Global Development: Views from the Center
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March 26, 2007
Wanted: A Few Good Women and Men for the Scott Family Liberia Fellows
Posted by Steve Radelet at 05:19 PM
Want a challenge? Here is your chance -- or a chance for someone you know -- to get directly involved in helping a key African country get back on its feet after years of civil war and incompetent management.
Liberia’s civil war killed over 270,000 people, destroyed basic infrastructure, and left the country in ruins. But in January 2006 Liberians inaugurated Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president -- the first woman elected head of state anywhere in Africa. Under her leadership the government has increased revenues by 40 percent, turned on electricity and water to parts of Monrovia for the first time in 15 years, cracked down on corruption, begun to rebuild roads, and quadrupled primary school enrollments.
Yet the government faces huge challenges, including severe capacity shortages at the sub-ministerial level, since many skilled civil servants were either killed during the war or fled the country.
The Scott Family Liberia Fellows Program will make a small but vital contribution to partially filling the capacity gap. Under the program, approximately five to six fellows will work for one year over the next three years as special assistants to key government ministers and other senior officials in the government of Liberia. The program is funded by a generous $1 million contribution from the family of CGD founder Ed Scott.
Typical fellows will be young professionals with Masters degree-level training (e.g., an MBA, MPP, MPH, or a law degree) and one year of related experience, or a Bachelor's degree with at least three years of related experience.
Fellows need to be willing to work hard; be flexible and energetic; do whatever is asked of them to get the job done; be idealistic enough to think that maybe, just maybe, the world can be a better place; and be willing to roll up their sleeves and jump in with two feet.
Is that you? Is it someone you know?
If you think it is time to live an adventure and help change the world (or at least one small part of it), then take the plunge.
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Comments
I just want to say thanks to madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, for her good leadership and may the lord continue to gave her wisdom and knowledge to lead her people through.
Posted by: collinszizi at March 27, 2007 02:16 AM
I think this is a great oppurtunity for young persons of this generation to make a difference. Many thanks to the CDG and of course to Liberia's assiduous leader, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Posted by: Roberta at March 27, 2007 10:38 AM
The international bankers hold every country to ransom, but in the Third World they are the cause of the death of Two million children every year.Unless you get them out of the equation no country in the Third World will prosper
Posted by: Moneylender at March 27, 2007 11:04 AM
Learning the development of my country and the history of the great Liberia is a hope that i keep in my heart always.
Posted by: Sherman H Adams at April 18, 2008 10:54 AM