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April 27, 2009

CGD’s Steve Radelet Testifies on U.S. Assistance to Africa and Calls for Reform

Posted by Sarah Jane Staats in Global Development Tags: ,

Steve RadeletThe global economic crisis presents a challenge and an opportunity to do better with U.S. assistance to Africa said CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health last week. Not surprisingly, doing better in Africa requires the same steps towards broad U.S. foreign assistance reform that Radelet and others have been urging for months. Meanwhile, testimony from Secretary of State Clinton, a new GAO report calling for foreign aid reform, and a promise from Rep. Berman to introduce legislation for a comprehensive U.S. development strategy indicate a lot of toe tapping, one step forward, and some missing partners in the U.S. foreign aid reform dance. Read More…

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April 16, 2009

Liberia Cuts its Debt with $1.2 Billion Buy-Back at 97 Percent Discount

Posted by Steve Radelet in Debt Relief, Economic Growth, Global Development, International Financial Institutions, Regions Tags: , ,

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Steve RadeletIn a huge step forward, this week Liberia slashed its foreign debt by buying back $1.2 billion in commercial debt — about one-quarter of its foreign debt — from its private foreign creditors, including banks, hedge funds, and other “distressed debt” investment funds. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced today that the Government had purchased the debt at a discount of nearly 97 percent off the face value, the deepest discount ever negotiated on developing country commercial debt. The $38 million needed for the deal was provided by some of Liberia’s strongest partners — the World Bank, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, so the debt was eliminated at zero cost to the people of Liberia. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to work closely with President Sirleaf and her Government for the last several years working to complete this deal. Read More…

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May 7, 2008

Does Sharing Apply to Development? Yup!

Posted by Dave Witzel in Governance/Democracy, Internet, Migration and Labor Mobility, United Nations Tags:

McNealy arrived late, delayed by a meeting at the Pentagon. You could tell he was tired. He’d flown to DC from California with a stopover in Dallas where he stayed up late watching hockey as his beloved San Jose Sharks fell to the Stars in the 4th overtime. Nonetheless, by the time lunch was finished at 1:30pm we had made good progress answering moderator Lawrence MacDonald’s query – does sharing and openness really matter for development? Based on insights from the speakers and the audience, it turns out the answer is “yes” and “in a variety of ways.” Less clear was what to do about it.

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May 1, 2008

Sharing as a Development Strategy

Posted by Dave Witzel in Governance/Democracy, Internet, Migration and Labor Mobility, United Nations Tags:

Scott McNealy is Chairman of Sun Microsystems a company he co-founded in 1982. He is a fierce competitor in business and in a hockey rink. He can be abrasive and outspoken explaining that “diplomacy has never been my middle name.” He is an avowed capitalist and self-proclaimed libertarian. Nonetheless, his bio page says he’s a “Champion for Sharing.” In fact, Sun, as part of its business strategy shares almost everything. Its Java software platform and Open Office applications suite are open source. Recently it purchased one of the largest open source databases vendors, MySQL AB. Even its hardware is open source with the release of OpenSPARC. McNealy has invested in curriki.org to improve sharing of educational resources and Sun has launched openeco.org as a shared platform to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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April 1, 2008

Liberia is Moving Forward and Here’s Your Chance to Participate

Posted by Steve Radelet in Africa, Liberia, Regions Tags:

Liberian Minister of Finance, Dr. Antoinette SayehExciting things happening in Liberia right now, especially at the Ministry of Finance. I am pleased to announce the Liberian Minister of Finance, Dr. Antoinette Sayeh, will be speaking at a CGD event later this month. Minister Sayeh will offer an overview of recent developments in Liberia covering debt relief, Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, and overall economic progress; a moderated discussion will follow. Liberia recently reached its HIPC decision point, a huge milestone in the long process towards comprehensive debt relief. In April, Liberia will release its Poverty Reduction Strategy, laying out priorities and goals for the next three years (for earlier analyses of Liberia’s development progress, see the CGD essay co-authored by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and myself and my prior working paper on prospects for economic growth in Liberia. Minister Sayeh will be speaking on Friday morning April 11 from 9:00-10:30 at a Dupont Circle location to be announced. Save the date and watch for details on the CGD events page or sign up for CGD event invitations here.

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November 13, 2007

IMF Announces Financing For Liberia’s Debt Relief: A Good Start

Posted by Steve Radelet in Debt Relief, Human Rights, International Monetary Fund, Liberia, World Bank Tags: , ,

liberia_chalkboard.jpgGood news! The IMF has finally moved forward on Liberian debt relief. Yesterday’s IMF announcement that it has agreed on the necessary financing was a strong endorsement by the international community of Liberia’s progress under its new government. It took more than a year of pushing and prodding, but Liberia now can formally begin the debt relief process.
But this is just the beginning. The IMF has not forgiven Liberia’s debts, but rather committed the financing necessary so that Liberia can begin the HIPC debt relief process. With any luck, Liberia can move to a HIPC Decision Point (under which it would receive “interim” relief) sometime in the next couple of months, and then to Completion Point (the final step of the debt relief process) perhaps in 2009.

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April 30, 2007

Is Liberia Africa’s New Diamond Success Story?

Posted by Administrator in Advocacy, Fragile States, Liberia, Migration and Labor Mobility, Security and Development, Weak and Fragile States Tags: ,

Is Liberia Africa's New Diamond Success Story?The UN Security Council has lifted its ban on diamond exports in Liberia, on the grounds that the post-conflict country has made significant progress in establishing necessary internal controls to comply with the Kimberley Process–a mechanism intended to keep blood diamonds off world markets and to ensure that all diamonds exported are certified. This is the second vote of confidence for President Johnson Sirleaf, following an ease on a timber ban last year. It shows that the international community has faith that the country can turn its back on the brutal past, where diamonds were used to finance weapons and fund fighting in a horrific 14 year civil war.
This is potentially great news for Liberia. In particular, diamond revenues could be used to fund much-needed post-conflict reconstruction programs and create jobs in a country with an unemployment rate hovering around 85%. However, as my colleague Todd Moss and I have noted, the Kimberley Process can only do so much. And the transition from blood diamonds to “development diamonds” is much harder in a place like Liberia which has a high concentration of alluvial diamonds. Unlike Kimberlite diamonds (which require intensive, centralized operations), alluvial diamonds lend themselves to artisanal, decentralized mining, which leaves the Liberian diamond industry relatively open to smuggling and grey market transactions. This could threaten to rob Liberia of much needed revenues and undermine fragile state institutions.
While the Security Council’s stamp of approval is a sign of how far Liberia has come in a few short years, Liberia’s transition is ongoing, and it is too soon to pronounce it a success. The international community must remain constructively engaged in the war-ravaged country, and continue to keep a close eye on Liberian diamonds, in order to ensure that Liberia’s recent sunshine doesn’t turn out to be a false dawn.

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March 26, 2007

Wanted: A Few Good Women and Men for the Scott Family Liberia Fellows

Posted by Steve Radelet in Global Development, Liberia Tags: ,

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.

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February 20, 2007

Madame President

Posted by Tony Kopetchny in Global Development, Liberia Tags: ,

While most of us were taking a holiday yesterday, Molly Kinder, who previously worked as a program coordinator at CGD on Millions Saved, and is now a graduate student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, sent the following reflections on Presidents’ Day.
Yesterday the United States celebrated Presidents’ Day, a holiday which rarely gives reason to pause, beyond perhaps the gratitude for a long weekend. This year, however, I did a double take. The image that Presidents’ Day has long evoked in my head — George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Ronald Reagan — has recently undergone a makeover and now has a striking new feature: her gender.

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February 8, 2007

Report from the Field – the Challenges of Rebuilding Liberia

Posted by Nancy Birdsall in Africa, Liberia, Regions Tags:

I’m here in Liberia observing a post-conflict situation through a development lens. I’m struck by several aspects of the complex task of rebuilding after 14 years of civil war.
First, the trauma brought a more complete collapse than the notion of a “war” between two parties suggests. Unlike in the sectarian conflict of the kind suffered in former Yugoslavia and feared in Iraq – where the lines seem clearly drawn across a few ethnic groups — Liberian civilians — all of them but especially women and children — were vulnerable for years to rounds of marauding, looting, pillage and rape. See CGD non-resident fellow Jeremy Weinstein’s recent book, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence, to understand how different initial conditions generate different levels of destruction in what we call civil wars.
No doubt there are good published studies by serious students of pre-war Liberia that illuminate the roots of the trauma here. But an initial reading of dozens of official donor documents reveals surprisingly little attention to these deep-seated issues. There are vague allusions to inter-generational land conflicts, to the risk of renewed ethnic tensions, and to the troubles in neighboring Guinea re-igniting a regional war with shifting eruptions in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Even the International Crisis Group, the most detailed source, says little about the sources of inter-ethnic conflict and the relative social positions of various ethnic groups.

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July 26, 2006

Liberia turns on water and electricity

Posted by Steve Radelet in Africa, Liberia, Regions Tags:

Today is a great day for the new government and the people of Liberia. For the first time in 15 years, parts of Monrovia have running water and functioning electricity. This may not seem like a lot, but it is HUGE for people that have seen nothing but war, destruction, and theft for so many years. I have recently returned from Liberia, my fifth trip since the election of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and while the new government is facing huge odds, they are making steady, significant progress. Budget revenues are up, misappropriation of funds is down, roads are being repaired, stores are reopening, and people are repairing and repainting their houses. The challenges are huge and the odds are long, but this government is making some initial small steps forward, and you know what they say about a lot of small steps…Liberia turns on water and electricity

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