Partners in post-conflict? Current humanitarian community perspectives on the United Nations Mission in Liberia

In 2005-06, literature abounded from the humanitarian community in Liberia regarding their concerns with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). While UNMIL was credited with bringing stability to war-torn Liberia, many aid workers stressed that its deeply integrated structure of streamlining political, military and humanitarian objectives under a single chain of command had seriously hindered the ability of humanitarian action to be carried out in an independent and impartial way.;Today, with Liberia in a mature post-conflict peacebuilding phase, both UNMIL and humanitarian international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) continue to operate in the country. Despite a flurry of criticism by humanitarian INGOs in the early days of UNMIL, there has been little research conducted to follow up on the relationship between the integrated UN mission and INGOs today. The findings from this research project suggest that there is a general sense of collaboration between the groups and that the issue of an eroding humanitarian space is not as pronounced among INGOs currently as would be anticipated by reviewing existing literature. The humanitarian INGO community ought to proceed carefully in how it interfaces with the UN integrated mission structure and be cognizant of the impact of their relationship with UNMIL on the state of humanitarian space in Liberia, both during conflict and post-conflict operations.