Washington, D.C. — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is making a return visit to Washington this week with an urgent agenda. To deliver the jobs and services she sees as essential to building a stable democracy in the war-ravaged nation, she is seeking relief from the crippling international debt incurred by former rulers and is requesting an accelerated flow of investments and development assistance.
The week's schedule includes sessions with the Congressional leadership of both parties, a White House visit with President George W. Bush, meetings with the top officials of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, a conference with major international donors on Tuesday and Wednesday and a private-sector investment forum on Thursday.
Her previous U.S. visits have been marked by official accolades and oversubscribed private events. A Congressional delegation led by Nancy Pelosi, now speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Monrovia shortly after Sirleaf took office as Africa's first elected female president in January 2006. In March, she addressed a joint sitting of the U.S. Congress and met at the White House with President Bush, who seated her next to him at the luncheon he hosted at the United Nations General Assembly meetings in September.
Now, the president and her advisers are bringing a message that results matter more than the enthusiasm with which she is commonly received. She has repeatedly stressed Liberia's need for a "peace dividend".
"If we cannot deliver on the promise of peace, we cannot claim surprise at a slide back into war," she said in a major policy address at Georgetown University in October. "Liberia can demonstrate successful models for international coalitions to achieve development, as well as national and regional stability," she said. "Across Africa, around the world, we must show that freedom can deliver prosperity and peace. Failure to do so will be more costly than we can contemplate. And in Liberia, that failure would be catastrophic."
Last May, in the wake of Sirleaf's speech to the House and Senate, Congress approved U.S.$50 million in assistance. Nine months later, those funds are only beginning to be disbursed, and aides say the delay has slowed reconstruction. On this trip the president aims to call Congressional attention to two priority needs – a resolution of Liberia's debt obligations, which would open the way for World Bank and other international aid, and funds for maintaining security.
"Liberia can be our success story," says Riva Levinson, a Washington lobbyist who helped organize this week's visit. "But the president needs help until the diamonds, timber, rubber and iron ore that Liberia possesses can be put to work for her people." Levinson, who has recently left the large government-relations firm BKSH and Associates to form her own company, says the international community led by the United States should rally to Sirleaf's side. "Governments, private foundations and the world's entrepreneurs need to give her a jump start, and I am sure she will deliver."
Sirleaf will make her case for increased, long-term support at the World Bank-hosted conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. At the president's request, the meeting is being called the Liberia Partners' Forum, rather than a "donors' conference", to emphasize the collaborative approach she has tried to adopt with the international community.
"The government has committed itself to fiscal discipline and using public finances appropriately," the Bank said in a press release. "For its part, the international community must reach agreement on a debt relief package that releases the country from the staggering $3.7 billion debt burden they carry, and addresses the question of accumulated debt to the multilateral institutions."
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who has been an outspoken advocate of aid for Liberia, argued the case for canceling Liberia's debt this past weekend at a meeting of ministers from the Group of Seven, the world's wealthiest nations. He told the Times of London there was a "sympathetic reaction" to his proposal, which was strongly endorsed by Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. A joint opinion piece by Wolfowitz and Sirleaf is scheduled to appear in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the forum's opening day.
Because of its size, the debt issue looms large on Liberia's agenda. In her first appearance in Washington on Monday, Sirleaf received a pledge of support for dealing with the problem from Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. (Democratic-Illinois), who appeared with the Liberian leader at a Center for Global Development forum. "Without debt forgiveness, Liberia can not borrow, can not attract needed capital, and can never hope to fulfill its promise," he said. As the second-ranking Democrat on the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, Jackson is positioned to push forward an appropriation for Liberia and promised to support the country's security-assistance requirements, including building a national army and police force and "in the most vital task at hand, providing for the personal protection of the President."
The finale of Sirleaf's Washington visit comes Thursday, when she addresses a private sector forum organized by the Corporate Council on Africa and Liberia's National Investment Commission. The day-long event has attracted more than 350 participants, far exceeding organizers' expectations and forcing the closing of registration more than a week early.
The agenda includes workshops on oil exploration, mining, infrastructure, construction and housing, power and transportation. Along with a keynote speech by President Sirleaf, the luncheon will be addressed by Alex Cummins, president of Coca Cola Africa, and Robert Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, who has pledged $3 million to jump-start a $30 million investment fund for Liberia. The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, which along with the International Finance Corporation is also co-sponsoring the forum, is expected to announce support for the fund, along with several other investors.
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In a January 30 status report to Congress, the Liberian government reiterated that, despite "real strides", the country's "peace and economic recovery remain fragile." The document outlines urgent needs, including $195 million for police and army training and presidential security. A Liberian force is needed to replace the 13,000 United Nations peacekeepers now in the country; a national police force is needed to keep order and fight crime; and the U.S. State Department's diplomatic security force that provided protection for the president for the first six months after her inauguration ended in June, without "an effective transition strategy in place" nor the armored cars and communications equipment needed to handle the task, the report said.
In her meeting with President Bush, Sirleaf is expected to reiterate her thanks for the U.S. support Liberia has received – and she will seek his personal assistance in resolving Liberia's debt crisis. She will also offer the U.S. government the site which formerly housed the Voice of America's largest shortwave radio transmitter in the region for use by the planned new U.S. military command in Africa (Africom).
Links:
A Status Report to the 110th Congress
World Bank - Government of Liberia Partners' Forum Seeks To Coordinate Rebuilding Efforts
President Calls for Faster Aid Flows - Speech at Georgetown University
