Country Development Cooperation Strategy

Liberia's 2019-2024 CDCS goal is: USAID/Liberia will foster self-reliance by spurring private-sector led economic expansion through a focus on catalyzing reforms and cultivating a healthy, productive, and educated workforce.

Self-reliance, including Liberia’s ability to fund its own development, is contingent upon a functioning economy and the availability of a capable workforce to support economic growth. Economic growth is a central challenge in Liberia, with living standards and economic opportunities in decline. Liberia has an even greater imperative to grow its economy in a fair and equitable manner given its large and growing youth population. To address this critical need and area of opportunity, the CDCS goal focuses on private sector-led economic expansion, with youth as a cross-cutting focus area throughout. Weak governance and corruption underlie many of Liberia’s challenges - Liberia ranks low in government effectiveness, including revenue mobilization, and was recently ranked 120 out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. As such, catalyzing reform is another fundamental component of Liberia's CDCS. These challenges also translate into the delivery of public services. For greater self-reliance, the government of Liberia must capture more revenue and channel it into productive investment and the delivery of essential services, as economic growth depends on a capable, productive and equitable labor market. Developing Liberia’s human capital through better access to health and education services is an area of great need, and the third pillar of the CDCS goal.

Liberia's 2019-2024 CDCS goal is: USAID/Liberia will foster self-reliance by spurring private-sector led economic expansion through a focus on catalyzing reforms and cultivating a healthy, productive, and educated workforce. Its three highly-interdependent pillars address the areas of greatest need: 1) Market-driven inclusive economic growth that translates into job creation, especially for youth and women; 2) Effective and inclusive governance catalyzed through reforms and greater accountability; and 3) Foundation for growth strengthened through a healthy, productive, and educated population. Liberia will need to specifically support women and youth to reach the country’s full potential. Currently, Liberia’s Gender Inequality Index (GII) value is 0.656, ranking at 154 out of 160 countries in the 2017 Index. This means that women have less representation and less education and comprise a smaller portion of the workforce.

A promising area for continued engagement is with civil society, specifically through the professionalization of the Civil Society Organization (CSO) and media sectors. Liberia has a robust print media and many very active radio stations. Although media struggles with content quality, fair and unbiased information dissemination, as well as censorship and intimidation, civil society as a whole is quite Self-reliance, including Liberia’s ability to fund its own development, is contingent upon a functioning economy and the availability of a capable workforce to support economic growth. Economic growth is a central challenge in Liberia, with living standards and economic opportunities in decline. Liberia has an even greater imperative to grow its economy in a fair and equitable manner given its large and growing youth population. To address this critical need and area of opportunity, the CDCS goal focuses on private sector-led economic expansion, with youth as a cross-cutting focus area throughout. Weak governance and corruption underlie many of Liberia’s challenges - Liberia ranks low in government effectiveness, including revenue mobilization, and was recently ranked 120 out of 180 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. As such, catalyzing reform is another fundamental component of Liberia's CDCS. These challenges also translate into the delivery of public services. For greater self-reliance, the government of Liberia must capture more revenue and channel it into productive investment and the delivery of essential services, as economic growth depends on a capable, productive and equitable labor market. Developing Liberia’s human capital through better access to health and education services is an area of great need, and the third pillar of the CDCS goal.

Liberia remains in a dynamic state and the new CDCS is designed to be flexible to accommodate the changing context in country and pivot towards the critical areas of need. Specifically, a food insecurity crisis is unfolding. In the past year, the value of the Liberian dollar has dropped 36 percent and serious liquidity problems have driven food prices to historical highs. The economic crisis exacerbates longstanding issues of low production, poor infrastructure, lack of quality inputs, limited access to credit, and other challenges. These composite factors have pushed many remote communities into the "Extremely Alarming" category of food insecurity. Consequently, some initial assumptions outlined in this new CDCS will be continuously monitored and adapted as needed in order to address the need in the country.

This CDCS was developed and finalized in 2020 as COVID-19 became a global pandemic. USAID/Liberia will continue to monitor its potential impact and if needed, the Mission will re-evaluate the strategic approach.