MONROVIA – Liberia and Sierra Leone may cease to benefit from the German development cooperation as Germany now seeks to direct its resources to places their commitments make impacts and partners implement reforms.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
A German online news platform, deutschland.de, reported that the move is the largest structural reform in the ministry under Gerd Müller (CSU) in 12 years.
Müller is the Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development.
The paper quoted Müller as saying, “The new concept means that we are withdrawing from bilateral development cooperation with various countries, we are thus moving away from a strategy of spreading things thinly and are increasingly dedicating our bilateral cooperation efforts to places where our commitment makes a difference and partners implement reforms.”
He added that cooperation will be concentrated on a small number of countries “which are specifically implementing reforms for good governance, respecting human rights and combatting corruption with our support.
The new development forms part of the Germany’s new development strategy dubbed “BMZ 2030”
According to Müller, the end of government development cooperation in certain countries does not spell the end of all activities. “Civil society, political foundations, the churches and the business community can continue to work there in the development cooperation space.”
So far, countries listed to be affected include Nepal and Sri Lanka in Asia, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Liberia in Africa, and Cuba, Haiti and Guatemala in Latin America, amongst others.
Currently, Germany is still directly active in about 85 countries, either through the GIZ, the German international cooperation agency, or the KfW Group development bank.
“The new concept means that we are withdrawing from bilateral development cooperation with various countries, we are thus moving away from a strategy of spreading things thinly and are increasingly dedicating our bilateral cooperation efforts to places where our commitment makes a difference and partners implement reforms.”
Gerd Müller, Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
Germany’s Support to Liberia
Germany has been supportive of Liberia in areas of infrastructure and recovery, health and Regional and global projects/programmes.
As part of its contribution towards infrastructure development there is a Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund (LRTF), a project that runs from 2008–2020 with a total volume 44 million Euros.
The LRTF is a multilateral trust fund for financing large-scale infrastructure projects and is administered by the World Bank. So far, the fund has been used to finance the construction of two major roads and the development of the waste management system in Monrovia.
Reintegration and Reconstruction Programme (RRP), total duration: 2005–2021 with a total volume of 70.35 million Euros, including 12 million Euros for the Ebola Support Programme. The aim of the programme is to improve the living conditions in south-eastern Liberia through infrastructure rehabilitation and the reintegration of refugees, traumatized women etc. The “Ebola Support Programme” helps to improve hygiene, drinking water supply and basic health care and supports value chains.
Under the health program, Germany has committed 15 million Euros for the strengthening of health system in Liberia. The project has been aimed at supporting the Liberian government in improving access to primary health care that has been strengthened in terms of staffing and equipment and which will include appropriate prevention and control mechanisms.
There has also been employment-oriented support to women working in the health sector in Liberia, duration: 2016–2019, a total of 3 million Euros was committed to this project. The project was intended to improve employment opportunities for female youths and unemployed women in the health sector and was aimed at improving working conditions, particularly of female staff.
Between 2016-2019, 7 million Euros was committed to Integrated Severe Infections Treatment Unit Programme (inSITU). The aim of the programme is to protect the population more effectively against epidemics of infectious diseases that require isolation. The programme supports the establishment of “integrated severe infection treatment units” (inSITU) and their integration into the health system.
There also 7 million Euros committed to strengthening of health and epidemic prevention between 2016-2019. This was intended to enhance resilience within the health system, for instance resilience to outbreaks of epidemic diseases. It focused on building capacity in health authorities, public and private providers of clinical health services and in laboratories, and on strengthening community-based disease surveillance and response.
Germany has also committed a total volume of 74 million Euros to the West African Power Pool (WAPP) – Transmission Line Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG.
It is planned to set up a transmission line with a total length of 1,360 km incl. 13 substations. The first phase covers the erection of pylons, the building of the first transmission line and substations, and electrification along the line and in Monrovia.
For the rehabilitation of the Mount Coffee Hydro Powerplant in the context of the WAAP, Germany provided a support of 55 million Euros.
GIZ is also carrying out capacity development in the transport sector in Liberia Commissioned by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
This project which began in 2008 and expected to run until 2022 aims to provide technical assistance for implementing road maintenance using funds from the fuel levy and is helping establish the National Road Fund. Employees of the building authorities and building contractors receive training and practical support in managing building contracts.
In addition, the project is supporting the Ministry of Construction in decentralizing services and in setting up a bridge maintenance system. It is advising the Liberian Government and other stakeholders on drawing awareness to road safety issues.
It is also providing advice on introducing axle load control for heavy goods vehicles (through GIZ International Services) and is helping develop the Association for Liberian Construction Contractors (ALCC) institution.
Liberia is also benefitting from the German’s Regional Resource Governance in West Africa. This project was also commissioned by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in cohort with the European Union (EU). It cuts across Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is supporting the goal of improving raw material extraction in the Mano River Union states in the long term and further reforming the mining sector in accordance with the principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability (as set out in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals).
This project runs from 2019 to 2022.
According to GIZ, although the countries have already implemented reforms in line with the African Union’s Africa Mining Vision, there continues to be a lack of sustainability in the mining sector in the MRU states – with far-reaching social and environmental impacts in the mining communities.
The objective of this project is to ensure that the mining sector in the MRU countries is more closely aligned with the principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability.
GIZ is supporting the project’s partner countries in changing their political, institutional and legal frameworks to enable them to manage their natural resources in a sustainable way. The partner organisations range from government institutions at regional, national and local level to civil society organizations and the private sector.