The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Liberia is calling for inclusive growth rather than exclusive growth as the economy of Liberia goes through history. This call was made at a three-day Visionary Bootcamp for Growth Accelerator Liberians during the week of August 2, 2023 in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. The Bootcamp is intended to assist Liberian entrepreneurs in Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to focus, set high goals and get on the path of inclusive growth.
By Togba-Nah Tipoteh, [email protected]
The UNDP is calling for inclusive growth because economic growth of Liberia and other parts of the world continues to be exclusive rather than inclusive, generating longstanding and wide spread poverty rather than alleviating poverty. It is this exclusive growth in Liberia that has led to the coup d’etat and civil war in Liberia, taking the lives of over 300,000 people and injuring many more people. The exclusivity of the economic growth of Liberia has been known since the 1950s (Robert Clower et al. Growth Without Development, Northwestern University Press, 1966).
It is this exclusive growth that has led the people of Liberia to conclude that Liberia is headed in the wrong direction (Afrobarometer, 2020). This wrong direction is seen in the National Legislators of Liberia having access to at least LD150,000 a day and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, have access to at least LD300,000,000 a day while nearly all of the people of Liberia have access to at most less than LD 300 a day (CBL, LISGIS, MFDP, MCI. WB, IMF, ADB and UNDP).
The UNDP, like the powers that be, do not walk the talk. The UNDP does a lot of talking about inclusive growth promotion but walks exclusive growth promotion. This exclusive growth promotion is done through the system of the production of raw materials for export without any prioritization of Value Addition. With the prioritization of Value Addition, the human resource would have the highest value and factories will be set up to provide goods and services owned, produced and consumed by Liberians. With Value Addition, there will be education and training to enable Liberians to become employed to produce locally with the attendant price reductions, given the reduction in imports, and the income generation. In this way, there will be inclusive growth rather than exclusive growth. In this way, people will be educated to know that although growth is necessary for inclusivity, it is not sufficient. Witness the evidence for Liberia in the 1950s, when economic growth per person was double digit, next only to Japan in the world, but less than one per cent of the people accounted for over sixty per cent of the income and wealth in Liberia (Clower, 1966).
The promotion of poverty generation that has become the pretext for violence can be seen in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, La Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger. Now, West African countries are planning to reinstall the regime overthrown in a coup d’etat. Following the global powers that be, the former colonial powers, some Africa countries have already gone on the side of Russia in the Russia–Ukraine War because of the uranium in Niger and the uranium-based money-driven posture, Already, over ten thousand Russian based mercenaries from the Wagner Group are poised to counter the ECOWAS offensive, which would move the violence from a local nature to a global nature and we are talking about World War Three( https://newshoubghonline.com). What a Mess!!! Here we are facing poverty locally but poised to make the bad situation worse by getting into global violence.
The only way to get out of this bad situation is to raise awareness in ways that motivate people locally and globally to talk. Violence is not an option because violence has never solved any societal problem. Through this awareness raising, people will work together to transform the prevailing unfair electoral system. It is through this transformation of the prevailing unfair electoral system into the enduring fair electoral system that persons with good records can get elected to bring in Justice, the indispensable ingredient for Peace and Progress in Liberia and in any other country.