Remarks at 6th round of Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda 23 June 2015

Brief Remarks on behalf of the Liberian Delegation at the Sixth Round of

Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

United Nations Headquarters, New York
23 June 2015

Co-Facilitators:

The Liberian Delegation likes to thank you for the zero draft outcome document on the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda that was shared in a timely manner, and forms the basis of our deliberations here. We also like to thank you for the able manner in which you continue to conduct the affairs of these negotiations.

Our delegation aligns itself with the positions expressed by the African Group, the LDCs, and the Group of 77 plus China.  

Kindly permit us to make the following intervention in our national capacity.

First, the Republic of Liberia believes that peace and security, transparency and accountability, and strong, effective and efficient institutions are fundamental ingredients to growth and development anywhere in the world. We therefore request that these principles become the bedrock of the Sustainable Development Goals. Support to developing countries should therefore focus on strengthening peace and security, enhancing transparency and accountability, and building effective and efficient institutions to lead national development processes. These are strong principles in the Common African Position (CAP), and the Agenda for Transformation (AfT)-Liberia’s Vision 2030.

Second, our delegation is convinced that to achieve inclusive and pro-poor growth and development, the interest of children, youth and women must be strongly considered, and they must be allowed to play a fundamental role in the development process. We therefore suggest that the centrality of children, youth and women must be clearly enunciated in the final outcome document of the SDGs.

Third, national legislatures or parliaments are very much important in allocating national resources. The Liberian Delegation therefore likes to reinforce its previous call for the empowerment of legislators or parliamentarians so that they can play a robust leadership in the implementation of the SDGs.

Fourth, some African LDCs including Liberia, and developing countries in General, have bountiful natural resources that, when managed well, can spur growth and development. Developing countries therefore need to institute policies that will restrict exploitation and export of raw materials from developing states to developed countries. However, the most of the companies and investors that exploit these resources come from Developed countries. We therefore request that there should be a clear commitment on the part of developed countries to ensure fair, transparent and equitable trade and investment policies between developing countries and the powerful investors from developed countries. If this is done, developing countries would maximize benefits from their resources by adding value, boosting exports, creating jobs, accumulating wealth for their citizens, and ultimately alleviate poverty and hunger.

Fifth, our delegation holds the conviction that developing countries must take their own development seriously and invest in growth corridors such as education, infrastructure, agriculture, and health among others. However, we are fully aware that Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains a major source of development funding mainly for fragile and poor states. ODA must therefore be provided based on the need of developing countries, rather than the priorities of donor countries that more often than not set preconditions that undermine the national interest of poor countries. Up to date, some OECD member states have not met the commitment of 0.7% of their GNI as a voluntary contribution to ODA. Liberia encourages all donor countries that have not met this target to fulfill their commitment.

Sixth, there is a positive correlation between limited energy and poverty on the one hand, and poor infrastructure and poverty on the other; and that about ten percent of Africans have access to energy, while about five percent of the hydro power potential in Africa is being utilized. The Liberian Delegation therefore recommends that concrete commitments should be made to increase access to clean energy globally, fund infrastructural development and adequately invest in education and agriculture. Additionally, evidence shows that Least Developed Countries have 60 percent of the agricultural land globally. Hence investment in agriculture in LDCs would increase food security and nutrition. With these measures, we can substantively reduce poverty and hunger globally by 2030.

Seventh, the health of the people of any given country is important. Liberia has found out from the Ebola Virus Disease experience that a country cannot make substantive progress in attaining growth and development when its health sector is undermined by pestilence or disease. We are convinced that healthy families lead to healthy communities, and healthy communities lead to healthy states. We therefore request that the issue of resilient health systems for families, communities and states, and the significance of mental health should be clearly captured and stated in the SDGs.

Last, African states are more often than not compelled to provide tax breaks to investment companies from developed countries. However, to increase domestic revenue and adequately fund national development plans, developing countries need to maximize taxes from their resources. Liberia therefore recommends that the Addis Ababa conference on Financing for Development should commit to reduction of tax breaks to the multinational and transnational investment companies from developed countries. This would help increase developing countries’ domestic revenues to fund national development programmes.

Once again, Co-Facilitators, the Liberian Delegation would like to thank you for your leadership in these negotiations. We will continue to interject as a delegation where and when necessary as the negotiations continue.

TK Remarks @ African LDCs Meeting in Milan

8 June 2015 / By Tom Kaydor 

Introductory remarks by Hon. Mr. Thomas S.B. Kaydor, Jr., Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Liberia   

At the Ministerial Meeting of African Least Developed Countries on ‘Structural Transformation, Graduation and the Post-2015 Development Agenda’ in Milan, Italy.

During SESSION 3: ‘Means of Implementation’ in the context of the Post-2015 Development Agenda’ Co-facilitated by Mr. Thomas S.B. Kaydor, Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Liberia and Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General, UN-DESA

I call this meeting to order.

Hon´ble Ministers

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me start by thanking the Government of Italy and the Office of the High-Representative for the Least Developed Countries for convening this meeting.

I have the honour to co-chair this session with Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

I am pleased to co-chair this session in such a timely moment for all of us. Ongoing discussions on a Post-2015 Development Agenda already indicate that sustainable development will require substantial efforts on areas that go well beyond the MDGs. The timely fulfilment of commitments already made as well as additional resources will be of paramount importance to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Least Developed Countries.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) remains the most important source of public international development finance for all LDCs. Promoting structural transformation of their economies and building productive capacities requires resources that go beyond what is domestically available in the LDCs. Their limited access to international financial markets further exacerbates their difficulties in financing sustainable development.  ODA and debt relief are critical to overcome the finance gap faced by the LDCs.

Building capacity in the African LDCs for enhanced domestic resource mobilization is also of great importance. Improving the ability of the public administration in collecting taxes in a transparent, efficient and equitable manner can bring many benefits, besides increasing the resource base to finance sustainable development. Addressing illicit financial flows, transfer pricing and other practices that erode the tax base of the African LDCs will also require dedicated support from the multilateral system and development partners.

Leveraging additional finance from innovative sources can provide much needed resources to implement sustainable development in the African LDCs. Mobilizing private resources through blending instruments or public sector guarantees can also help increase access to credit to public and private actors in the LDCs. These instruments can reduce the risk associated to projects where there is not sufficient available private finance. In an environment characterized by constrained availability of resources, blending can be an effective tool in sectors that have high social impact or that are critical to the development strategy of the country. It is important, however, to carefully evaluate the context in which blending finance can be effective.

Promoting an environment conducive to productive investment that reverts into the productive fabric of the African LDCs and generate decent employment will be critical for implementing the SDGs. The African LDCs have committed themselves to continue strengthening national policies and regulatory frameworks for stimulating foreign investment in production. Despite all these efforts, the share of global FDI inflows in LDCs remains very low. The proposal of establishing an international investment support centre would greatly improve the ability of the LDCs to attract FDI.

African LDCs participation in global trade is very small and in most cases a few number of commodities represent an extraordinarily large share of exports. Trade, however, can be a catalyser for productive capacity building. Enabling African LDCs to improve their participation in global value chains and diversifying the composition of their exports are necessary steps to harness the potential of trade for poverty reduction and productive capacity building.

Building productive capacity in African LDCs will necessarily entail substantially strengthening the science, technology and innovation base of the African LDCs. The ability to acquire new technologies and to developed indigenous capacity on research and development must be greatly enhanced to support structural transformation in the African LDCs. The establishment of the Technology Bank and Science Technology and Innovation Mechanism for the LDCs would be an important element in overcoming the science, technology and innovation gaps in the LDCs, as mentioned by the Chair of the High-level panel of experts this morning.

I am extremely pleased to count today with such a distinguished panel. I look forward to hear from them concrete proposals, initiatives and mechanisms that could assist the African LDCs, their development partners and the multilateral system in raising the adequate level of resources to finance sustainable development, fosters structural transformation and promote the building of productive capacities in the African LDCs.

The specific questions that this session will address are:

-          How can we bridge the substantial finance gap required to foster structural transformation and promote building of productive capacities in the LDCs?

-          How can we ensure that ODA goes where is most needed? Would a target share of ODA to LDCs help to reduce their finance gap?

-          What are the mechanisms needed to facilitate leveraging additional development finance for the African LDCs? What would be the role of different stakeholders in supporting the LDCs efforts to increase access to development finance in the African LDCs?

-          How can we increase the share of FDI to the LDCs? What would be needed to ensure that FDI contributes to sustainable development and support the building of productive capacities in the African LDCs?

-          What are the policies and strategies needed to enhance the role of trade in productive capacity building in African LDCs?

-          How can we assist the African LDCs in improving their Science, Technology and Innovation base? What kind of mechanisms can bolster science, technology and innovation in African LDCs?

I have the honour to introduce Mr. Erik Solheim, Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, who will deliver a keynote presentation.

==========================================

I would like to thank Mr. Solheim for his insightful remarks, which certainly help to frame the discussion.

Now I have the privilege to introduce our distinguished panelists.

-          Mr. Joakim Reiter, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD

-          Mr. Xiaozhun YI, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization

-          Mr. Mario Matus, Deputy Director General, Development Sector, WIPO

Please limit your interventions to 7 minutes.

Unraveling the myth around dual citizenship

UNRAVELING THE MYTH AROUND DUAL CITIZENSHIP

I am baffled by the widespread press and public misunderstanding of the difference between Dual Citizenship and the Negro clause in the Liberian Constitution. Since H.E Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, addressed the Nation in January 2015, there have been reports and calls on various talks about the President’s proposal to the Legislature to pass a law that will allow Liberians hold dual citizenship. Most of the callers and talk shows hosts as well as newspaper editors insinuate and or tend to show some level of ignorance about the difference between dual citizenship and the Negroes and Non-negro descent clause in the Liberian Constitution.

According to article 27b of the Constitution of Liberia,

‘in order to preserve, foster and maintain the positive Liberian culture, values and character, only persons who are Negroes or of Negro descent shall qualify by birth or by naturalization to be citizens of Liberia’ (Liberian Constitution 1986, Article 27b).

This "Negro Descent Clause" in the Liberian Constitution is far different and divorced from the issue of dual citizenship that is not a constitutional matter. It is the Alien and Nationality Law (a legal statute) that prevents dual citizenship. According to the Alien and Nationality Law of Liberia (approved 15 May 1973 with Amendments approved 9 May 1974)

‘a person who is a citizen of Liberia whether by birth or naturalization, shall lose his   citizenship by

(a)    Obtaining naturalization in a foreign state upon his own application, upon the application of a duly authorized agent, or through the naturalization of a parent having legal custody of such person; provided that citizenship shall not be lost by any person under this section as the result of the naturalization of a parent or parents while such person under the age of 21 years, unless such person shall fail to enter Liberia to establish a permanent residence prior to his twenty-third birthday; or

(b)   Taking an oath or making an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof; or

(c)    Exercising a free choice to enter or serve in the armed forces of a foreign state, unless, prior to such entry or service, such entry or service is specifically authorized by the President;

(d)   Voting in a political election in a foreign state or voting in an election or plebiscite to determine the sovereignty of a foreign state over foreign territory; or

(e)    Making a formal renunciation of Liberian nationality before a diplomatic or consular officer of Liberia in a foreign state in such form may be prescribed by the Secretary of State.’

(Alien an Nationality Law 1974, pp. 188-189)

This statute (the Alien and Nationality Law 1974) can be repealed by the National Legislature, and it is that statute that the President has requested the National Legislature to repeal. It is therefore advisable for those who are for or against the President’s proposed bill to lobby the Liberian Legislature to achieve their desires. Simply put, the question of dual citizenship does not require a constitutional amendment, and it is not linked with the Negro clause in the Liberian Constitution.

The Liberian Constitution does not stop dual citizenship. Article 28 of the Liberian Constitutions states that

‘any person, at least one of whose parents was citizen of Liberia at the time of the person's birth, shall be a citizen of Liberia; provided that any such person shall upon reaching maturity renounce any other citizenship acquired by virtue of one parent being a citizen of another country. No citizen of the Republic shall be deprived of citizenship or nationality except as provided by law; and no person shall be denied the right to change citizenship or nationality’.

In view of the above, the media needs to first understand the difference between dual Citizenship and the Non-Negro clause barring Whites from becoming citizens of Liberia. It is this understanding that would allow the press to propagate the rightful analysis in their reportage and editorials. Remember that, among other things, the press can inform, entertain, educate, analyze and report.

Tom Kaydor

thkaydor@gmail.com

Critique and Analysis of John Quiggin's Blog Article

Report on blog post by John Quiggin

<http://johnquiggin.com/2014/04/28/stratification-in-tertiary-education/>.

This essay reports on John Quiggin’s blog (http://johnquiggin.com/) where, on 28 April 2014, he posted ‘stratification in tertiary education’. In this post, Quiggin (2014) argues that those calling for Australia’s adoption of the US’ highly stratified tertiary educational system are advocating for increased stratification in Australia’s tertiary educational system. He notes that the Ivy League universities (like Harvard and Princeton) in the US provide undergraduate education to only a tiny proportion of young Americans (about one per cent). Hence, should Australia adopt similar system, each ‘Australian Ivy League’ would only absorb about a thousand students annually, and this could deny thousands of students the opportunity to obtain university education from institutions of their choice. Quiggin points out that tertiary education systems reflect and reconstruct the society to which they belong; as a result, the highly stratified systems in the US and UK, signify and strengthen ‘a class-bound society in which the best thing one can do is to choose the right parents’.  Although Quiggin acknowledges Australia’s less stratified education system, he opposes increased stratification, which could widen the gap between the group of eight and the rest of the universities in the country. He therefore recommends that the country should reduce stratification in the education system, and calls on policymakers to consider tertiary education like other public services provided to all.

Indeed, university education should be treated like other social services that a state must provide to its citizens without discrimination.  According to Jeffrey Haynes (2008), ‘the people are the real wealth of a nation’, hence the achievement of the basic objective of their development requires the creation of an enabling environment for them to live longer, healthier and creative lives (p. 12). Equal access to quality education creates that enabling environment and breeds a more productive society. Support for quality education like other social services is therefore an investment in the human capital of a country (Gans et al. 2013). This increases productivity of the labour force and its income, thereby leading to economic growth and prosperity. Consequently, countries should not stratify educational systems, because this hinders citizens’ access to equitable education. The ability of a citizen to get quality university education should depend on his or her ability to enrol and complete a university.

Stratified tertiary education is not unique to the US, UK and other developed countries. It also exists in developing countries.  In Liberia, for example, the free American slaves who founded the nation set up the then singular state owned Liberia College in 1862, which later became University of Liberia (UL) in 1951, to train state elites and their children.  Indigenous Liberians (95 percent of the population) were not allowed to enrol at the University of Liberia up to the 1960s, unless they were servants of the elites, and changed their indigenous names to western ones (Wreh 1976). Graduates from the UL were given preferential employment in the public and private sectors. This stratified educational system perpetuated illiteracy amongst the majority indigenous tribes. Lack of tertiary education meant lack of employment opportunities for the majority. This also meant that 95 per cent of the country’s population remained illiterate and could only engage in subsistence farming to feed themselves, but could not promote economically beneficial ventures.  This system entrenched a minority elitist aristocracy in Liberia for 133 unbroken years, undermined productivity and stalled economic growth amidst enormous natural resources, thereby increasing poverty (Sawyer 1991). Suppression of the indigenous majority led to the over throw of the Liberian oligarchy on 12 April 1980 by 17 illiterate non-commissioned army officers from the indigenous tribes; thus the beginning of the two decades civil unrest in Liberia (Youboty 2004).

Tertiary education is linked with one of the ten lessons from economics, ‘a country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services’ (Gans et al. 2013, p. 13).  The variation in the standard of living across countries is a function of divergent levels of productivity. Educational standards and productivity are fundamentally linked. The better educated a country’s population, the more productive its citizens, and the better living standard they enjoy. Therefore, making tertiary education equitable means affording all citizens equal access and opportunity to quality education. Quality education will improve living standard, hence policymakers need to raise productivity by ensuring that workers are well educated and equipped with the requisite tools and technology required to produce goods and services.

References

Gans, J, King, S, Stonecash, R & Mankiw, G 2013, Principles of Economics, China Translation and Printing Services, Beijing, China.

Haynes, J 2008, Development studies: short introductions, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.

Sawyer, A 1992, The emergence of autocracy in Liberia: tragedy and challenge, ICS, San Francisco, California. 

Wreh, T 1976, The love of liberty … the rule of President William V.S. Tubman in Liberia 1944-1971, C Hurst and Company, London, UK.

Youboty, J 2004, A nation in terror: the true story of the Liberian Civil War, USA.

<http://johnquiggin.com/2014/04/28/stratification-in-tertiary-education/>.

Kaydor featured in Crawford School & ANU news headlines

The Crawford School of Economics and Government has featured your humble servant in its 29 January 2015 official news headline..

https://crawford.anu.edu.au/news/5256/leading-liberia

Research Design.. A Case Study

Hypothesis: “The more information people have about their (national or local) government’s activities, the more likely they are to trust the government.”

The operational hypothesis is the higher the percentage of citizens who watch television on government’s development activities, the higher the percentage of citizens’ trust in the government. The independent variable is the level of information about the government’s actions, while the dependent variable is trust in government. The independent variable is thought to cause the dependent variable, and it is this causality that this research attempts to measure. The unit of analysis is individuals (watching or not watching television programmes on government’s activities). An opinion research will be conducted to ascertain whether an individual watches national television programmes on government’s activities, and whether or not s/he trusts the government. The true experimental and quasi-experimental designs would be used to undertake this research in Liberia.

True Experimental Design

A Social Science 102 class comprising 100 students will constitute the experimental study group. A total of 100 tickets will be printed with number one written on 50 of them, and number two on the rest.  All the tickets will then be mixed in a sealed box. During Wednesday’s class, each student will be asked to pick only one ticket from the box containing the 100 tickets. This process constitutes the randomized selection in the true experimental design. The randomization assumes that the two experimental groups selected for the research would be statistically identical in their distribution on both the dependent variable and all other variables whether or not they are being measured.

Following the random selection of tickets, all 50 students with number one tickets would be assembled in a class room to be used as the treatment group to which the stimulus (television news on government’s activities) will be administered. The remaining 50 students with the number two tickets will be the control group. They will sit in a separate class room while the treatment group watches two hours television programme on government’s development activities (the stimulus). At the end of the television programme, all the 100 students will be requested to complete a questionnaire about trust and confidence in the Liberian government. This questionnaire would measure the posttest results. The level of trust in government as measured from students who watched the television programme will be compared with that of the students who did not.  If higher number of students who watched the television programme expresses trust in the government, it would then be concluded that the independent variable (more information about government’s activities) causes the dependent variable (trust in government).

Quasi-Experimental Design

Using the same 100 students, the dependent variable would be tested before and after the independent variable has been applied (Monroe 2000, p.38).  Students will not be assigned in groups.  All 100 students would be asked to complete a questionnaire about trust in the Liberian government. This questionnaire is intended (as a pretest) to measure the level of trust all of them have in the Liberian government. After this pretest, the students would be requested to watch two hours television programme on the government’s development activities. This will serve as a stimulus after which a posttest measuring the extent to which a change in the level of trust in government has occurred. All the students will be asked again to complete a questionnaire measuring their trust in government (posttest). The posttest would be carried out irrespective of whether or not all the students watched the television programme. If the level of trust expressed in the government in the posttest exceeds that of the pretest, this change (increased trust in government) would be attributed to the stimulus thereby leading to the conclusion that high level of information about government’s activities leads to trust in the government.

Validity       

The same unit of analysis (individuals) will be used to measure the hypothesis. These two designs have high face validity because the measure looks right to the researcher. The internal validity of the true experimental design is higher compared to the quasi-experimental because the manipulation and randomization of the experimental groups ensured that no other variable interfered. We can therefore claim causality in the true experimental research compared to the quasi-experimental one under which the experimental group was not manipulated or controlled. The content validity and construct validity are low in both designs. For example, this research cannot be content valid when it does not actually consider all the causal elements that increase trust in the government. It is possible that citizens may be adequately informed about their government, but yet have less trust in it, or this could be the reverse. The external validity of these two designs is low because generalizable claims cannot be made across the general population, in all settings and at all times. Regarding construct validity, it cannot be claimed with absolute certainty that inferences from this research can become a functioning reality (Bollen 1989). Finally, the credibility of the television programme is another factor to consider. An independent television would have an objective analysis of government’s activities compared to a state owned television. Hence the ownership or control of the television programme could affect validity.

Causality

We can claim causality because these two designs have accounted for correlation, time order and nonspuriousness (Monroe 2000, p.32). The posttest comparisons in both designs indicate that there is a correlation between the independent and dependent variables due to the change observed in the level of trust as an effect of the stimulus. Nonspuriousness is ensured in the true experimental design because the treatment and controlled groups were considered to be exactly the same in all aspects due to the use of the randomized selection process, but nonspuriousness in the quasi-experimental design is questionable because the pretest of the students must have aroused their interest in the study thus affecting their responses in the posttest. Also, outside influences (previous exposure, maturation and conversations during the interval between the pretest and posttest) must have affected their responses. It is therefore difficult to attribute change to the stimulus in the quasi-experiment as the students were not controlled, randomized and equal in all aspects. Regarding time order, this criterion has been addressed because the stimulus was applied prior to the posttest measurement of the dependent variable in both experimental designs.

Strengths & Weaknesses

The artificial setting and manipulation of students in the true experiment is problematic because humans cannot be controlled like laboratory animals. Therefore, the results from the true experiment may not be obtained in real life situation. However, we can use this design to study general features of a small group of people. These designs lack genuine representative sample to back claims for generalizability and external validity. It would be difficult to conduct such research nationwide or amongst a group of countries. In the quasi-experimental design, it is uncertain that all other causal variables have been eliminated (Shively 2013, p.85). These designs are cost and time efficient, but replicating them nationwide would be cost intensive.

References

Bollen, A 1989, Structural equations with latent variables, Wiley & Sons, USA.

Shively, W 2013, The craft of political research, Pearson Prentice Hall, USA.

Monroe, A 2000, Essentials of political research, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

By Tom Kaydor

thkaydor@gmail.com

Initial thoughts as Deputy Minister (designate) for ICEI-MFA

Our initial views on what the Department of International Cooperation and Economic Integration needs to achieve after our confirmation by the Liberian Senate.

By Tom Kaydor (thkaydor@gmail.com) 

Introduction

The Department of International Cooperation and Economic Integration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates negotiation of all bilateral and multilateral agreements to which Liberia is a party. The Department also leads formulation of such agreements, and subsequently monitors and evaluates their implementation between Liberia and its bilateral and multilateral partners on the one hand, and by government agencies and ministries on the other. It represents the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at various meetings, conferences and economic fora on International Cooperation and Economic Integration, advises the Foreign Minister in this premise, and prepares cooperation and integration policy briefs, options and analysis for the Presidency through the Office of the Minister.

The Department is led by the Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, and comprises two technical Bureaus: the Bureau of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs and the Bureau of International Organizations Affairs. Each Bureau is headed by an Assistant Minister. The Department has 30 staff members including Desk Officers, Research Analysts and Assistants, and other clerical staff.

Cognizant of its statutory mandate, the Department has developed the key deliverables hereunder for six months (January to June 2015). Although most of them would continue beyond this timeframe, these deliverables will serve as a compass for the Department in the first half of 2015. They encompass the programme outcomes and activities consistent with the Ministry’s Performance Contact signed with the President of Liberia, and the Government Agenda for Transformation.

The key components of the Department’s deliverables are:

·         Effective Coordination and Oversight;

·         Documentation and Policy Research;

·         Capacity Development;

·         Trade and Investment Promotion;

·         Ebola Response and Post-Ebola Recovery Planning and Implementation

Goal

To enhance the Foreign Ministry’s performance, and promote Liberia’s national interest through economic diplomacy.

Objectives:

·         To coordinate negotiation, formulation and signing of all government’s bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements, and ensure their effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation;

·         To promote trade and investment through strategic partnership with Liberia’s Foreign Missions, Embassies near Monrovia, International Organizations, and the National Investment Commission;

·         To fully document and re-document all government’s bilateral and multilateral agreements, track, monitor and evaluate their full implementation;

·         To conduct evidence based research, and prepare strategic policy briefs, policy options and policy analysis in lieu of promoting Liberia’s economic diplomacy through effective bilateral and multilateral cooperation and economic integration;

·         To develop requisite capacity for the effective and efficient functioning of the department in particular, and the Ministry and other government agencies and ministries in general;

·         Increase Liberia’s visibility and participation in, and enhance government’s strategic engagement with International Organizations;

·         Promote government’s ebola response strategy, and fast track post-ebola development planning and implementation through robust and proactive bilateral and multilateral partnership.

Expected outcome:

Liberia’s national interest (the security of the state and the wellbeing of its people) promoted through strategic bilateral and multilateral cooperation and economic integration.

A detailed matrix of deliverables with budget has been presented to the Management Team of the Ministry.

Liberia First!