In 1994, International Alert began limited ad-hoc engagement with governments, rebel groups and civil society organisations in the Mano River Union sub-region. In 1999, through the establishment of the West Africa Programme, this engagement became systematic and the programme team has held consultations with a variety of local groups including students, religious leaders, lawyers, child soldiers, ex-combatants and women’s groups from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Through these different encounters and partnerships with local bodies, it has been made abundantly clear that to tackle the underlying causes of violence, it is necessary to support and strengthen local initiatives and organisations focused on ending violence on a sub-regional basis. With this in mind, the MRU Forum has been designed to create a regional constituency of conflict prevention and resolution expertise that cuts across physical, social and ethnic boundaries.

The MRU Forum is a permanent forum of representatives of civil society organisations that work
to advocate for peace, monitor events, mediate between warring parties, make representations to governments and intergovernmental bodies, and engage development and humanitarian agencies in conflict-sensitive analyses of their work. The project will involve a series of meetings, workshops and capacity building training designed to share information and experiences related to war and peace in the region, analyse the root causes of violent conflict, better understand the interconnectedness of regional conflict and formulate strategies for overcoming obstacles to peace. The secretariat of the Forum will be situated in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with equitable representation from all three countries and a cross-section of gender, age and religious groups. The Forum is a joint initiative with the UK-based organisation Conciliation Resources, as well as with partner organisations in the three countries.

As part of the MRU Forum project, International Alert convened an emergency conference of civil society organisations between 29 July 2003 and 3 August 2003 in Akosombo, Ghana to discuss and deliberate on the Liberian Crisis. The meeting brought together civil society organisations from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire and was part of an effort to involve these organisations and the wider public in the process of searching for and consolidating peace in Liberia. The participants deliberated and discussed the Liberian crisis, both in terms of how the current conflict has developed in Liberia, and what role the neighbouring countries can play in future peace in the country. Lessons learned from other conflicts in Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire were shared, as well as an analysis of the current situation in Guinea, which is host to many Liberian refugees, and itself at risk of widespread conflict. The central focus of the meeting, however, was scrutinising the provisions of the Draft Liberian Peace Agreement to identify its impact on the peace process in Liberia, and suggesting improvements and amendments to the Agreement prior to its final draft. The conference resulted in the drafting of a Memorandum which was then presented to the various stakeholders involved in the peace process in Liberia.2 These included the Heads of State of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, representatives from ECOWAS, the African Union, the main rebel groups Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), the International Contact Group on Liberia, the UN Secretary General Special Representative in West Africa, and the MRU Secretariat. The emergency conference was important in that it was the only sub-regional initiative to support civil society input into the Liberian peace process, and was instrumental in ensuring that the voices and needs of civil society groups in the sub-region were considered in the Liberian peace process.