By Godgift Harris
A first-year assessment of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s flagship ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID), has revealed slow progress, weak coordination and significant transparency gaps.
This exposed the expected progress being fewer than one percent of the planned interventions fully completed after 12 months.
The findings are contained in the President Meter Report 2025, released on Monday, January 13, 2026, at Naymote Headquarters in Paynesville, outside Monrovia.
Naymote is a governance watchdog partnering for democratic development.
The report provides the first independent, evidence-based evaluation of AAID implementation from January to December, 2025.
Naymote Executive Director, Eddie D. Jarwolo, disclosed that the assessment tracked 378 interventions across 52 core programs, and six strategic pillars of the national development plan launched by Pres. Boakai on January 15, 2025.
According to the report, only three interventions representing 0.8 percent were fully completed within the first year.
While 165 interventions (43.7 percent) showed some level of progress, 76 interventions 20.1 percent had not started and 134 interventions 35.4 percent could not be assessed due to the absence of publicly available data.
Naymote said 55.5 percent of AAID interventions are either “inactive or untraceable,” a situation the organization says, undermines public confidence and raises serious concerns about government accountability.
Mixed Performance Across Pillars
The report paints a mixed picture across the AAID’s six pillars: Governance and Anti-Corruption, Environmental Sustainability and Infrastructure Development, recorded relatively higher activation rates of 56.9 percent, 56.7 percent, and 55.3 percent, respectively largely driven by digital governance initiatives, donor-supported climate programs, and visible road and energy projects.
However, Human Capital Development and Economic Transformation pillars central to job creation, education, and social welfare emerged as the weakest performers, with activation rates of 36.7 percent and 35 percent.
Naymote attributed these shortcomings to chronic under-funding, weak inter-ministerial coordination and poor reporting systems.
Decentralization Still Elusive
Beyond national-level performance, the assessment highlights persistent service delivery failures in the counties.
Reviews of County Service Centers revealed that more than 60 percent of core government services remain unavailable outside Monrovia, reinforcing long-standing criticisms that decentralization remains more rhetorical than real.
Pockets of Progress
Despite the bleak overall picture, the report acknowledged limited but notable gains.
These include the establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court office, the rollout of biometric national Identification registration reaching more than 710,000 citizens, pilot e-procurement systems, selected legislative reforms and targeted investments in agriculture, energy, and tourism.
“These successes show that progress is possible, but only when political will, resources, and institutional capacity are aligned,” the report noted.
Warning on 2029 Targets
On the findings, Naymote warned that the current pace of implementation is grossly insufficient to meet the AAID’s 2029 targets.
At the present rate, the organization estimates that implementation would need to accelerate more than 20-fold for the agenda to remain on track.
To avert failure, the report calls for urgent corrective measures, including the establishment of a dedicated AAID coordination secretariat;
Mandatory quarterly public reporting by all implementing agencies, improved budget execution, and deeper decentralization of authority and resources to the counties.
The President Meter Report 2025 was produced under Naymote’s Democracy Advancement Program, with support from the Embassy of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Naymote clarified that the views expressed are solely those of the organization, and do not necessarily reflect those of its partners.
The organization also announced it will continue to monitor and publicly report on AAID implementation on a quarterly basis through 2029. including engaging government institutions, civil society, the media, and citizens in “a sustained push for results-driven governance.”