When he took office in 2018 President George Weah promised his government would lift one million Liberians out of poverty by the end of his six year term. Half Liberia’s five million people live below in the poverty line.

In January the Weah government declared a victory that surprised many people: it claimed to have reduced poverty by eight percentage points. That would be about two hundred thousand people.

But as Fatu Kamara reports for Okay FM, the government is now backing away from that claim. In fact, the World Bank says poverty has increased to levels not seen in a decade. Eight out of every ten Liberians is now just worried about getting enough food.

Listen to the story here.

Funding for this collaboration with Okay FM was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Monrovia. The donor had no say in the story’s content.