Liberia’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector faces chronic structural problems, which have become more challenging since it was not the primary focus of the post-conflict emergency response by development partners.
... See More + The wartime destruction of infrastructure and the urgency behind rebuilding post conflict, led donors as well as Liberia’s own Ministry of Finance to directly fund reconstruction and development through non-state actors (such as NGOs, CSOs and development partners) rather than state institutions (World Bank, 2015). Consequently, this has weakened the institutional capacity of the sector to absorb finance and turn it into productive services, thus further inhibiting investment. This was further aggravated by the Liberian government’s immediate post war challenges, which were given greater priority such as roads and electricity. Other sectors, such as health, were funded through the country’s national budget, which became a point of leverage to influence institutional capacity. The WASH sector however, was left in the hands of non-state entities. WASH financing and activities are not fully coordinated within line ministries at the national and county level and sometimes between line ministries and county officials, as well as within development partners, and between development partners and government. This is mainly due to the disjointed nature of WASH-related activities, and lack of WASH champion at the national level that can play a strong coordination role.
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Citizen centric services of solid waste management in Monrovia need improved communications with greater transparency and accountability, Even though waste management is a stated government priority, the subsector depends primarily on donor financing and on fees paid by citizens.
... See More + Citizens trust in service providers however is largely broken and need to be addressed to rebuild the social contract of paying for solid waste collection. The operational capacity of Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) to ensure accountability need to be strengthened, the MCC is currently a service provider but has extremely limited resources to effectively undertake this function. The service delivery model of engaging Community Based Enterprises (CBEs) for primary waste collection needs to be revisited – the formalization of CBEs has led to additional new challenges in the service delivery model, which requires rethinking the role of value-added services, adapting zoning laws to generate competition among CBEs and a more results-based model of financing.
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Liberia’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector faces chronic structural problems, which originate in the post war emergency response by multilateral organizations.
... See More + Institutions and infrastructure in Liberia were destroyed by its fourteen year long civil war, which ended in 2003. The urgency behind post war reconstruction led donors as well as Liberia’s Ministry of Finance to directly fund the WASH sector’s reconstruction and development through non-state actors rather than state institutions (World Bank, 2015). These non-state entities, which mainly provided emergency relief, lacked the ability to provide services equitably and sustainably across the country, predominantly in remote rural areas. Ineffective government institutions remained on the sidelines (World Bank, 2015). Consequently, for many years after the war, the WASH sector became fragmented across several ministries with no centralized authority. As a result, large sections of the Liberian population remain exposed to unsafe water and sanitary conditions, particularly in rural areas.
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The Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) recognized the need for improving WASH conditions in the country. The PAPD is a Government of Liberia (GoL)’s medium-term development strategy covering 2018-2023 towards Liberia Rising 2030 accelerating growth and reducing poverty to achieve its vision of middle-income status by 2030.
... See More + The PAPD recognized that the lack of financing for infrastructure investments as one of the key constraints, and it has hindered the improvement in water supply, waste disposal, garbage disposal and drainage. Other constraints included limited human resource, institutional fragmentation, weak legal and regulatory framework, inadequate water distribution infrastructure due to lack of funding, and inadequate sanitation services. The sector lacks trained manpower, has inadequate data (on access to services), difficulties with planning, and communities’ resistance for change in their water and hygiene practices. The PAPD addressed the critical need for WASH improvements by indicating that ‘the Government aims to have equitable, safe, affordable and sustainable water supply and sanitation services for all Liberians’, and also committed that ‘the Government will mobilize resources for water supply infrastructure, provide rural water supply, facilitate supply and financing for water resources management mobilize communities to fully participate in planning, operation and maintenance of WASH facilities, and eliminate open defecation nationwide while enforcing minimum standard WASH packages.’
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The 2014-15 Ebola epidemic took a devastating human and economic toll on three West African countries, of which Liberia was perhaps the hardest hit.
... See More + The pathways through which the crisis affected economic activity in these largely agrarian societies remain poorly understood. To study these mechanisms in the context of rural Liberia, this paper links a geographically disaggregated indicator of Ebola disease mortality to nationally representative household survey data on agricultural production and consumption. The paper finds that higher Ebola prevalence (as proxied by local mortality) led to greater disruption of group labor mobilization for planting and harvest, thereby reducing rice area planted as well as rice yields. Household welfare, measured by per capita expenditures spanning two points before and after the crisis, fell by more in Ebola prevalent areas with more intensive rice farming, precisely those areas that were more adversely affected by agricultural labor shortages.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8880 JUN 11, 2019
De La Fuente,Alejandro; Jacoby,Hanan G.; Lawin,Kotchikpa GabrielDisclosed
The new government elected in April 2018 inherited a declining economy with slower economic growth in both iron-ore and non-iron-ore sectors, growing twin deficits (domestic fiscal and external current account), accelerating inflation fueled by depreciating exchange rate and the buildup of government arrears, and weaker performance of SOE’s.
... See More + Given the delays and the size of slippages, the 2017 ECF program was faced with a growing risk of going off-track. In the circumstances, the new government opted to cancel the ongoing IMF program and demonstrate its strong commitment to realistic improvements in macroeconomic performance defined under a new ECF concluded in November 2018. The brunt of the underlying Fiscal Adjustment Framework is anchored in an ambitious revenue mobilization effort expected to support continued strong capital (infrastructure) and social spending needs and yet allow the deficit reduction needed to stabilize and reduce public debt even in the event of unforeseen external and domestic shocks. Fiscal Adjustment Framework provides a sustainable mapping of government policy objectives into the foundation for macroeconomic stability and economic growth. Country’s large (domestic and external) public debt burden is the main constraint in this process. The recent fiscal slippages and weaker output growth have added to this challenge. Sierra Leone is now classified as being at ‘high risk’ of debt distress.
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Following general elections in Liberia in 2017, a new government was formed with a mandate to achieve ambitious development objectives. Following a nationwide consultative process, the new medium-term national development plan, Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD)-2019-2023 was developed focusing on: strengthening public institutions; accelerating infrastructure investments for productive capacity; improving productivity in the real sector through enhanced economic diversification; increasing investment in human capital (youth employment, health, and education); and improving competitiveness, while safeguarding macroeconomic and debt sustainability.
... See More + The focus of fiscal policy should be twofold, raising revenues while sustaining deficit at financeable level. In such a tight fiscal situation, the imperative is to secure equal or improved quality of public services by prioritizing and improving the composition of expenditure, enhancing efficiency, and expanding the resource envelope by stepping up the revenue mobilization efforts. Sustaining pro-poor development agenda, will likely require a political resolve to reduce the share of government resources devoted to high paid public servants and discretionary expenditures, as well as improve the efficiency and transparency of government spending. Otherwise, the financing gap created by an announced decline in grants and other forms of external assistance may be difficult to close.
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The 2014–15 Ebola epidemic took a devastating human and economic toll on three West African countries, of which Liberia was perhaps the hardest hit.
... See More + The pathways through which the crisis affected economic activity in these largely agrarian societies remain poorly understood. To study these mechanisms in the context of rural Liberia, this paper links a geographically disaggregated indicator of Ebola disease mortality to nationally representative household survey data on agricultural production and consumption. The paper finds that higher Ebola prevalence (as proxied by local mortality) led to greater disruption of group labor mobilization for planting and harvest, thereby reducing rice area planted as well as rice yields. Household welfare, measured by per capita expenditures spanning two points before and after the crisis, fell by more in Ebola prevalent areas with more intensive rice farming, precisely those areas that were more adversely affected by agricultural labor shortages.
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Working Paper (Numbered Series) 137734 JUN 01, 2019
De La Fuente,Alejandro; Jacoby,Hanan G.; Lawin,Kotchikpa GabrielDisclosed
The Liberia Forest Sector Project (LFSP) is a grant-financed project supported by the Government of Norway via a World Bank-managed Trust Fund.
... See More + Under the LFSP framework, Liberia's Forestry Development Authority (FDA) sought to investigate the potential for charcoal production to provide livelihood benefits and improved incomes for forest communities, while incentivising sustainable management of forest resources. Options to be investigated were: (i) the inclusion of sustainable charcoal in community-based forest management systems; (ii) charcoaling of wood residues left in the forests by commercial logging operations; (iii) interventions in the value chain to improve sustainability; (iv) production of charcoal from dedicated energy plantations; and (v) potential substitution with other fuels, including briquettes produced from food waste, crop residues or charcoal dust. The report describes the nature of Liberia's charcoal industry, appraises areas of potential LFSP intervention and recommends appropriate actions for supporting sustainable charcoal during the remaining project period to June 2020. With a Mid-Term Review scheduled for early 2019, the opportunity to contribute ideas on charcoal is timely.
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This paper examines Liberia's financial management (FM) capacity building initiatives from the immediate aftermath of the 14-year civil war to date, and the lessons that could be drawn from such experiences for future efforts in the country and others faced with similar circumstances.
... See More + The paper focuses on the merits and shortcomings of both donor supported and country-led initiatives that had FM skills development as a central theme.
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Sixteenth in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 190 economies, Doing Business 2019 covers 11 areas of business regulation.
... See More + Ten of these areas - starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency - are included in the ease of doing business score and ease of doing business ranking. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in these two measures. Doing Business provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. This economy profile presents indicators for Liberia; for 2019 Liberia ranks 174
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Liberia remains at moderate risk of debt distress, though care and precision in implementing its ambitious infrastructure program will be critical.
... See More + Under the baseline scenario, which reflects staff’s interpretation of the authorities’ stated plans, Liberia will remain at moderate risk of debt distress but move closer to thresholds that mark a high probability of debt distress. Adverse risks to the baseline are also significant. Staff discussed an alternative reform scenario that would ease the risk of debt distress while achieving roughly the same level of spending. The reform scenario assumes that all external financing would be on concessional terms and the amount of additional borrowing would be strictly controlled and supplemented with domestic resource mobilization. Such steps would be beneficial not only to improve the safety margin for the preservation of debt and macroeconomic stability, but also to sustain broad-based growth over the forecast horizon.
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Liberia has been influenced by the Ebola crisis since 2014, but the economy is now recovering quickly. Still, significant challenges lie ahead: Agriculture, an important sector employing approximately half of the labor force, still has a weak growth trajectory.
... See More + Many rural people are not well connected to markets and live below the poverty line. To use limited resources effectively, strategic planning and prioritization of public investment are essential. Particularly, the Ebola crisis revealed the vulnerability of the country’s transport connectivity and health systems. Spatial Analysis of Liberia’s Transport Connectivity and Potential Growth analyzes the country’s transport connectivity, identifying the existing bottlenecks and possible economic potentials. By taking advantage of the country’s first-ever geo-referenced road network data, the analysis casts light on various aspects of connectivity, such as rural accessibility, market access, access to port and health facilities, and multi-modal connectivity, including cabotage. It is shown that transport connectivity is crucial to increase agricultural production, stimulate agglomeration economies, and support people’s access to healthcare services. Significant resources are likely to be required to meet the existing gap. Spatial Analysis of Liberia’s Transport Connectivity and Potential Growth estimates the financial needs by development objective and discusses important policy issues, including the possibility of public and private partnerships to finance transport infrastructure.
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Much of Liberia’s infrastructure to generate, transmit, and distribute electric power was destroyed during 15 years of civil conflict. At the time the project was being prepared in 2009, most of the population surveyed for the project lived on less than US$2 per capita per day.
... See More + Households not connected to the electricity grid were estimated to have devoted nearly 15 percent of their monthly disposable income to energy for lighting and other applications—and as much as 50 percent considering all energy expenditures, including fuel for cooking. Reestablishing and expanding access to modern energy services is critical to facilitate social integration in the country and support the government’s efforts in post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction. A rapid expansion of the power network and a widespread program to connect more households in Monrovia aims to help achieve maximum improvements in electrification. But Liberia had its own challenges: at the project start, Liberia had the highest power tariffs in Africa and was the only country in the world without a public distribution network. Moreover, during implementation, the Ebola pandemic struck.
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Transport connectivity is among the most important factors in increasing firm productivity and accelerating economic development. The literature generally supports the idea of agglomeration economies, although there is little evidence of their effectiveness in Africa.
... See More + There are often empirical challenges, such as spatial externalities and endogeneity of infrastructure development. Using firm registry data in Liberia, this study used the instrumental variable spatial autoregressive model to examine the effects of transport connectivity on firms' decisions on where to locate. The study found significant spatial autocorrelation and possible endogeneity related to transport infrastructure, and that firms are more likely to be located where market accessibility is better. The data indicated strong agglomeration economies, indicating that the primary city, Monrovia, is likely to continue to grow and attract more people and firms, and that secondary cities can also grow with greater transport connectivity between populated areas, such as district centers.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8411 APR 18, 2018
Health care access is an important policy concern, especially in rural areas. It is especially challenging in developing countries, where rural residents are poorer and less likely to be insured than those living in urban areas.
... See More + Using the case of Liberia, this paper examines the effects of transport connectivity on health care access. The Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015 clearly revealed the vulnerability of the country's transport and health systems to unexpected external shocks. Paying particular attention to the possible challenge of endogeneity associated with infrastructure investment, the study found that transport connectivity, especially greater road density, can increase access to health care, but there was no significant effect of road quality. This may be because of significantly skewed underlying data. The vast majority of roads in Liberia are in poor condition. The study also found that the statistical effect of road density varies depending on distance from a health facility. The effect is particularly significant within a 30- to 50-kilometer radius. Not only rural accessibility, but also broader transport connectivity needs to be developed to increase health care access.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8413 APR 18, 2018
Using surveys and administrative data from post-war Liberia, the hypothesis that peacekeeping deployments build peace "from the bottom up" through contributions to local security and local economic and social vitality was tested.
... See More + The hypothesis reflects official thinking about how peacekeeping works via "peacebuilding." A quasi-experiment was created by applying coarsened exact matching to administrative data used in mission planning, identifying sets of communities that were similarly likely to receive peacekeeping bases. The analysis finds nothing to support claims that deployments increase local security and finds only modest effects on economic or social vitality. Nongovernmental organizations tend to work in areas where deployments are not present, contrary to the hypothesis. Thus, it is less likely that peacekeepers build peace from the bottom up, leaving mechanisms such as signaling and deterrence at the level of leaders as worthy of more attention. For policy, peacekeeping missions should reevaluate their methods for providing local security.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS8389 MAR 29, 2018
The key objectives of the Liberia Country Forest Note are to (a) identify opportunities and shape a more programmatic approach to the World Bank's engagement (that is, further analytical support, policy actions, and investments) and (b) guide coordination with other development partners in the sector.
... See More + The gaps and opportunities identified in the CFN recognize the unique challenges of the forest sector in a post-conflict country and the need for programmatic engagement by leveraging appropriate financing instruments consistent with the national macroeconomic framework. The CFN goes beyond the focus of the last three decades—on extracting maximum commercial benefits from the forests—and emphasizes the potential for livelihoods and employment in the forest sector, cognizant of the Government’s goals of sustainable management of forests and their enhanced contribution to Liberia’s economy. Gaps and opportunities, as well as key actions, are structured along the Forest Action Plan focus areas (with some adjustments) of (a) sustainable forest management (SFM); (b) sustainable forest value chains; and (c) cross-cutting areas (land use, climate change, and governance and institutions).
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Working Paper 126565 JAN 01, 2018
Hooda,Neeta; Kishor,Nalin M.; Verheijen,LesyaDisclosed
The Enterprise Surveys (ES) focus on many aspects of the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether an economy’s private sector will thrive or not.
... See More + Questions contained in the ES aim at covering most of the topics mentioned above. The topics include infrastructure, trade, finance, regulations, taxes and business licensing, corruption, crime and informality, access to finance, innovation, labor, and perceptions about obstacles to doing business. This document summarizes the results of the Enterprise Survey for Liberia. Business owners and top managers in 151 firms were interviewed between July and September 2017. The report provides a description of the sample breakdown across the three survey design categories: business sector, firm size, and location.
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Doing Business 2018 is the 15th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
... See More + This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Liberia. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies; for 2018 Liberia ranks 172. Doing Business measures aspects of regulation affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking. Data in Doing Business 2018 are current as of June 1, 2017. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why.
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