Assembly/AU/4(XII) Page 13 services continue to see some improvements, though at a slow pace. At the time of finalizing this report, and as a follow-up to the decision adopted by the PSC, the Commission was making preparations to dispatch a multi-disciplinary team of experts to assess the post-conflict reconstruction needs of Liberia and make recommendations on how the AU and its member States could best support the country. At the request of the Sierra Leonean authorities, the scope of the mission has also been extended to cover Sierra Leone. 55. In Cote d’Ivoire, the Ivorian parties failed to meet the 30 November 2008 deadline for holding the presidential election, owing to technical, logistical and financial problems, which delayed the identification operation. The latter, as well as the voter registration, could start only on 15 and 29 September 2008 in 7 localities countrywide and in Abidjan district, whereas the initial schedule indicated that the provisional list of voters would be published on 31 August 2008 and the definitive list on 15 November 2008. The identification and election census operation was launched in Bouaké only in mid-November and extended to the entire country in December 2008. At the same time, from 27 August to 25 September 2008, catch-up open hearings were conducted, and the operation continued to build civil status registers that were either missing or had been totally or partially destroyed. It is within that context that the Permanent Consultation Framework (CPC), meeting in Ouagadougou on 10 November 2008, requested the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to propose, before 31 December 2008, a new calendar for the identification and election census operation, so as to permit a new date for organizing the presidential election to be fixed. 56. The implementation of the Ouagadougou Political Agreement and its Additional Agreements failed to register significant progress with respect to those aspects on the disarmament of ex-combatants, the disarmament and dismantling of the militia, as well as the restructuring of the defense and security forces. Furthermore, the National Reinsertion and Rehabilitation Programme (PNRRC) and the National Civic Service Programme (PNSC), though still under implementation, failed to receive adequate funding to match their ambitions. Similarly, the redeployment of the Administration and restoration of State authority are yet to be completed. 57. Lastly, mention should be made of the conclusion between the presidential camp and the New Forces, on 22 December 2008 in Ouagadougou, of the 4th Additional Agreement to the Ouagadougou Political Agreement. The latter offers solutions to pending issues, relating notably to quotas for integrating FAFN elements into the new army and to military grades for FAFN elements who were previously in the defense and security forces, to the disarmament of ex-combatants and dismantling of the militia, to the effective restoration of State authority, as well as to the countrywide redeployment of the judicial, fiscal and customs administration. 58. In the reporting period, no progress has been made towards the resolution of the dispute over Western Sahara. As the Assembly is aware, over the last one and a half years, the United Nations Security Council has adopted three important resolutions, on the basis of which direct negotiations were launched between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO. The purpose of the talks is to achieve a just and mutually acceptable political solution, whose objective would be to provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the