By Nukanah Kollie
GBARNGA, BONG COUNTY – ActionAid Liberia, through its Strengthening People’s Action (SPA II) project on climate justice, is set to hold a two-day county-level dialogue in Bong County from August 7 to 8, 2025. The event aims to amplify grassroots voices on the environmental and socio-economic challenges brought about by climate change.
Scheduled to take place at the County Administrative Building, the dialogue will gather around 30 participants, including local farmers, women leaders, youth representatives, civil society actors, and local government officials. It forms part of a series of county-level consultations feeding into the upcoming National Climate Justice Summit early September in Monrovia, which precedes Liberia’s participation in the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) scheduled for September 8–10, 2025, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the Addis International Convention Center.
“This is a Justice Issue”
Ms. Norwu Harris, Programs Coordinator at ActionAid Liberia and lead for the SPA II Climate Justice project, said the event seeks to elevate rural voices and ensure climate action reflects the lived realities of those directly impacted by environmental degradation.
“We want to hear from the people most affected by climate change, farmers, women, and youth on issues such as access to renewable energy, green job opportunities, land rights, and disaster preparedness,” Harris stated during an interview with Super Bongese Radio on Wednesday, August 6, 2025. “Their input will help shape a unified, people-centered position paper for the national climate summit.”
Harris emphasized that climate justice is not just about protecting the environment but is fundamentally a human rights issue. “It affects people’s lives, livelihoods, and access to food, energy, land, and shelter,” she noted. “Our goal is to center people, not just policies, in the climate conversation.”
Key Themes and Grassroots Focus
The Bong County dialogue will delve into five critical themes: scaling up sustainable and recycling-based agriculture, expanding access to affordable renewable energy for farmers and households, ensuring the inclusion of women and youth in green economy and climate-resilient jobs, promoting community-led disaster preparedness and resilience, and monitoring climate finance to ensure accountability and equity in distribution.
Harris also pointed out the importance of highlighting local green innovations, such as the use of recycled plastics to produce durable pavement tiles—an approach gaining traction in some rural Liberian communities.
Adaptation, Not Just Mitigation
Despite Liberia’s minimal contribution less than 0.01% to global greenhouse gas emissions, the country remains among the most climate-vulnerable in the world. From erratic rainfall impacting rice farming to intensified flooding in urban areas and deforestation due to illegal mining, the climate crisis is already disrupting lives nationwide.
“Our entire approach is rooted in adaptation,” Harris explained. “Through capacity-building, awareness, and community mobilization, we strive to ensure women and young people are not just protected but are leading the change.”
ActionAid Liberia is also actively engaged in updating Liberia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the country’s official climate action plan under the Paris Agreement. The county dialogues are expected to yield local recommendations that will inform national policies and foster inclusion.
National and Regional Engagement
While the county-level discussions focus on community participation, the National Climate Justice Dialogue in early September will bring together a broader range of stakeholders including private sector players, policymakers, government institutions, and representatives from the extractive industry to ensure transparency and accountability across sectors.
“We believe those responsible for environmental pollution must be involved in both the conversation and the solutions,” Harris said. “You can’t fix the problem without including all actors, especially those contributing to it.”
The outcome of the national dialogue will be documented in a Liberia Climate Justice Communiqué, which will be shared with government ministries, regional platforms, and continental gatherings such as the African Climate Summit and future COP (Conference of the Parties) sessions.
Background
The SPA II project is part of ActionAid’s global climate justice campaign, focused on empowering communities in the Global South to demand fair climate finance, equitable adaptation policies, and gender-responsive environmental governance. In Liberia, the initiative is implemented in Bong, Grand Gedeh, and Bomi counties in collaboration with grassroots partners and civil society coalitions.
The upcoming Bong County dialogue marks a crucial step in localizing climate action in Liberia, ensuring that solutions are not only top-down but rooted in the realities of rural communities.
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