Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Monday appealed to the international community not to slow assistance to her impoverished West African country just as it is showing progress in recovering from fourteen years of bloody civil war.
Her appeal came a day before a donor conference in Washington to review her first year in power and to push for a solution to Liberias huge 3,7 billion US dollar foreign debt owed to international institutions and creditors.
– Although we have made much progress our recovery is still fragile and if we do not redouble our efforts, our ultimate success is not yet assured, said Johnson-Sirleaf, Africas first woman head of state.
A World Bank statement said many of 20 or so countries planning to attend the conference contributed to the 500 million dollar in pledges at a donors conference for Liberia three years ago.
“With those emergency funds running out, and hundreds of millions still needed to rebuild the (wartorn) country, the forum seeks to secure international approval and support for the countrys reconstruction and development strategy, and explore new funding possibilities”, the statement said.
Listing the achievements over the past year, the Liberian President said recruitment and training had started for a new security force; 75.000 ex-combatants had been placed into re-integration programs and more than 100.000 refugees had been returned home.
Also, the government had balanced the budget in just four months, increased revenue by 48 percent; passed a new forestry law to strengthen oversight of the sector; removed 17.000 ghost employees from the governments payroll; resumed water service and boosted schools attendance by offering free primary education.
The debt burden comes to 3.000 percent (!) of Liberias export earnings, which is “clearly non-sustainable”, Johnson-Sirleaf said, calling in particular for relief from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and African Development Bank.
The debt is in reality unbearable for a country with only three million inhabitants, most of them poor people.
– For us it means until the debt is settled, we cannot access significant sources of funding, Johnson-Sirleaf noted.
She was to take her message to the White House Wednesday in a meeting with US President George W. Bush. – The other message to our partners is we need to shorten that road between commitment and cash, the president added, complaining of delays to the delivery of promised aid from donors, the Liberian leader explained.
Liberia was carved out of West Africa to be a home for freed American Slaves, and consequently has a special relationship with the US.
– Ordinary Liberians do not care about the interim poverty reduction strategy which will be discussed in here at the donors conference, Johnson-Sirleaf said.
– All they know is they want a job to be able to feed their family, they want to be able to send their children to school, they want to be able to take their products to market, she noted, concluding:
– So our message to the partners is yes, we understand all these requirements, we know they have to be met, but can we find a way to short-circuit it?
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
