USAID’s Saving-Hand  for  Rural Liberia

Fasama in Lofa County: Perhaps an abandoned village
like this will benefit

30 April 04

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed a US$28m aid package with the transitional regime for rural Liberia. This, more than many of the moves made in recent time, is a hugely fundamental step so badly and urgently needed if victims of the war, predominantly rural people, are to recuperate and jumpstart the paralysed economy. The project is a clear signal that Liberia is gradually moving forward after the Charles Taylor years of death and terror.

Rural Liberia has been abused, abandoned and exploited for years before and since Charles Taylor and his fellow warlords began their orgies of destruction that transformed productive farmers into begging refugees at the mercy of international donors. This is a remarkable difference in perception. While the interim regime’s priorities, shamelessly denied, are tied around cars and travel, the Americans are showing their concern for abandoned humanity.

A useful reminder in priorities and compassion is that Charles Taylor seized $26m from the treasury of a wrecked nation immediately after he became President because, he justified, he needed the money to pay his Libyan debts that ensured the destruction of rural people and their hopes.

The tragedy of rural Liberia is that without it, the rundown place called Monrovia would suffocate to its deserved death. Monrovia produces virtually nothing admirable, except for parasitic men and women who have come to believe that a position in government is a right even via violence and destruction. If only rural people could see the logic in voting into office one of their own, not city dwellers who would evict them from their surrounding as has been the case with Charles Taylor and Charles Gyude Bryant.

It is sad that a foreign agency sees the socio-economic necessity of rural Liberia as the needed lifeblood while the government has not made a single known policy to address the resurrection of rural areas. Its transitional nature cannot be an excuse because it has embarked upon awarding diamond contracts, something that only an elected government should have the right to do.

But while money may help pave the path for the redemption of rural Liberia, what should follow is unquestionable security. This entails re-establishing political structures in which the people have confidence and keeping the warlords from their sight. A trained, well-equipped rural police may inspire confidence for people to return to the land and feed not only themselves, but the parasites in Monrovia. Next will be roads and communication, the ability to move inland freely and other incentives to enable rural people to return, freeing themselves from the bondage that is Monrovia.

The project is clear on this. According to reports, it will rebuild the damaged roads untouched for more than a decade. It will train as many as 20,000 civilians and ex-fighters in various skills. This is blueprint that could make a difference. USAID’s programme should be the beginning of the end of misery of rural Liberia. One can only hope so.