Liberia: Sirleaf says nation can achieve self-sufficiency in 10 years 0
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is visiting Washington this week for talks with Congressional leaders and a White House meeting on Thursday with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In an interview with AllAfrica.com, she discussed her record and her priorities.
Development and poverty alleviation have been the centerpiece of your agenda – and the topic on ongoing international debate. The United Nations is holding a summit on the Millennium Development Goals in September. A leaked U.S. government study says developing countries must have more ownership of development aid. How do you think development can best be achieved?
The best way to make development work is to ensure that the priorities are established by the people themselves. This is why our poverty reduction strategy came out of a rigorous process of consultation and participation by people across the country. They identified what became our priority goals, and we’ve been moving in that direction.
We’ve gone a long way in achieving the goals established under four pillars – peace and security, economic revitalization, governance and the rule of law, infrastructure and basic services. Basically, the country is at peace, although it remains fragile because we still haven’t met all the challenges.
We are beginning to see our economy grow again. We have had an average annual seven percent growth rate over the last four years, despite the global economic crisis in 2009. We’ve virtually done away with our U.S.$4.9 billion external debt overhang. We’re coming to closure on that in June.
Lots of roads, water and lights have been restored in the capital city.
Schools, hospitals and clinics have been built all over the country. We have a free society – sometimes we think too free! The media, free speech, free association, freedom of religion – those are all prospering.
Yet, no matter what we have accomplished, we still have a long way to go. Two basic challenges remain. One is employment for the thousands and thousands of young people who don’t have skills and don’t have the means whereby they can become productive.
In the governance area, we continue to fight the systemic corruption that’s been part of the value system over two-three decades. We’re trying to strengthen the pillars of integrity. We’re exposing corruption, and we’re taking action against it.
Did your efforts to involve people across the country in the poverty reduction strategy result in a buy-in from the Liberian people?
A definite buy-in. For the first time, people from the villages could say they sat in meetings and were asked “what do you think you want your government to do?” Three priorities came out quite clearly – roads, education and health.
And that influenced your strategy?
Absolutely. We were thinking education would be number one. But they convinced us that roads was number one because, as they said, they couldn’t take their produce to market, they couldn’t take their children to schools or the health centers if there was no mobility, if there was no way to get there. So our strategy has been to respond to what we know the people want.
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