Monrovia – A Professor of Global Leadership at the San Diego University in the United States, Paula Cordeiro, says education in Liberia has great prospect if the government monitors the Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement it has entered into with a private company, Bridge International Academies.
Report by: Henry Karmo – [email protected]
“Private Public Partnership in Education is good but only if government monitors the process to ensure that the other party is implementing its part of the agreement,” Professor Codeiro said at training program for private school teachers. “You don’t just leave them; remember it is the education of your citizens.”
Over 50 private schools teachers benefited from the two weeks training in school administration and programming under the Foundation For Women school loan program funded by a United States based non-governmental Organization, EDIFY.
EDIFY is a San Diego based organization funding school loan program in more than 15 countries, including Liberia. In Liberia, the group is providing loan to more than fifteen private schools through the Foundation for Women (FFW), a local Micro-financing Women group to help school administrators develop and create conducive learning environment for students.
Since 1997, the Foundation for Women (FFW) has served impoverished women locally and globally, first as a funder of microcredit programs and now as an operator. FFW programs help poor, entrepreneurial women who are in transition, at risk and in crisis improve life for themselves and their families by providing loans as small as $100 in Liberia or $250 in San Diego.
These loans are accompanied by financial literacy and business skills education taught during weekly group sessions and in one-on-one meetings by qualified program staff. Modelled on the Grameen approach to microcredit, FFW’s programs recognize the strength of referrals and collective responsibility for loan repayment.
In addition, FFW develops marketplaces and other sales avenues for their products and services, and recruits mentors to work with the women.
At the request of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, FFW extends loans to a group of disabled men in addition to the established program for women. Loan groups, or Centers, are locally managed, with technical assistance, guidance and follow up provided by FFWL.
The Centers serve an average of six groups of five borrowers. Each Center has a manager chosen by FFWL executive staff. The Center Manager oversees the collection of the loan repayment and savings and deposits them in the Eco Bank nearest the Center.
These positions are part time and are reimbursed by FFWL. FFWL identifies the literate women in groups to train as teachers. Those local teachers are paid a stipend for their classes each week.
Since 2007, FFW Liberia (FFWL) has grown to 82 centers in 12 of the 15 counties across the country. From an initial group of five clients in 2007, FFWL now provides first time loans to
In three to five years, FFW aims to have the organizational capacity and loan funding needed to fulfil a much greater percentage of the need in each location. In San Diego, the objective is 6,800 new loans by the end of 2016. Efforts are well underway with the assistance of a multi-year capacity building grant.
In Liberia, poverty is even more pervasive but microcredit has broader support, including from the government, all of which combined to create higher demand.
In Liberia the objective will be to grow the microloan program to 11,376 loans under management by the end of 2014, a number hopefully exceeded substantially; the combination of volume, loan level and interest is projected to allow FFWL to become self-sustaining within three years, based upon a five year plan to meet the mission.
More than 2000 women members and the disabled Second, third, and fourth time loans boost the membership to 3000 individuals. All FFWL centers are managed by the local recipients, 85% of whom are now able to write their own names on the 2nd cycle loan payment forms, as opposed to the thumb print often used to secure first cycle loans.