By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives

The Liberian government said it would hold “tough conversations” with the country’s international partners in April to explore ways to deal with the “shock” of the US aid cuts announced by the new Trump administration this month.

The US is Liberia’s second largest donor after the World Bank. Most of the US aid has been provided by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), its lead aid agency, which donated $US80 million to Liberian projects in 2024 mostly in health, education and agriculture, according to the Liberia Project Dashboard. Liberia is one of ten countries most dependent USAID, according to the Center for Global Development, a UK think tank.

Because of the cuts, government and NGOs implementing a range of projects have laid off staff. Mr. Augustine Ngafuan, Liberia’s minister of Finance and Development Planning, said the government was “concerned about that.” The government has also been left with considerable and unexpected costs. Some projects were to be reimbursed by USAID, meaning government has already spent the money and it is not clear whether the Trump administration will be forced to honor previous agreements to pay those funds.

Speaking Thursday at the official launch of the Governance Reform and Accountability Transformation Project – to be known by the acronym GREAT – Minister Ngafuan, said the government will go into April’s World Bank “Spring Meetings” in Washington DC, “with the view to repurposing, redirecting and reprogramming where necessary, some of the support; some of the projects that, in our estimation, may not be yielding the kind of returns that we want.”

“Where we have the country hurting in critical areas on account of USAID, and you have projects under some of our partners that are not giving us the bang for our buck and that we have to pay back, we will have some tough conversations,” said Minister Ngafuan. “It’s one of our strategies in dealing with the crisis. Where we have projects that this country, the poor people of this country, will have to pay back, we will not be too generous to allow grants for certain things that at this point in time, may not represent the best decision at this point in time.”

April’s meetings will follow another one held late February behind closed doors, at the UN headquarters in Monrovia, in which the ministry said ambassadors at the meeting “asserted that their countries will stand with Liberia in thick and thin.” Experts say next month’s meetings could be critical for Liberia as it strategizes a way forward.

As Liberia gradually comes to terms with the aid cuts a senior government official has joined experts in urging government to move beyond aid. Dr. Josiah Joekai, Director General of the Civil Service Agency, gave thanks to Liberia’s partners but said it was time for the country to take some steps to handle its own problems. He stressed the need to ensure proper collection of all taxes and other revenue owed to the state and to minimize funds lost to fraud and corruption.

“I believe that Mr. Minister, as the person presiding over the economy of our country, that we start to think about different drastic approaches to the management of our resources, so that some of these great things that you are doing can be sustainable,” said Dr. Joekai at the launch of the GREAT project. “Because when we are effectively deploying and managing our resources in a way that we maximize them all the time, we will not be needing them all the time, and we should not need them perpetually. There should come a time, we should have a cutoff point where we are able to do it ourselves.”

Dr. Joekai also his Agency would have a key role.

“We are automating the system to make sure that people stop moving around with papers, huge files,” said Dr. Joekai. “You just sit and work with human resources, upload your information, upload your credentials, and there are layers of the approval in the system so that we can automate the process and also have to strengthen the merit-based system.”

Minister Ngafuan, whose ministry is spearheading the project, said that the project will help “to revamp the national data center hosting all government data servers.”

“We are going to fund the mass registration and issuance of digital IDs for two million Liberians under this project,” said Minister Ngafuan. “Support will also go to the Liberia Revenue Authority, to integrate the LRA systems with other government platforms and scaling up property tax initiatives. We will implement our digital asset declaration and verification system, along with an anti-corruption dashboard. It will help to improve their investigative and prosecutorial capabilities through training of investigators.”

One key aspect of the project is to reactivate county service centers across Liberia, which were starved of funds under the administration of George Weah forcing people to travel to Monrovia to access vital services.

“We’re going to improve our city infrastructure at the 15 county centers, the ones we have now and the ones that we’re going to construct,” said Minister Ngafuan. “We are going to increase the capacity of the ministry to manage these centers, and we are going to increase access to public service at the county service centers.”

He said the The World Bank had agreed to fund the $US30 million project.

“We will pilot a new implementation modality that focuses on primarily using civil servants to implement the project and deliver reforms,” confirmed Mr. Oyewole Afuye, head of procurement at the bank’s Liberia office. “Of course, reform is not an easy thing. It has to be a gradual process. So we are in support of your dreams and visions and mission to ensure that this project is delivered successfully.”

Madam Christine N. Umutoni, United Nations Resident Coordinator, pledged the UN support.

“When I see governance reform, accountability, transformation, it really takes me back in my own country. I come from Rwanda, and we came from war, and everything I see here I’ve lived, and I can testify that this kind of reform is what helps countries to jump to the next level into transformation,” said Madam Umutoni. “At the UN, we really look at this as a good opportunity, because we are involved in decentralization efforts, transfer of power to the communities and promoting community participation and governance. And I’m sure this kind of program is promoting that.”

In addition to development partners, the program was attended by heads and officials of other government’s ministries and agencies involved with the project. 

This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.