Samuel Gbaydee Doe (born 11 November 1966) is a conflict, peace, and development professional from Liberia. Doe was a cofounder, with
Emmanuel Bombande
Emmanuel Bombande (born 1960) is a conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and development professional from Accra, Ghana, and is the Chair of the Board of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.
Early life and education
Upon mo ...
, of the
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) is a leading Regional Peacebuilding organisation founded in 1998 in response to civil wars that plagued West Africa in the 1990s. Over the years, WANEP has succeeded in establishing strong national n ...
(WANEP), based in
Accra, Ghana
Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...
. This organization focuses on collaborative approaches to conflict prevention and was founded in 1998 in response to the civil wars taking place in West Africa. The organization is known for their work with several regional partners such as the
Economic Community of West African States
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political union, political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an ...
(
ECOWAS
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in ...
) and the African Union’s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council (
ECOSOCC
The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) is an advisory body of the African Union designed to give civil society organizations (CSOs) a voice within the AU institutions and decision-making processes. ECOSOCC is made up of civil socie ...
).
Early life and education
Samuel Gbaydee Doe (no relation to former Liberian President
Sam Doe) was born in
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
in November 1966, and lived there for 6 years prior to moving to Liberia.
He attended the
University of Liberia
The University of Liberia (UL or LU in older versions of abbreviation) is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the university opened in 1862 as Liberia Coll ...
in
Monrovia
Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As the ...
intending to pursue a career in banking. While he was pursuing his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics in 1989 the
First Liberian Civil War
The First Liberian Civil War lasted from 1989 to 1997.
President Samuel Doe had established a regime in 1980 but totalitarianism and corruption led to unpopularity and the withdrawal of support from the United States by the late 1980s. The Nat ...
broke out. Following months of starvation and first hand experiences of the horrors of war on children, Doe decided to put his energies toward ending the conflict.
In October 1990, in the midst of the Liberian civil war, Doe worked with the Catholic Church to establish the Archdiocesan Counseling Program a psychological trauma counseling program under Archbishop
Michael Kpakala Francis
Michael Kpakala Francis (born 12 February 1936 – 19 May 2013) was a Liberian prelate of the Catholic Church who led the Apostolic Vicariate of Monrovia from 1976 to 1981 and then served as the first Archbishop of the newly established Archdio ...
to help reintegrate former
child soldiers
Children (defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child as people under the age of 18) have been recruited for participation in military operations and campaigns throughout history and in many cultures.
Children in the military, includ ...
. He also worked with the Christian Health Association of Liberia (CHAL), and Centre for the Study of War Trauma and Children at AME Zion University in Monrovia.
He followed that to work with CHAL to establish a peer mediation program known in Liberia as the Student Palava Management Programme.
In 1995, Doe was a Caux Scholar at a center run by Initiatives of Change in Caux, Switzerland. He then served as an intern there and was appointed to a faculty position in 1997 until 2006 when he resigned to focus on his work at the United Nations. In May, 1996 he traveled to the United States with sponsorship from the Mennonite Board of Missions and entered what was then called the Conflict Transformation Program at
Eastern Mennonite University
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private Mennonite university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults. EMU's bachelor-degree holders ...
(now the
Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) is an accredited graduate-level program founded in 1994. It also offers non-credit training. The program specializes in conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma healing, equitable developme ...
) in the fall of the year.
Following the completion of his degree in 1998, he returned to West Africa where he cofounded and was the first executive director of the
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) is a leading Regional Peacebuilding organisation founded in 1998 in response to civil wars that plagued West Africa in the 1990s. Over the years, WANEP has succeeded in establishing strong national n ...
(WANEP).
“I dreamed of a regional movement of civil society that would collaborate with regional intergovernmental bodies to restore not just stability in Africa but democratic freedom and prosperity. I dreamed of establishing an early-warning system throughout civil society that would head off violent conflicts before they ravage our societies. Those dreams became reality in just five years. The profound thing was the speed at which ordinary people mobilized for peace through the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding.”
Work
During his time with WANEP, he worked with several regional groups such as
ECOWAS
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries located in West Africa. Collectively, these countries comprise an area of , and in ...
, the African Union, Club de Sahel and the United Nations (including
ECOSOCC
The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) is an advisory body of the African Union designed to give civil society organizations (CSOs) a voice within the AU institutions and decision-making processes. ECOSOCC is made up of civil socie ...
). It was during his time at WANEP that he was introduced to
Leymah Gbowee
Leymah Roberta Gbowee (born 1 February 1972) is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her ef ...
whom he mentored to lead WANEP’s Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) branch in Liberia. WIPNET was the brainchild of
Thelma Ekiyor Thelma Arimiebi Ekiyor is a, social entrepreneur and impact investor who has served in authoritative positions within many organizations. Ekiyor has focused primarily on investing in women Entrepreneurs. She started her career supporting women in pe ...
of Nigeria and it became a special program of WANEP. Through WIPNET Leymah established the
Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace
Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace is a peace movement started in 2003 by women in Monrovia, Liberia, Africa, that
worked to end the Second Liberian Civil War. Organized by Crystal Roh Gawding and social workers Leymah Gbowee and Comfort Freem ...
which went on to be a critical voice in the Liberia peace process and led to Leymah co-sharing the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
of 2011 with
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born Ellen Eugenia Johnson, 29 October 1938) is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
Sirleaf was born in Mon ...
(President of Liberia) and
Tawakkul Karman
Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman ( ar, توكل عبد السلام خالد كرمان, Tawakkul 'Abd us-Salām Khalid Karmān; also romanized ''Tawakul'', ''Tawakel''; born 7 February 1979) is a Yemeni Nobel Laureate, journalist, politician ...
(Yemen).
He also helped to implement and served as chair of the
Forum on Early Warning and Early Response
The Forum on Early Warning and Early Response (FEWER) was established in 1997 as a non-profit organization in response to the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Focusing on conflict early warning, the brainchild of Kumar Rupesinghe, Howard Adelman, and Shar ...
(FEWER), a London-based global network of scholars and practitioners who pioneered the concept of heading off conflict through early warnings collected at the grassroots. He cofounded the International Conflict and Security (INCAS) Consulting in London in 2003 with
David Nyheim
David Nyheim (born 1970) is a Norwegian peace-maker and early warning expert. His work over the last 20 years has focused on dialogue process design and implementation, conflict resolution, conflict early warning, stabilisation, as well as forecas ...
, Anton Ivanov, and Tom Porteous, where he also served as chair.
Shortly thereafter, Doe began working with the
United Nations Development Program
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
as Senior Conflict Prevention and Civil Society Development Expert with the Pacific Regional Center of UNDP in
Fiji
Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...
. From there he was hired as International Consultant for Evaluation and Strategic Coordination with the UN Mission in Liberia.
In 2007, he was named Development and Reconciliation Advisor for the UN in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. From 2007 to 2010, he worked to resolve the conflict in Sri Lanka between
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
and
Sinhalese
Sinhala may refer to:
* Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka
* Sinhalese people
* Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka
* Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language
** Sinha ...
communities and documented human rights atrocities committed on all sides of the conflict. In 2011, he was reassigned to New York to assist in the preparation of the Secretary-General report on the Sri Lanka conflict as Senior Political Officer. This report detailed atrocities committed by all sides, but was particularly critical of the government’s actions during the conflict.
From 2004 until 2010, Samuel Gbaydee Doe was also a Ph.D. student in social and international affairs at the
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...
, UK. His dissertation was titled “Indigenising post-war state reconstruction: the case of Liberia and Sierra Leone.”
Doe is currently working as Senior Policy Advisor and Team Leader, Policy and Planning Division, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, at the UNDP in New York. He regularly teaches courses on conflict sensitive development and trauma healing at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, almost always during its Summer Peacebuilding Institute, and at the Caux Center, in Caux Switzerland.
Publications
A list of Sam Gbaydee Doe's publications:
* Hart B, Doe J, Gbaydee Doe S. (1993). Trauma healing and reconciliation training manual: a handbook for trainers and trainees. Liberia: Reconciliation and Healing Program, Christian Health Association of Liberia
* Doe, S. G. (1998). Former child soldiers in Liberia. Relief and Rehabilitation Network, 1-3.
* Doe, S. G. (1998). Call Me By My Real Name: A Cry for Lost Identity. Relief and Rehabilitation Network Newsletter, 12, 1-1.
* Ayindo, B., Doe, S. G., Jenner, J. M., & Abdi, N. A. (2001). When You are the Peacebuilder: Stories and Reflections on Peacebuilding from Africa. Conflict Transformation Program, Eastern Mennonite University.
* Doe, S. G., & Bombande, E. H. (2002). A View from West Africa. Into the Eye of the Storm, 159-172, A Handbook of International Peacebuilding. Lederach, J. P., & Jenner, J. M. (Eds.). Jossey-Bass Incorporated Pub.
* M'boge, F., & Doe, S. G. (2004). African Commitments to Civil Society Engagement: A Review of Eight NEPAD Countries. African Human Security Initiative (AHSI).
* Bugnion, C., Lafrenière, L., Doe, S. G., Tefferi, H., & Garlo, C. (2006). External Mid-Term Evaluation Report of the Disarmament. Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Programme in Liberia: UNDP. Chicago
* Doe, S. G. (2009). Indigenising post-war state reconstruction: the case of Liberia and Sierra Leone (Doctoral dissertation, University of Bradford). Chicago
* Doe, S. G. (2010). Poverty reduction strategy in collapsed states: The case of Sierra Leone. Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 5(2), 47-61.
Honors
2002 Eastern Mennonite University’s Distinguished Service Award
References
External links
UNDP speaker bi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doe, Samuel Gbaydee
1966 births
Living people
University of Liberia alumni
Eastern Mennonite University alumni
Liberian activists