USAID Aid Freeze: A Double-Edged Result for Democratic Accountability in Liberia

Following USAID aid freeze, there have been many concerns about the implications, including the impact on democracy in Africa at such a time when Freedom House and other democracy indices are reporting that democracy is in decline in the continent. In Liberia, USAID allocated funding to support elections and broader democracy work, including a recent program on Strengthening Political Parties (SP3), a five-year (2017-2022) $6.8 million initiative that was meant to develop political parties’ ability to participate in and promote peaceful and credible elections. Also, USAID provided support for the Local Empowerment for Government Inclusion and Transparency (LEGIT) program which supported decentralizations reforms and helped to build the capacity of government officials to governance and accountability, the Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative (LAVI) which focused on strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships to advocate for and monitor policy and accountability reforms, and the President’s Young Professionals Program (PYPP) which aimed at developing the next generation of Liberia’s civil service leaders by recruiting and training young and outstanding Liberian college graduates. Obviously, the drawback for Liberia is that all these programs which helped to build citizen’s awareness of good governance and their rights to demand accountability from their leaders, could be scaled down significantly, and some may even cease to exist. However, the positive outcome for Liberia is that it presents an opportunity to make reforms and strengthen domestic accountability. Liberian officials, instead of accounting to the US Government, have an opportunity to look inward, strengthen dialogue with their citizens and improve accountable governance. This involves keeping the citizens well informed of decisions on such things as the national budget, spending priorities of the government, and loan obligations, among others. This, in my mind, would help to create better governance and development outcomes for Liberia.