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