/ 1 February 2006

World Bank urged to consider relief for Liberia

The United Nations mission in Liberia (UNMIL) has called on the World Bank to scale up its assistance to the impoverished and war-battered country and consider granting it debt relief.

UNMIL second in command Jordan Ryan, made the plea late on Tuesday at a meeting with senior World Bank official Robin Cleveland, counsellor to the bank’s president Paul Wolfowitz.

Ryan ”strongly recommended that the World Bank should consider debt relief for Liberia and the financing of labour-intensive projects with the aim of combating Liberia’s high unemployment rate,” said UNMIL in a statement received on Wednesday in Dakar.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, sworn into power last month, inherited a country burdened with a wrecked infrastructure and a $3,5-billion debt.

Once one of Africa’s most prosperous nations with abundant timber, rubber and mineral wealth, Liberia lies in ruin after more than 14 years of civil war.

International doors have laid strict conditions for any development aid under a governance and economic management assistance programme to safeguard against corruption.

Cleveland expressed the Bank’s commitment to support Johnson-Sirleaf’s efforts to push through a number of ”quick win” projects, said UNMIL.

The bank has targeted the repair of roads as a priority to enable the government to focus on better delivery of public services to communities.

Liberia has neither electricity nor running water and very few passable roads.

While in Liberia, Cleveland met with Johnson-Sirleaf, Western diplomats and representatives of international development organisations. – AFP

 

AFP