The Acting Executive Director of the Governance Commission, Madam Cecelia N. Flomo, has praised government and its partners for their immense contributions to the fight against emerging threats posed by the circumstances surrounding alarming substance abuse incidents in the country.
She said existing effort made is critical in enabling our country Liberia to sustain the peace that will definitely lead to economic viability.
She indicated that low formal and vocational education as well as the consequential lack of employment opportunities have staggering effect of idleness and non-engagement on drug users. However, it was better late than never for the government and development partners to institute programs aimed at rehabilitating drug users for the betterment of our country Liberia.
Subsequently, peace can be sustained by mitigating this emerging substance abuse crisis through advocacy, awareness, sensitization and other forms of engagement.
In this regard, the Acting Executive Director said that the Governance Commission was committed to achieving health, security and justice for all by tackling these threats and promoting peace and sustainable well-being as deterrents to them through policy recommendations.
She hoped that by organizing such a dialogue, a more coherent and rigorous policy on how Liberia as a country handles the issue of substance abuse can be realized.
In closing, she conveyed heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the panelists, stakeholders, and participants for their invaluable contributions to support recommendations, policies and regulatory frameworks as the eradication of drugs along with substance abuse is not an event but rather a process.
Madam Flomo delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of the Commission and expressed profound thanks and appreciation to Her Excellency Madam Clar Marie Weah who was unable to come but sent a representative to proxy for her; the African Development Bank for their financial support through the IPFMR project; the grants department of the Governance Commission that was instrumental in ensuring that the fund was made available for this dialogue. She further stated that findings emanating from this dialogue would enrich the conclusion and policy recommendations that would form the basis for a policy actions.
