Bomi County

Last Friday was my first trip outside Monrovia to a county. I went to Bomi County where the Social Cash Transfer program is being piloted since 2009. Funded by the EU, partnered with UNICEF, the SCT project targets the poorest of the poor and labor constrained households.

The Social Cash Transfer office that was destroyed during the war and reconstructed by UNMIL (UN Mission in Liberia) Quick Impact Project.

With Jerry Godu, acting National Coordinator for the SCT program and one of the brightest Liberians I have come across so far.

With officers from the Ministry of Finance who are commissioned there on rotation (3 months). They check the payrolls prepared by the SCT program (housed in Ministry of Gender) at the different pay points in Bomi. Beneficiaries come to them with their ID cards and get the money (standard is US$10/ month) from these officers. They appeared to be quite disinterested doing this job and reaffirmed my concerns on staff motivation and interests within the Liberian government, especially at lower administrative levels. 

A female headed household by Hawa Kromah (see ID on the right). A single mother with six children, she is a beneficiary getting more than than the standard cash. She has rebuilt her house over two years and is trying to do farming (below is a cassava plant) to feed the family and possibly, sell to the market. The nearest market is at least 10km away.

 Below is the SCT car gifted by the UN.

Another beneficiary, Abou is taking care of a 11-person household. The cash allows him to buy a 25kg bag of rice to feed the family and the Norwegian Refugee Council has built a 2-room mud house for him. This is just enough for survival, but not to make things better for him and his family.

Weekend update: Robertsport, a beach town about 2 hours drive from Monrovia...detailed blog on Robertsport to follow soon. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures :)

The Missing Middle

Yesterday night, after a beer at Jamal's Boulevard Cafe (a quaint open air restaurant opposite old Tubman house on Tubman Boulevard - named after President Tubman before Charles Taylor came to power); I was reading a CFR report on women entrepreneurship in post-conflict regions. The paper highlighted certain salient points that struck home with some of the initiatives of the Ministry of Gender, along with its partners.

To put it in context, around the world, it is largely believed that small and medium term enterprises (SMEs) drive economic growth.  For instance, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor estimates that ‘140 million entrepreneurs are expected to create at least five new jobs each in the next five years’.

However in aid economies like Liberia, SMEs are unable to compete with bigger firms due to lack of capacity, capital and skills. Liberian examples range from infrastructure projects to oil contracts to the hospitality industry.

Although programs like EPAG (Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women), a joint pilot project to encourage entrepreneurship among women targets economic empowerment for young women and girls, they are usually constrained to petty trade like selling old clothes, groceries etc.

The main issue here is not with the skill, but with capital and seed money. Risk capital is tough to secure in such economies and especially for these sections of the populace who do not have necessary collateral nor the communal harmony (surprisingly) to take joint risk and pool together joint funds.

The result: a huge gaping ‘missing middle’ where SMEs stay outside private sector development initiatives. I am yet to figure out the possible solutions.

How I got through the 60p report:

Local Monrovian Club Beer and a delicious Liberian dish called ‘attike’ (my version of how it should be spelt on paper) that is their staple cassava (similar to cous cous) with avocado, fried plantain and hot pepper sauce!

A 115 kilo Blue Marlin

Bon jour!

And so… week three starts. The goal is to learn and analyze the different programs led by the MoGD with its different internal and external partners. These include EPAG (Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women), a 2 year pilot program aiming to increase employment and income for Liberian women, a Social Cash Transfer scheme that is arguably successful and is seen as a viable way to 'pull the poorest out of the poverty trap' (Jeffrey Sachs' 'End of Poverty' flashback). 

My goal for the coming weeks is to fit the current Monitoring and Evaluation Framework being developed at the Ministry at the moment within these programs and to also assess the internal capacity and capability gaps within each. Phew! I am still not sure where to start but I plough my way patiently, through the considerable number of dog ear-marked reports written by various national and international consultants, i.e. my predecessors over the years. 

(Anyone with experience with best practice cash transfer programs are welcome to comment/ give suggestions!)

Weekend update: These are the last few days of the fishing season. The season runs parallel to the dry season in Liberia (from late October-early November to late May). And so…we went fishing in Marshall Islands in Mugubi Country (about two hours drive from Monrovia). There was a storm the night before and still drizzling in the morning when we set out. It was a refreshing change from dusty and noisy Monrovia and be part of the fresh and lush green vegetation and brown red muddy tracks of Mugubi. The catch of the day and indeed of the season according to our Lebanese fishing crew was a 115kilo blue marlin that took 30 ms to be fought in and pulled into the boat. Bloody pictures to follow soon :)

Au revoir from a stuffy cubicle in the Gender Ministry for now. 

P.S. I discovered a cheaper super-market called Exclusive, owned by the Lebanese with ready-to-eat ‘pav bhaji’ (Indian street food of spicy mashed veggies with bread). Looks like it’s going to be dinner tonight!

A bit about work.

A 5 year strategic plan for MoGD: Yesterday, the Policy Department organized a gender sector roundtable to strengthen the working relationship between the MoGD, MACs (Ministries and Agencies), donor agencies and other partners. The two-hour roundtable spearheaded by Minister of Gender, Julia Ducan-Cassell had presentations by Annette Kiawu, Deputy Minister for Research and Technical Services and Jewel Howard-Taylor, Senator from Bong County among the notable ones.

Main takeaway points:

1.     The National Gender Policy (2009) looks at direct intervention of the government to induct ‘gender mainstreaming’  in 4 areas – education, health, justice and agriculture.

2.     Each sector is mandated to produce sex disaggregated data to understand the targeting of women in each of these sectors.

3.     The recently formed Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) unit led by an international consultant Mabuya Mubarak has come up with a rating system (Good/ Promising/ Fair/ Not Satisfactory) based on a set of specific criteria.

4.     The process to institutionalize gender within the budget (the new budget year starts 1 July)  is being tried within the Finance Ministry, albeit with a number of challenges.

My thoughts: Liberia’s vision 2030 sees the small West African country as a middle-income nation, ruled by democratic principles and well on the way to economic stability. Whilst the country will continue to receive substantial aid chiefly due to the credibility of senior women leaders committed to rule of law and democracy, the challenge will be to conceive and enact laws that bridge the gap between the reality and improving situation in Monrovia and the rest of the country (15 counties), that Senator Taylor referred to as the ‘real Liberia’.

Last few days of the dry season @ Kendeja.

Expat Living in Liberia

Coming to Liberia gives me my first taste of expat living in development communities that you inevitably get sucked into; till you start believing the expat world and forget the real. In Monrovia, there are several such spots i.e. Mamba Point Hotel on the beachfront, the hotel ‘to be seen in’, where senior UNMIL, USAID program managers have working lunch meetings and interns from all over the world camp for the whole day to get access to the relatively faster Internet. (Carli and I were no exception….we spent whole of Saturday and Sunday last week in one of the corner couches drinking endless refilled cups of coffee and working).  Then there is Kendeja and Robertsport (where we plan to go this weekend), beachfront villas you can escape to from the old decrepit government buildings where we spend our whole day. There, you can go fishing during the season, relax on the beach during the summer months, go to Jamal’s café for their reggae and hipco DJs and build up a life around yourself.

Which brings me to hipco:

Hipco is hip hop sung in colloquial English, i.e. the form of English you hear on the streets of Liberia. Although colloquial English retains a lot of English syntax, it can be a bit daunting at first because it is spoken very fast, many consonants are not pronounced, and a lot of words are borrowed from other local languages. But it has become the language of choice for young rappers. And much like hip hop, hipco has grown into its own culture, with its own lifestyle, dance moves and music. Today hipco often refers to more than just a type of rap, it’s a way of life in Monrovia. Carli and I saw this in action in a local Liberia party we attended on Myrtle Beach over the weekend. The men were in singlets with ear studs and a lot of the younger women in tiny shorts and tubes, the scene resembling the making of a hip hop video without the smooth editing and super skinny models. This got me thinking on the influence of the US in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves and where every other resident either has family in Minnesota or Maryland. Pictures to follow soon.  

The last few days I have been reading up on social entrepreneurship, specially within Liberian and West African women when I came across the World Economic Forum blog (http://forumblog.org/2012/05/africas-transformation-is-already-well-under-way/) on their recent conference on Africa.

1. UN Women Liberia has initiated a number of projects for women's economic empowerment especially in the agricultural sector. Below is an excerpt on their work on cassava (the staple food) production:

"In Liberia cassava is a staple food at the center of the food security chain. However, women are faced with significant challenges which constrain their productivity and their ability to earn substantial income from cassava production. These include a lack of appropriate processing equipment, transport to market, and farming tools and the inability to afford the necessary inputs for optimal production.

In Ganta (the largest city in Nimba County) and surrounding villages, 500 women are involved in the UN Women initiative to turn a small-scale women’s cassava production operation into an income-generating cassava production and processing enterprise. This is potentially a rich agricultural region with high productive capacity. However, at present the region is recovering from the civil conflict and operating at an unusually low level of economic output and crop productivity. New processing, marketing and management skills will be developed to establish profitable businesses measured through increased incomes, improved yields and expanded markets."

2. Liberty and Justice ( a non-profit based in Monrovia) launched Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified apparel factory via a small group of grassroots Liberian women to sell garments globally.

The question is: in a society whose critical issue is infrastructure, what kind of entrepreneurship will work? Can the following Harvard Business Review (HBR) matrix help to think this through?

Tubman Unification and Integration Policy

"May 14 is celebrated each year as a public holiday to commemorate a process completed by President Tubman and intended for unity and integration of the Liberian populist where the then commonwealth of Liberia (Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Sinoe, Maryland and Grand Cape Mount Counties),  formally joined with four indigenous territories or provinces or hinterland of ethnic Africans to organized what is today known as Liberia.

The Tubman Unification and Integration policy was intended to bridge the social, political, cultural and economic differences, which many Liberians thought was insurmountable."

National unification in Kendeja

I went to the Kendeja beach yesterday courtesy of a national holiday on Monday called National Unification Day.   

The day was proclaimed by 'Ma Johnson' in 2010 to instill the values of 'one Liberia'. In a nation of 16 tribes, a recent history of tribal wars and deep rooted tribal identities, the Liberian people genuinely believe in the notion of 'one people, one country'. I find this incredible....more insight on this as I spend more time here.

In the meantime, a view of Kendeja (one of many beach resorts built by the entrepreneurial Lebanese community in Liberia). As one of the expat heavens (the list includes Mambo point Hotel, Robertsport), Kendeja reflects the parallel lives of the expat community and the locals ingrained within a aid-dominated economy (ODA and aid is largest contributor to the Liberian economy). Sustainable?

National Unification Day

Time for a bit of Liberia's unique history:

 

"In the early 19th century, the US abolitionist movement designated Liberia’s coast as the spot to resettle freed American slaves. It is said that officials of the American Colonization Society forced a treaty upon a local king at Cape Mesurado (present-day Monrovia).
 

And so Liberia was founded in 1847 by Black American settlers.
 

Perhaps unsurprisingly given their own brutal past, the former slaves went on to monopolize Liberian politics for two centuries. This laid the groundwork for inequalities so deep, that they triggered the 1989-2003 civil war." (From Hala Hanna's blog: http://halahanna.com/2011/06/03/identity/) 

The Americo-Liberians' (distinctive by their surnames - e.g. Jackson/ Smith...our driver Johnny is Johnny Jackson, a 34 year old Liberian man with an infectious optimism...but more on this later) monopoly was challenged by Sergeant Samuel Doe who triggered a military coup in Monrovia. Ellen Johnson, then acting as Finance Minister under Doe assisted Charles Taylor and the rebels to escape (till today, a point of controversy). Two rival rebel factions under Taylor and Prince Johnson then battled for power in Monrovia, resulting in the two civil wars. (you can Wikipedia the entire history).

...which brings me to 'fun' facts (Courtesy: Barefoot Safaris):

1.    Liberia, founded in 1822 was Africa’s first independent black nation and the world’s second (after Haiti).

2.    The constitution of Liberia is based on the constitution of the United States of America.

3.    It was founded and colonized by freed American slaves.

4.    Liberia has 16 different indigenous tribes, all with their own dialect.

5.    English is the main language spoken in Liberia; however most Liberians speak ‘Liberian  English’ which is a unique interpretation of standard English.

6.    Liberia has 315 miles of coast line and offers some of the best and most undiscovered surfing spots in Africa 

Office and Home (Getrude and Small Isaac)

"The statistician and the policy maker"

Never thought I would be happy to read a Stats report...but here I am leafing through a report on 'Baseline Statistics for Gender' by the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services.

'The flower child’

Today is dedicated to Maureen. Maureen is the owner of the guesthouse that I call ‘home’ in Liberia. It has more than its fair share of power shortages, lack of running water…but Maureen makes up for everything, and so much more.

Today, Maureen told me her story. The daughter of an upper middle class Liberian family, she spent a few years studying in America as a student in the 70s. She was part of the generation during the heady days of the US that saw the ‘flower children’ protest against US involvement in the Vietnam war and advocate for world peace. Ironically, it was this very naiveté that made her return to Liberia in the middle of the civil war in the late 1980s and again in early 1990s. 

Maureen's father died in a crossfire between Charles Taylor's advancing rapacious army into Monrovia and the incumbent military dictator. The house where I am staying now was burnt down twice, but being on ‘prime property’ and being the ancestral home that it is, Maureen took out a loan from and rebuilt the house.  After her father’s death, she left for America where she had family but returned on a refugee ship 6 months later. The ship, that sailed with bare minimum food and water provisions for the refugees who wanted to return to Liberia and docked in Nigeria. Maureen made the journey from Nigeria to Liberia by herself and never left.

Today, Maureen is the Chairman of the President’s Trust Fund and involved in a number of women organizations, advocacy groups and NGOs in Liberia, especially for teenage prostitution and pregnancy that was the result of the war and a ‘lost generation’ – children without/ with separated families, lack of skills and education. Liberia has one of the youngest populations in Africa (>40% under 15 years of age) and this presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

ts

Good morning from Africa!

Monrovia resembles a rural Indian town stuck in the 70s. With its laid back easygoing populace, old and sometimes decrepit buildings (including my office at the Ministry of Gender and Development, henceforth to be referred to as the MoGD). The MoGD is on in the intersection between UN Drive and Gurley Street. As you may know, Monrovia has a substantial presence of international aid agencies including USAID, UNMIL, UN Women, UNFPA, UNDP and WFP. UN Drive has a number of theses offices making the area a cozy expat heaven.

I arrived here on a rainy Tuesday evening on 8 May. Not knowing anyone here in Liberia and as a first time visitor in Africa, it was reassuring to see Johnny from the MoGD who would be my friend, guide, and philosopher for the first week in Liberia. I am then taken to my temporary 'home', a guest house opposite the road from the MoGD where 'Maureen' the owner welcomes me in the middle of a electricity breakdown (prepare for frequent power shortages in Liberia) and introduces me to the family - Gertrude, the cook, Big Isaac (security during the night shift), Small Isaac (security during the day). Yes, that's exactly what they are called by Maureen.

I will be here for 9 weeks working with the MoGD, Liberia as they prepare their 5- year strategic plan for the National Gender Policy. Liberian women have faced gender violence and rape especially during the war, that continues to this date especially in the form of domestic violence. It is therefore heartening to see the presence of so many Liberian women in leadership positions within the government.

The MoGD aims to ‘mainstream’ gender i.e. introduce gender based benefits and policies amongst cross-cutting government departments. The second priority for the MoGD is M&E (Monitoring ad Evaluation). I will be be assisting them in both over the next few weeks, as well as initiate my own project in the coming weeks. 

I am extremely grateful to the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School and the Cultural Bridge Fellowship for this unique opportunity. For more adventures from Liberia, watch this space!