Liberia is a fragile state – there’s endemic corruption, weak governance, and political instability. But two issues could expose the enormity of this fragility. One is the underfunded education system, which is contributing to a workforce that is absolutely unprepared for the demands of the modern economic work environment. The second is the ever-expanding government sector, whose development is standing in the way of private sector growth.
By Ernest Duku Jallah, contributing writer
There’s never been a poor nation in the history of the world that has achieved an economic miracle without aggressively pursuing quality education and industrialization or reorienting their economies to create jobs. None whatsoever.
South Korea and Singapore are two notable countries that transformed from poor nations into economic powerhouses, and the path to their transformation is well documented. These countries invested heavily in education, pursued policies that fostered innovation, and encouraged industrial growth.
South Korea pursued the course of universal education and made a strategic shift towards spurring technology and manufacturing, to build a workforce and industries that could compete on the global level. Singapore pursued high-quality education and mobilized its economy into a global financial hub that attracts billions of foreign investments.
Liberia is currently in the same economic space Singapore and South Korea occupied two decades ago or worse – there’s an education crisis and an unemployment crisis.
Historically, the education system was wrecked by the civil war, but even peace has not come with a solution. Teacher training is inadequate, the curriculum is outdated, and Liberia has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world.
This educational deficiency is a big problem because it is rendering a workforce that is barely equipped to meet the demands of modern economic sectors. But it is also stifling Liberia’s development prospects and contributing to the growing unemployment crisis among young people.
This deficiency is exacting a sweeping consequence on our economy, but it goes beyond this; it’s also affecting our politics. The failures of the education system have constructed an electorate that is terribly uninformed about almost everything, from critical policy issues to the responsibilities of public officials, and this is affecting the quality of leadership that is elected.
The standard for an effective politician in Liberia is way below the minimum threshold, and this is understandable because the failures of the education system have trained voters to prioritize leaders who can provide immediate benefits like charity and handouts over those who advocate for strategic policies to ensure sustainable development.
This popular misunderstanding of governance and policy matters gives Liberian leaders a free pass because they are almost always evaluated on their ability to deliver immediate visible assistance from their own pockets rather than on their capacity to implement effective, forward-thinking policies. This is part of the reason why the standard for effective leadership is continuously lowered, and there is almost no accountability for Liberian leaders, especially in terms of policies that could drive long-term national progress.
The culture of politicians providing handouts in exchange for the favor of electorates is creating a detrimental focus among policymakers, many of whom are prioritizing short-term appeasement over long-term strategic planning. This is a problem because it is significantly overshadowing every conversation to develop and implement a job creation strategy and address Liberia’s unemployment crisis.
Now Liberia faces a joblessness crisis, and there is almost no plan to fix it. Those in charge are concentrating on immediate, visible benefits to secure votes, and the policies required to foster economic growth and create jobs are not being pursued. The risk is that this could lead to a social explosion when young people with a college degree or vocation get fed up. They might occupy the streets, like Nigerian and Kenyan youths, threatening to upend democracy and peace.
To avert social unrest, Liberia must proactively fix the unemployment crisis, and this solution must begin with reorienting concession agreements with foreign companies to ensure they create local jobs. Companies extracting resources from Liberian soil, forests, and waters must be required to establish manufacturing plants and value-added operations. This is the clearest path to creating jobs. Another path is reducing government expenses.
The government makes a budget of over US$700 million and spends over 85% of this amount on itself and the civil service that nurse the bureaucracy. The Legislature should reduce this spending to under 50% of the budget to free up funds and reallocate resources to invest in education, infrastructure, and private sector development.
The third and easiest approach to creating jobs is to rationalize existing economic policies to give Liberian entrepreneurs a competitive advantage. Tax incentives, simplifying the regulatory environment, and providing access to financing and training programs are some of the most popular approaches. Another approach is to make job creation the central focus of all government policies to grow the public sector and reduce dependency on public sector employment.
My proposals are not new; it’s public information, but it’s important to regurgitate because the cost of inaction on Liberia’s employment crisis could be devastating. Liberian universities graduate about 10,000 students every year. What happens to them? Where do they go? With a growing population of young people holding a college degree without a job, the odds of a social crisis could not be higher.
