Liberia's recent Millennium Challenge Corporation scorecards offer a useful corrective to partisan claims. They do not show that President Joseph Boakai's administration is currently outperforming former President George Weah's final-year performance. They show something more complicated: Liberia remains broadly eligible and reform-relevant, but its policy performance has weakened from the Fiscal Year 2024 scorecard and has not yet recovered to that level.
MCC scorecards are not campaign posters. They are annual, comparative assessments built from independent third-party indicators measuring "ruling justly," "investing in people," and "economic freedom." MCC says the indicators are selected because they are public, comparable, policy-linked and connected to economic growth. Passing the scorecard is important, but it is not the same as automatic compact approval; MCC's board also considers supplemental information, reform commitment and country context.
By the numbers, the contrast is clear. Liberia's Fiscal Year 2024 scorecard, reflecting performance year 2023 under President Weah, passed 14 of 20 indicators. The Fiscal Year 2025 scorecard, reflecting 2024 under President Boakai, passed 11 of 20. The Fiscal Year 2026 scorecard, reflecting 2025 under Boakai, passed 12 of 22. That means Weah's final scorecard produced a 70 percent pass rate, while Boakai's first two scorecards produced roughly 55 percent and 54.5 percent respectively. On raw scorecard performance, Weah's final year was stronger.
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But the interpretation must be fair. MCC changed parts of its scorecard framework in Fiscal Year 2026, adding new measures and revising how certain benchmarks are evaluated. The Center for Global Development notes that MCC's newer scorecards changed hard hurdles and added indicators such as Business Start-Up, International Market Access and Market Competitiveness, while removing or replacing some older measures. That makes a straight 20-indicator-to-22-indicator comparison imperfect.
Even with that caveat, the pattern matters. Under Weah's Fiscal Year 2024 scorecard, Liberia missed serious indicators, including education expenditure, natural resource protection, child health, girls' primary education completion, regulatory quality and government effectiveness. These were not minor failures. They pointed to weak public investment, environmental governance problems, and poor state delivery. In human terms, those failures mean underfunded schools, weaker health outcomes, poor protection of natural resources and public institutions that struggle to deliver services.
Under Boakai, the troubling areas did not disappear. Fiscal Year 2025 showed failures in fiscal policy, trade policy, health expenditure, education expenditure, natural resource protection, girls' primary education completion, child health, government effectiveness and rule of law. Fiscal Year 2026!showed some improvement by adding one net pass, but Liberia still missed trade policy, access to credit, employment opportunity, business start-up, workforce development, natural resource protection, girls' primary education completion, child health, government effectiveness and rule of law. That is especially concerning because several of these indicators affect ordinary Liberians directly: jobs, credit, education, health care, land use, and confidence in state institutions.
The strongest argument for the Boakai administration is that Liberia still passed the overall scorecard and remains in MCC's compact conversation. MCC's Fiscal Year 2025 selection report said Liberia was invited to develop a compact, citing peaceful 2023 elections, democratic stability, reform commitments and improved scorecard policy performance over time.
The strongest argument against exaggerated government celebration is that Liberia's pass is fragile. Rule of law and government effectiveness remain red flags. A country can pass the "half scorecard" requirement while still failing the very institutions citizens depend on most. MCC itself defines government effectiveness as the quality of public service, civil-service competence and the government's ability to plan and implement sound policy; it defines rule of law around public confidence, judicial independence, crime, property rights and contract enforcement.
So, is Boakai outperforming Weah? Based on the attached MCC data, no -- not yet. Weah's final-year scorecard was stronger numerically and proportionally. Boakai's record shows modest recovery from Fiscal Year 2025 to Fiscal Year 2026, but not enough to surpass the Fiscal Year 2024 benchmark.
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The larger national lesson is not partisan. Liberia's problem is structural. Whether under Weah or Boakai, the country continues to struggle in the same development fundamentals: quality education, child health, natural resource protection, government effectiveness, rule of law, credit access and employment. These failures are not abstract scorecard colors. They are the daily experience of citizens who cannot find jobs, parents who cannot afford quality schooling, businesses that cannot access credit, communities exposed to environmental abuse, and voters who doubt whether institutions can protect them.
A serious government should not merely announce that Liberia "passed." It should explain why Liberia keeps missing the indicators that matter most to the poor. The MCC scorecard is not a trophy. It is a mirror. Right now, that mirror shows progress, but not superiority -- and certainly not enough transformation.
