Government to roll out National Aid and NGO Policy

Monrovia, Liberia - The Government of Liberia will next week officially roll out the National Aid and NGO Policy of Liberia (NAPL) to the public with a unique reporting tool - the Liberia Project Dashboard (LPD). 

The LPD is an aid information management system used to collect, analyze, and report information about external assistance programs and projects. It is a flagship indicator of a new era of aid management in Liberia.

Aid Management and Coordination have been a challenge over the years where most external assistance programs and projects have been managed and coordinated fairly on an ad-hoc basis with roles and responsibilities loosely carried out by other government ministries and agencies leaving the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning with very limited information and also limited consolidated data on aid flow in Liberia.

It has also been established that limited coordination and management framework of aid has had a little or negative impact on the full realization of aid objectives in meeting the results of the national development agenda of Liberia.

The absence of a National Aid and NGO Policy over the years has a limited alignment of most external assistance programs and projects with the strategic objectives and application of aid to interventions as would be needed based on the national development strategy.

However, the aid information management system utilization will promote transparency and accountability in the development and implementation of aid programs/projects.

The government believes that the absence of an aid policy has had even far more implications for aid management and coordination. It has also been observed that limited internal coordination among government agencies has created huge information asymmetry in engaging with development partners for adequate alignment with the National Development Plan.

Without a clearly defined policy, procedures, and processes, appropriate results will not be derived thereby leading to fewer results out of the use of donor money.

The National Aid Policy of Liberia is designed to establish an internal coordination mechanism to curtail waste or limited coordination and alignment in programs and projects.

The policy also establishes a national coordination framework for collective engagement with Development Partners at the technical and policy level. In addition to defining the types of assistance and the preference of aid modalities, mostly in accordance with international consensus on aid delivery, the policy also clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of government institutions and development partners in the management of external assistance.

These roles and responsibilities are structured around the aid management cycle from initiation of aid to the monitoring and evaluation stage.

All proposals for aid shall be channeled through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for proper vetting, while ministries, agencies, and commissions and MFDP shall jointly establish GoL's position and participate in negotiations or program development.

Moreover, a joint collaboration of GoL- Development Partners monitoring and evaluation shall be instituted. Aid information shall be inputted and stored directly into the Liberia Project Dashboard by Development Partners, MACs and will be verified by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.