Monrovia — The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah, has blamed the coronavirus pandemic and global financial crisis for the Coalition of Democratic Change's (CDC) failure to meet its threshold of taking one million Liberians out of poverty as it's contained in the policy document of the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD).
He stated, "Several external crises, including the global financial crisis, COVID-19, and the Russia-Ukraine war, have had an impact on our economy.
"The effects of these obstacles placed a significant strain on our economy, limiting the government's ability to provide fundamental infrastructure. "When President Weah took over the country, he inherited two million people living in extreme poverty. He pledged in his PAPD to take about a million people out of poverty, that was the ambition of the PAPD. Of the first year of his regime, 27 thousand people came out of poverty," Minister Tweah said.
According to Minister Tweah, in the last three to four years of the previous administration, poverty was on the rise. "So the President took over the country when poverty was increasing. In 2015, there were 1.7 million people in extreme poverty. In 2016, there were 1.9 million people in poverty. In 2017, that number increased to two million people in poverty, and President Weah inherited that. In 2018, President Weah took about 24 thousand people out of poverty," Minister Tweah said.
Minister Tweah stated that President George Weah's administration recognizes that without the active participation of the private sector and a strong commitment to public-private partnerships, the country's economy will continue to decline and hinder economic development.
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The PAPD was launched in July of 2018 in Ganta City, Nimba County, with President Weah assuring that the much-publicized Pro-Poor Policy of his government would seek to build a "harmonious society" especially for the underprivileged.
The plan, according to the government during the launch, encompassed the country's development plans for the next five years and was expected to lift about a million people out of poverty to prosperity.
The Liberian President declared in 2018: "Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, this is the book that your hope lies in; let us promote it and make sure that it works. With peace, I believe that every line of this book will be implemented."
Also, Minister Tweah at the launch in 2018, said all of what Liberians have been lacking over the last 12 years has been crafted in the PAPD.
"The PAPD aims to leave one million Liberians out of poverty over the next five years. This does not mean that those Liberians are to be rich. No, it means that Liberians will have a stable and sustainable income to support their various livelihoods," Minister Tweah said in 2018.
