The RC Interview: Jordan Ryan, Liberia

When Jordan Ryan, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in Liberia, first arrived at his new post three years ago, he soon discovered how much needed to be done to rebuild the war-shattered West African country.

One of the UN’s early tasks was to help re-establish working government systems at the local and regional level. But “we faced a challenge where local officials had to sit under trees to hold county meetings,” says Mr. Ryan. “They had no electricity, running water… much less functioning county buildings. One of the first times I flew out to a remote county, we brought basic office supplies, including notepads, paper and even pencils.”

It became apparent that if local government were to be re-established, a massive overhaul was needed. During years of conflict, the counties had been all but abandoned by the center—leaving, according to one UN analysis, a “virtual blank slate in terms of a formal state presence.”

Mr. Ryan considered what was needed. One part of the answer was clear: “A UN ready to work together.”

In a mission as large as the UN in Liberia—with 15,000 peacekeepers and a large country team of funds, programmes and agencies—that is no easy task. But the level of devastation did offer one mitigating feature: the opportunity to build a united UN presence from the bottom up.

“Rather than disparate UN agencies acting in an uncoordinated fashion, what we did was to create a single team in each of the 15 counties, with the goal that they were there to support the restoration of state authority, to help the County Superintendent learn the basics,” he said.

And so were born the County Support Teams, in which different arms of the UN system came together in a single mechanism, to provide basic administrative infrastructure (buildings, power, telecommunications, vehicles), training and information management. The approach is already being looked at as a best practice model for other post-conflict situations.

“We can’t tolerate that UN agencies can’t work together. We are united in our goals. We know that UN agencies bring different skills, and respect that UN agencies have different expertise and mandates. It is not that everyone does the same thing—but to deliver as one, everyone must find new ways of working together.”

There are few places where the UN is so needed, and where so much is expected, both in the maintenance of security, through the peacekeeping mission, and in economic and administrative support, as the country moves from emergency relief to reconstruction to development.

Mr. Ryan has a lot on his plate, both as Resident Coordinator, bringing together the work of the agencies, and as Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, acting under the overall leadership of Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ellen Margarethe Løj, formerly Denmark’s ambassador to the UN in New York.

He arrived just before President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female elected head of state and a former UNDP director, took her oath of office in January 2006.

There were still IDP (internally displaced persons) camps, refugee camps and a nation not very clear on its way forward. “But after three years of engagement, there has been a real effort—that the UN is quite proud of—towards beginning a dialogue with the people of Liberia, focusing on their needs.”

The UN supported consultations that helped formulate the County Development Agendas in 130 districts across all 15 counties. Thousands of people were consulted for the first time as to what development should be in Liberia: from road networks, to schools and health services.

“The UN has a critical role to support the government on a national agenda; to engage and empower,” says Mr Ryan. “There are many UN agencies, in a variety of settings. We’re stronger if we have the strength of consolidated purpose.”

“Early on when I first came, we faced a very large vaccination campaign. We were able to use peacekeeping mission assets—helicopters—to get us and NGOs out to places that couldn’t otherwise be reached. The strength of the mission makes us stronger; and when you start working together, people realize ‘wow, we can do so much more’.”

While the SRSG is the overall voice of the UN, Mr Ryan says the entire team “sees what we’re doing, that we’re all part of the UN.” Each agency has relationships with a variety of ministers, and they are encouraged to think outside their traditional roles.

“The World Food Programme almost three years ago began analytical work about the need for food security and conducted joint surveys that laid the basis for the first joint food security and nutrition programme in the world,” says Mr. Ryan. It now brings together FAO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNMIL, WFP, WHO, UNIFEM, the World Bank and others, together with the Liberian government.

While WFP provides short-term assistance to 500,000 people through school feeding, food-for-work and institutional feeding programmes, FAO projects provide seeds, tools, fertilizers and training to farmers, UNHCR is helping boost swamp rice production and vegetable gardens, and UNICEF helps promote exclusive breastfeeding to provide adequate nutrition for young children.

“In a place like Liberia, you can be very proud of being part of the UN,” says Mr. Ryan. “It comes with enormous responsibilities to deliver, to make the agencies more effective and responsive, to continue to find ways to cut through bureaucratic nonsense to get results.”

But “it’s a wonderful opportunity to work with a number of very talented people, many with deep skills and knowledge. Humanitarians and peacekeepers who have really been in the trenches; living in some very difficult circumstances. This is a non-family duty station; with people, some with young children, willing to make enormous sacrifices.”

“As DRSG and Resident Coordinator, I take an enormous pride in the entire team; an enormous respect. The environment is conducive to people seizing new opportunites, as every day you can make a difference. It’s a big presence, but we really are at work together.”

Read more about the UN System’s work in Liberia and learn more about UNMIL.