Difficult challenges

Dirk Niebel has a full agenda for his three-day visit to Liberia. The German development minister is meeting with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as well as representatives from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), wrapping up his visit at a refugee camp on the border to neighboring Ivory Coast.

But Niebel has to resort to flying around the country, as travel is otherwise practically impossible. Even eight years after the end of the civil war, Liberia's infrastructure is still for the large part destroyed. Streets are ailing, few Liberians have electricity, instead of houses there are simply ruins in many places. The justice, education and health systems are also in poor condition. Only 15 percent of the country's 3.8 million people can even pursue a regular job.

There's still much to be done, said Thorsten Benner, Associate Director of the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin.

"Though the country has wriggled away from the abyss, the situation there is nevertheless anything but stable," Benner said. This is evident by the security situation, for example. There are 8,000 UN soldiers and over 1,000 international police patrolling the country in order to maintain stability. Another problem is political corruption.

"The country is lacking a broad political elite that is concerned with the public good and not personal privileges," he said.

Niebel, however, said Liberia was "on the right path" to stability and growth.

The benefits of natural resources

Liberia has nonetheless made enormous progress since the alleged war criminal and former president Charles Taylor was ousted in 2003 - even though UNMIL is still present. More than 250,000 people were killed during the civil war from 1989-2003; over one million people became refugees. It's estimated that at least every second woman was raped. The country was in a sorry state, the population traumatized.

Liberia has had a functioning government for five years now. It is led by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Harvard graduate and former World Bank employee, and the only female head of state in Africa. She has employed her international contacts profitably for the country.

Liberia's debts have been written off, it receives international aid and was the first African country to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which focuses on global standards for managing revenues from natural resources.

Diamonds, ore or oil deposits are not supposed to pull the country into chaos once again. Instead, the entire nation is supposed to profit from its natural resources. Earlier embargos on timber and diamonds from Liberia have been lifted.

"These resources can play a very large role for a functioning state," said Judy Smith-Höhn from the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa. "They can increase public revenue and these funds in turn can be used for social spending, for example."

During his visit, Development Minister Niebel is informing himself how things are progressing in implementing this transparency initiative for natural resources. Germany's state-run development organization GIZ supports the initiatives. In addition, it has set up a forum for entrepreneurial responsibility. In a further German development project, judges are being trained - a significant step to an independent, transparent justice system.

Further progress needs time

However, Benner warns that expectations shouldn't be too high. For 14 years during the civil war and even before, there was no functioning government. It will take an entire generation to build up such institutions, he said.

Johnson Sirleaf has said she will run for a second term in this year's elections. It's a disputed issue in Liberia. Some experts accuse her of having taken a liking to power. Benner disagreed, however.

"She has said that she considers it her life task to bring good governance to Liberia until she dies," he said. But this is impossible to achieve in just five years in a ruined country like Liberia. In this respect, Benner said he understood that Johnson Sirleaf hopes to do her best and hand over a stable country at the end of her second term.

Author: Dirke Köpp / sac
Editor: Rob Mudge