholars in order to improve their understanding of the causes of conflict, develop relevant and appropriate strategies for their prevention and map the way forward in sustaining and promoting the culture of peace.
The primary issue addressed in this program is to identify the root causes of conflict and gain knowledge and skills in managing, resolving and preventing said conflict. This is particularly significant to Liberia since Liberia is emerging and gradually recovering from the ruins of a devastating civil war, the need to consolidate peace is a shared national responsibility and a very crucial one for the reconciliation and rebuilding process. The Institute serves as a research center poised to investigate and proffer solutions to causes of long running conflicts and their associated developmental consequences in Liberia and other West African countries.
Between September 2005 and August 2006, Cuttington University Peace Institute planned and implemented an eight month long agriculture Peace and Capacity Building Program designed to provide sustainable marketable skills to 200 ex-combatants. This program, which was sponsored, by United Nations Development Program/Joint Implementation Unit facilitated the reintegration of some 200 ex-combatants in communities in Suakoko District, Bong County. The program was composed of three main phases. Phase I concentrated on community sensitization, recruitment of participants (ex-combatants) and solicitation of local leadership support both moral and material (land appropriation for training and trainees). Phase II of the project was a five month intensive practical skill training session at Cuttington which involved 20% theory and 80% practical instruction. Participants were introduced and drilled in five major training areas from which they had an option to chose one and specialize in the later part of the training program. Once an option was selected, the participant started advanced training under the supervision of the trainer and field assistant. Phase III was a three month community-based component of all aspects of the training areas. In this phase, the training program is concentrated in the community. Trainers worked with participants in actualizing their plans.
The overriding goal of the program is to incorporate peace studies or peace education into existing curricula of higher educational institutions in the country and to provide an opportunity for interaction among all stakeholders: public, private, civil society. We promote a devolutionized (elicitive, bottom-up or participatory) approach to addressing these challenges. We conduct outreach programs including community needs assessment to engage the community and find ways of addressing some of Liberia’s peacebuilding challenges at the community level. We also conduct rigorous research to identify some of the key/substantive causes of conflicts in Liberia and the West African sub-region.
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