Righting Liberia's ship. But will it ever sail?

When working on my project for the Ministry of Commerce, I found my self researching extensivley on Industrial Policy. A name that kept coming up was that of Dani Rodrik, a professor at the Kennedy School. Serendipitously I met a someone who attends the school and has taken a course with Dr. Rodrik on Industrial Policies. The other day we met for coffee; my intention was to pick her brain for every bit of wisdom. Being a student at Harvard, she is very bright, and made what I think was a very appropriate analogy - working in Liberia is like plugging the wholes in sinking ship, with few qualified hands on deck. This is something that I want to explore and further ask the question, will the ship ever sail?

I don't want to get lost in the analogy and not provide any analysis, but it is important to make a distinction. Liberia is no longer a "sinking" ship. As I have explored in my previous posts there was a time when Liberia was in a disastrous political, social and economic condition, but that time has largely passed. The holes have largely been plugged and the intention now (and has been for sometime) is to establish the framework that will hopefully patch the holes for good.

Is Liberia on a course of sustainable development? And, will it ever sail? Is what being done currently by the government and various aid agencies beneficial or is it patching wholes that will only become unpatched months or years from now.

There are an immense number of NGOs, volunteer and aid agencies, as well as the UNDP, providing the social services that the government or local agencies are unable to provide. Many of the most competent people in government, salaries' are being supplemented by these same organizations. The "hands on deck" who are largely patching the holes (policy wonks) and bailing the water (aid and social service providers) are largely foreign nationals and here for a short period of time. This is not to say that there are not locals serving in these roles as well, but the major thrust as I see it is coming from human capital imports from other countries.

I have been reading a book by Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations. She argues that the path to economic development is through creating import-replacements. I would argue this holds true for the civil service. If the country largely depends on the expertise of others for long, the civil service will not be able to staff the framework that is being developed by the very competent leaders of the government with the help of the human capital imports.

The great news is that The Government is acutely aware of this issue. Travis just the other day attended an unveiling of the National Human Capacity Development Plan, by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs. In this plan they lay out how they development of the civil service of Liberia, will occur and how staffing of the Ministries will occur moving forward.

I hope that this plan is successfully implemented, but I would look for much of it to be undertaken after the 2011 elections. Many in the ranks of the Government Ministries are hold overs, in place for political reasons and not necessarily for merit.

Once those "on deck" are more capable of implementing plans and taking note of the many reports that have been written, it is more likely that the "ship will sail"; and the government will more effectively establish an environment that is enabling and supportive of sustainable growth, instead of itself being a barrier.