Washington, DC — Amara Konneh recently returned to his post as Liberia's minister of planning and economic affairs and a member of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's economic management team, following a brief interruption in early November when the president sent her entire Cabinet on administrative leave. On a visit to Washington in October, Konneh outlined how he believes the government's new development strategy, Liberia RISING 2030, will transform Liberia into a middle-income country in two decades. Part one of the two-part interview can be found here. Here are excerpts from part two:
Economic progress requires stability. As you know, there are critical voices saying the government hasn't done enough about reconciliation, enough to resolve the conflicts of the past.
Our best hope for that process was crafted in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that was signed by all parties that negotiated the Liberian peace. That document called for the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was put in place. They did their work. But some of them got caught up in the politics at the moment, squandered the opportunities to put on the table concrete ways we could reconcile our country. The report that came out was controversial.
Nevertheless, there were components of the report that I believe we, as a government, should implement - the ones that we all agreed on: the issue of land distribution; the issue of recognizing more than 200,000 Liberians who died in the war; the issue of palava hut discussions to talk about our bitter past; and the issue of decentralization. To take a lot of the power from Monrovia and give it to ordinary people out there. I think those are issues that all of us as a nation agreed on. And this government is committed to implementation.
I have been working with the United Nations Peace Building Commission to begin support for that process. We have about U.S.$25 million now in the pipeline from that body to begin addressing the issue of land conflict, to put in place community discussion and community policing. Maybe we haven't implemented and carried out reconciliation in the way our critics expect us to do it. But we strongly believe that by empowering people through the economy, by empowering them in their respective communities to talk to each other, you can now begin to lay the groundwork for discussions in which the government can participate.
But going from the top down is not the best way. We need to start these palava hut discussions. We need to encourage our people and tie this to some incentives so that they can begin to talk about their common problems amongst themselves. And then the government can come in as an arbiter. This is what we hope to capture when we begin the consultation process for the vision 2030 in January. We hope to encourage bottom-up reconciliation versus top-down approach to reconciliation driven by the government.
The president has repeatedly emphasized the important role women have to play in the peace process and in developing the country. How is that reflected in the 2030 planning?
The issue of gender equality is one of biggest accomplishments for this government so far. You recall in September Liberia received the award for MDG 3 - for gender equality and women empowerment. It speaks to some of the policies we have implemented over the past four years. Liberia is one of the countries now that is very strong on women's [issues], especially the issue of rape. But until we can address the economic issue and empower these women economically, and get most of our girl children in school, you will continue to see this divide.
There has been a surge in enrollment - more girls have entered school than ever in the history of Liberia, but retention is a problem. Some of the girls had to work to support their families, to sell in the local markets to work on the farms. Parents would rather keep the boys in school than the girls. So we now have a special program called the Girls Primary Education Completion where we focus on keeping girls in schools, providing some incentives to the parents to do that, also scholarships.
We have the Liberian Education Trust that is helping with that so that the girls can stay in school and at least continue to middle school. Parental involvement is key. The government cannot do everything. We do not have a strong enforcement mechanism to ensure that the law that says kids must go to school is enforced. The ministry of education now has a new leadership that is focused on the involvement of communities in the education of their children. And we are building strong PTAs (parent-teacher associations) across the country.
We are also getting support from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation to increase the number of girls that transition from primary school to middle school and stay there. Then you begin to build a new generation of women who are going to be leaders of tomorrow. That's key.
In the vision 2030 document, the role of women in the economy we are trying to build is going to be clear. They are going to be key players in it. We are going to have a pillar in the strategy that will focus on women - to increase women's participation in the legislature, to make a law to have equal participation in the Cabinet, in leadership positions across the country, in schools etc.
We also have to address the issue of land ownership. Currently women own less land than men in Liberia. The constitution says everybody should have access to land. Then you have these customary laws that exclude women. So we need to harmonize our laws to give everybody equal access. And that is what this Liberia Rising 2030 is going to be focusing on.
How is your government perceived by the people of Liberia? Do they feel they are benefitting from all the new policies you have put in place?
It's difficult to quantify how much the people appreciate the success of our country over the past four years. But we are concerned about the fact that we have not been able to create jobs and opportunities for a lot of our people. Even though they can sleep soundly without the fear of gunmen coming to loot. Even though they see all of the road works in their neighborhoods. Even though they see electricity on the major streets, but not in their homes.
We are still disappointed that we are not able to put electricity in the homes. No government should be happy about that. But for a country that is coming out of one of the worst economic collapses in history, I think this is progress. The challenge we have is communicating this to our people. And continuing our work to ensure that we create the opportunities where they can put food on the table for their families. The challenges are enormous.
How are you going to manage the Liberia RISING 2030 consultation process as the country moves into the 2011 election campaign?
We recognize the concerns that are being raised around the timing of these initiatives. But the president has assured the people that this is not a campaign platform for her. This is about the government playing its role. We met with all the political leaders. We keep reaching out to them.
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This is going to be a year-long process. The process will start in December - before the elections. We will pause around election time. And it will conclude after the elections. The new government will work with everybody to complete the process give the new agenda to the country for adoption.
It involves conducting a base study, looking at the socio-political anomalies in our country. That process will take about four months. After that, we need to identify what kind of future we want for our country. Do we continue on the path where we have this divide between the different groups, between different religions? Or do we want to tackle this issue of identity and put our nation on the path to prosperity?
After doing the scenarios, we need to identify what strategy to put in place to achieve that future for our country. We are forming a national steering committee that is going to include all stakeholders and respected people in the communities: people who are not afraid to speak the truth; people who are respected by all spectrums in the society to steer this process. It's not going to be led by the government alone.
We are a rich country. We shouldn't be in the position we are in today. If we can get governance right, if we can get inclusiveness right, then we should be on our way to becoming a middle-income country. We are committed to a process that is participatory and inclusive, a process that is owned by Liberians. We will continue to reach out to everybody. We encourage everybody to join us.
