World Bank Strengthens Capacity of Project Implementers on Health and Safety in Liberia

The World Bank Liberia Country Office Environmental and Social Team has just concluded series of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) trainings for Project Implementation Units (PIUs) staff, contractors, consultants, supervising entities, and project implementers of World Bank financed projects. The trainings covered transport, agriculture, health, fisheries and energy sectors from Governmental implementing agencies.

“The trainings are a catalyst for capacity building and ensuring that workers are safe and healthy, and the environment is protected from harm,” World Bank Liberia Country Manager Georgia Wallen said. “Every year, millions of workers worldwide are affected by work-related accidents and injuries that have significant direct and indirect costs — from lower productivity to delays in project implementation, legal tussles, and even fatalities.” In supporting countries like Liberia to tackle their most complex development challenges, Ms. Wallen added, the World Bank is deepening efforts to support proactive risk management.

For these reasons, the World Bank Operational/Safeguard Policies and the Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) is stressing the importance of occupational health and safety (OHS) in Bank-funded projects. In Western and Central African region, the issue of health and safety is extremely important and deserves special attention given that the region has especially high numbers of cases of work-related incidents (accidents, diseases and fatalities).

Building on a three-year comprehensive annual OHS training program across Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the OHS training aimed to strengthen capacities of staff within the PIUs. Facilitators were drawn from a pool of OHS experts within the World Bank.