INTENT OF THE POLICY
This Social Welfare Policy is intended to provide direction for reforming the social welfare sector. Reform objectives focus on improved efficiency and effectiveness among the various actors in the sector, increased accountability and probity, and an enhanced ability to support vulnerable persons. The Policy specifically aims at providing direction for the reorientation of the social welfare sector towards a developmental social welfare approach. This approach focuses on the establishment of a demand-driven, community-focused social welfare response with strengthened institutions capable of delivering quality services. It requires the forging sustained partnerships between Government ministries, parastatals, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, the private sector, and development partners. It is meant as an enabling document, allowing actors to align and harmonise support for priorities as expressed in the national strategic plans for social welfare.
VISION AND MISSION
The vision is an improved social welfare status of the people of Liberia. The mission of the social welfare sector is to reform and reorient the social service system to enable it to provide equitable and high quality services targeting vulnerable persons, families and communities, and strengthen modalities that enhance the voice of the vulnerable in defining priority needs and influencing the character and content of service delivery.
POLICY ORIENTATION
The social welfare sector commits to a process of reform and reorientation that will: a) enable better co-ordination of social welfare service delivery; b) strengthen the influence of vulnerable groups in decision-making in society; and c) enhance the socio-economic conditions of vulnerable groups in Liberia. Central to this is the reform of the Ministry of Health and Social Services and the reform of systems of inter-sectoral collaboration. The Social Welfare Policy focuses priority attention on: 1) sector strengthening; and 2) protecting most vulnerable groups. In the longer term, the policy emphasis is on: 1) the decentralisation of social welfare services and the reinforcement of partnerships to effect this; 2) the strengthening of community social capital, and family and extended family networks; and 3) the enabling of systems and structures that allow the effective and equitable access to social welfare services among those most in need.
Short-term in this policy refers to the period 2009-2011, while long-term refers to any time thereafter. The overall intention of this Policy is to have an effective, functional and robust social welfare response in place by no later than 2025.
Protecting Liberia’s most vulnerable means the prioritisation of the following:
1) consistent with Liberia’s position that institutionalisation is a last resort, reunification of children outside of family care with family and extended family members. This includes the improved regulation and monitoring of welfare institutions, including orphanages, and the closure of welfare institutions that are not in compliance with Government regulations. For registered and approved institutions and for places of safety, infrastructure will be improved and expanded;
2) strengthening outreach to, and the conditions of, those living with disabilities;
3) specific policy and action plan development and alignment associated with emergency planning, juvenile justice, child trafficking, child labour, vulnerable elderly, most vulnerable children, substance abuse, and prisoner welfare; and
4) gradual expansion of successful pilot social transfer initiatives, and strengthening outreach to the vulnerable.
