Liberia: At the Annual Meetings, Finance Minister Speaks On 'Investing in Education for Our Children'

13 October 2022
FrontPageAfrica (Monrovia)

On the third day of the Annual Meetings in Washington DC, Liberia's Minister of Finance and Development Planning Hon. Samuel D. Tweah was selected to represented Africa on the panel to discuss "Investing in Education for our children".

The panel was moderated by the World Bank President, David Malpass and included Shafiq Khan, President of Teach the World Foundation and Catherine Russel, Executive Director of UNICEF.

In his opening remarks, Minister Tweah explained the nexus between education and development by providing evidentiary statistics on revenue generation and allocation to the sector. The Education Ministry will need $586 million dollars in the next five years. But that is 60% of the amount needed to stabilize the education sector through the service delivery, the recruitment of qualified and certificated teachers, improvement in girls education and learning outcomes. In terms of aggregation, 60% amount to only 14% which is 6% percent short of the Sub-Saharan Africa average for education. No country can do any better in the education sector without allocating 20% or more to their education sector

"We are hoping that the balance of 40 percent can be filled in through donor support or extra budgetary allocation once approved by the national Legislature", he noted. Education cannot be ignored even though the outcomes appear abstract in the short run as compared to investment in electricity, roads and health. The results of infrastructure development which are physical or visible cannot be sustained without human capital.

The Minister pointed out physical infrastructure dominates human capital because it is invisible. Resources are being directed from growth related projects to subsidies for rice, fuel and fertilizers. He spoke on the invisibility of human capital development which cannot be seen in the short run. He called on finance ministers across SSA to rethink development through the eyes of human capital development

With partnership from the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education and UNICEF, the country now has an opportunity of spending more than $950 million dollars in the long-run to improve the education sector. This sort of partnership will help to build a new framework for education through digitization and optimum learning outcomes which will serve as a strong foundation for sustainable development in Africa and other regions

Read the original article on FrontPageAfrica.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2022 FrontPageAfrica. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.