In this epic narrative, Mary Ellen Bell succinctly captures how Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo quest to empower Liberia winds through the walls of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a world-class university in the United States of America. Mary writes among other things Urey-Yarkpawolo “already had an enormous effect on his homeland, helping to organize the country’s presidential archives and training college students to make videos of the country’s elders. He’s also raising money to build a school in his old home village.” Read the full story by clicking the hyperlink above.

Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo continuously worked to advocate for and support the passage of the Land Rights Bill into law. He and his colleagues led a robust online discussion during the debate over the draft land rights bill.

In his advocacy for youth land rights, which are imperative for national development, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo in this Front Page Africa commentary writes: “Land is the foundation of the rural economy and the essential ingredient for youth to participate fully in agriculture. With secure rights to land, instead of working for low wages on someone else’s land, youth can invest in their own land and labor to grow a farm-based livelihood.”

Liberians will never forget about the year 2014. It was a year that the Ebola Virus (EBV) epidemic, which Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo calls the “Invisible War” took hold of the country claiming more than 4,000 lives. In this Edge Effects interview, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo shared his experience during his time in Monrovia.

In this review, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo analyzes the question of Ebola Virus jumping from the natural environment to the human population through the cultivation of monoculture oil palm in Guinea and Liberia.

This article published in The Voice of The Army Salvationist, an international magazine of The Salvation Army published in Canada highlights the humble story of Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo. He writes: “Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” I have seen first-hand the impact of this in my life. I could go on, listing my humanitarian work with One Life Liberia, Inc., a non-profit organization I established while in Wisconsin to build schools in remote villages in Liberia; my work with Landesa, where I played a pivotal role in the passage of landmark land-rights legislation that impacts the lives of some three million rural Liberians; or my efforts to help those struggling with addiction on the street corners of Monrovia”.

2020 Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison Rising Star Award. The Nelson Institute Rising Star Alumni Award at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recognizes initiative as well as accomplishments of alumni who are making a significant difference in the world soon after graduation and who have attained a notable degree of success or impact through their professional accomplishments and/or community service. Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo received the award based on his work of social and environmental justice as well as economic improvement for rural Liberians. In his recommendation for the award on behalf of Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo, Professor Matt Turner wrote: “This breathtaking number of initiatives is remarkable, all I can say is that these accomplishments are real and reflect his drive, courage, and innovative management skills to identify problems and develop context-specific solutions”.

In his quest to provide education opportunities for children in District Number Four, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo established a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his initiatives. Through this initiative and his personal support, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo built a school where more than 100 kids are receiving free education today. The school is the only school in District Number that has running water powered by solar.

In his continued efforts to highlight and speak against the negative impacts of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Liberia, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo wrote a short essay on the rich iron ore deposits in Bomi Hills that were extracted by foreign investors with little benefit to the country. He continued: “Between the start of operations in 1951 and their closure in 1977 the company exported $540 million worth of iron ores. The framers of the “open door policy”, as well as those who benefited such as the LMC and the Liberian government, did not take into consideration the adverse effects of the policy’s implementation on the Golas and the Vai and on future generations. As a non-renewable resource, the Bomi Hills iron ore deposit was depleted in the span of a mere 27 years. Today, what remains in the former Bomi Hills are a degraded landscape with deep holes, which is why Liberians today refer to Bomi Hills as “Bomi Holes”.

The H-Environment Roundtable Reviews provide multiple perspectives on books, and allow authors the opportunity to respond. This format is intended as a conversation that invites discussion of recent scholarship. The Volume 7, No. 4 (2017) focuses on The Land Beneath Our Feet, an award winning documentary that highlights the struggles over Liberia’s land and resources. Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo is the main character in the documentary.

When the Liberian Lawmakers during the height of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic decided to apportion 30,000.00 United States Dollars to each lawmaker for what they call “Legislative Engagements”, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo publicly criticized them. In this K-News publication, he wrote: “What is “Legislative Engagement”? Is it defined as one lawmaker taking 30k amidst the surge of the new COVID-19 variant in the country outside their regular salaries”. Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo indicated that said action was “unpatriotic and greedy”.

A Film Never Made was the working title of the award winning documentary, The Land Beneath Our Feet. This short YouTube video describes Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo encounter with Prof. Gregg Mitman and their journey into Liberia’s past and present.

At the time the Land Beneath Our Feet was being produced, the Land Rights Bill was being debated. One strategy Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo and Prof. Gregg Mitman developed was to screen the documentary to Liberians especially to places where research data were gathered. This strategy proved successful for the passage of the Land Rights Bill into law.

Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo was the first President of the Salvation Army Polytechnic. This story, by Mr. David Massaquoi, highlights the grand opening of the Polytechnic which was attended by international leaders of The Salvation and top government officials.

When it was reported that private security guards to Mr. Benoni Urey, Political Leader of the All Liberian Party, flogged an officer of the Liberian Police, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo spoke out and condemned Mr. Benoni Urey and his ALP for failing to speak or condemned the actions of the private security officer. This story was published in the New Dawn Newspaper on August 4, 2017.

To highlight the problems that rural people, especially rural women and young people face in accessing land and land resources, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo and his colleagues conducted a research using gender responsive land rights to assess youth land rights in Liberia. Abstract of this work is below.

Abstract: This article summarizes the evidence on youth land rights in Liberia from a literature review combined with primary research from two separate studies: (1) A qualitative assessment conducted as formative research to inform the design of the Land Rights and Sustainable Development (LRSD) project for Landesa and its partners’ community level interventions; and (2) a quantitative baseline survey of program beneficiaries as part of an evaluation of the LRSD project. The findings are presented using a Gender-Responsive Land Rights Framework that examines youth land rights through a gender lens. The evidence highlights that female and male youth in Liberia face significant but different barriers to long-term access to land, as well as to participation in decisions related to land. Our suggested recommendations offer insights for the implementation of Liberia’s recently passed Land Rights Act as well as for community-level interventions focused on increasing youth land tenure security in Liberia.

Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo was in Liberia when the deadly 2014 Ebola Virus (EBV) hit the country. He along with his Professor and camera crew that have been documenting the history of Liberia took time off to highlight the struggles that Liberians were going through. A summary of the film is below:

In the Shadow of Ebola is an intimate story of a family (Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo and his family) and a nation (Liberia) struggling against the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. We follow a Liberian student and his family living divided between the United States and Liberia. As the crisis unfolds, loved ones are isolated in Monrovia where the government is shut down, schools and markets are closed, and food prices are rising.

Liberians find themselves fighting an invisible war that is painfully reminiscent of the chaos and confusion of the fourteen-year Liberian civil war, which ended a mere decade ago. When the Liberian government responds to the crisis initially with military-enforced quarantines and curfews, mistrust and anger among Monrovia’s residents grow.

As the death toll from Ebola climbs, and a quarantine results in the shooting and death of a 15-year old boy, mistrust and disbelief are replaced by compassion and inner resolve to combat the spread of the virus. With international aid slow to arrive, Liberians turn to each other for help, as healthcare workers, musicians, and artists join forces on the front lines in public health education campaigns. The steps toward community empowerment and action help to build trust and stabilize the number of new Ebola cases. But the ripple effects—food insecurity, overwhelmed medical infrastructure, and economic isolation—endure.

In addition to his efforts in the passage of the Liberian Land Rights Law, Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo led a popular radio program called Land is Life. A commentary from Eleanor Trenary is below: “Landesa Liberia Country Representative Dr. Emmanuel Urey’s popular radio program, Land is Life, is reaching more listeners than ever as the show is now relayed to a station in the remote Bong County of northeastern Liberia. With a largely illiterate or semi-literate population, Dr. Urey’s program provides rural residents an engaging and accessible format to learn about the Land Rights Law and other developments in the land rights sector in Liberia.

Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo is not a member of any political party. He is the Chairman of GAM-Liberia. Founded in 2018 in Liberia and the United States, The Grassroots Alternative Movement (GAM) is a social justice, political and advocacy organization committed to building a just society in Liberia with the tenets of fair play, equality, and justice. It envisions a stabled and developed Liberia, where every child and adult has the opportunity to attain his or her highest potential. Its Mission is to build a prosperous Liberia based on the principles of fair play, equality and justice.