The Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) has admonished participants at the ongoing National Development Plan (NDP) meeting, which is dubbed the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID), to keenly scrutinize the contents of the Draft Plan and ensure that it is properly accurate for validation. Accordingly, the indicative cost of the Plan is being put at US$7.6b, of which US$2.26billion(30%) will be the contribution from the Government of Liberia (GoL),while development stakeholders, such as the private sector are expected to contribute US$ 2.66 billion (35%),Official Development Assistance(ODA) is estimated at US$ 1.9 billion (25%) and remittances from diaspora is US$ 7.61 billion (10%). It can be recalled that President Joseph N. Boakai, on July 18, 2024, launched the national and sub-national consultative process, with emphasis on the bottom-up approach,as the process leading to the formulation of the Draft Plan has been highly inclusive from the onset. Speaking at the start of the two-day validation process Tuesday, November 5, 2024 in Monrovia, MFDP Minister, Augustine K. Ngafuan, asserted that the Draft AAID that they were about to validate is the outcome of series of consultative meetings held across the country, thus expressing gratitude for all of the responses, support and good will that they received during the formulation process. He indicated that government’s medium-term development Agenda is largely driven by ‘ARREST’, Agriculture with a focus on agribusiness value chains; emphasizes Roads and other infrastructure in ICT, Energy, Sea Ports and Air Transport. “Let me take this opportunity to welcome you all and thank you for turning up to this Validation meeting which is one of the last milestones in our road map to launching and implementing the new National Development Plan (NDP) which is dubbed the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID),” he said. Min. Ngafaun emphasized that the ultimate goal of the AAID is to improve the economic and the human development indicators of Liberians, stressing that the private sector, Development Partners, Liberians both home and those in the Diaspora, the civil society, the youth, among others, has a role to play in the national development process of the country. According to him, Liberians need to leverage their resources in the development of the country as they together work towards “Leaving No One Behind.” Accordingly, the Draft Plan further lay emphasis on good governance, especially upholding the rule of law, strengthening the fight against corruption, tackling education value chain from Early childhood Education to basic, secondary, higher learning and TVET, while targeting improved health outcomes through WASH. “As I conclude, I wish on behalf of the Government to thank our Development Partners for the immense contribution in facilitating the formulation process of the Plan since the inception stage when we kick-started the consultative process,” he said. “We appreciate the support of the US system multi-disciplinary team led by the Chief Technical Advisor Dr .Mario Caetano for supporting the process. We need to acknowledge and appreciate the effort of our National Consultants that have led the drafting of the AAID. We appreciate Subah Belle Associates and ADMA for supporting Government in the drafting of the AAID and CDA respectively,” he concluded. Stakeholders at the meeting commended the government through the MFDP for developing a Draft Plan national development agenda for the country, thus pledging their fullest support in its validation and implementation processes.
Macpherson C. Marbiah writes/0886442881-0777250370