By Lincoln G. Peters
Former Foreign Minister Dr. Toga Gayewea Mclntosh says the ruling Coalition for Democracy Change (CDC) development roadmap – the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) has not been effective in the lives of Liberians because of the government’s failure to develop a “strategic action plan” that would guide its full implementation.
“If you want a policy to be effective, you need a strategic plan of action. In Liberia, we also call it Action Plan and that means that CDC should take that document; take one section out and say on this section, let develop a five-year plan of action to accomplish what we put in this framework document. However, in this case, this has not been done by this government and we are five years now. With that, you cannot implement the PAPD framework document because nobody can implement a document without an action plan”, he says.
Speaking at the Veteran Bureau in Doe Community, Bushrod Island recently, the veteran Liberian development economist noted that PADP may be rated A+ or B- due to how it was well formulated, structured and well written to solve the problems of Liberia, but it has never been effective because there is no strategic action plan to guide the government.
He explained that the PAPD covers four major areas, including roads and infrastructure, rule of law, power to the people and several others, yet the document has not taken effect because of its poor economic strategy.
He said the roadmap should be broken down to segments and aligned with strategic plan with resources allocated, adding that the document also has administrative machinery to carry out effective implementation.
“When you look at it very well, in the section that calls for administrative machinery, it talks about a steering committee which consists of people and their function is to listen and work under an inter-ministerial cabinet committee that would report to the President.
He said from the day the PAPD was written almost four and half years now, there has been no committee meeting to review the document and its implementation in order to report to the President, adding that when he came to the country for the economic dialogue in 2020, he asked if the committee that was formed is mandated by the PAPD document, but nobody has answered him till now.
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“I look at that document carefully, when they were formulating it and when it was completed and so I know what I am telling you because I know what all in that document. I who am talking here now am a planner and programmer. During this kind of exercise, there is something we do call development or economic analysis. The paper that came out benefited from input because it was well written. From that day the framework document was put together; that document we are talking about is not a plan but it’s a framework”, Dr. Mclntosh, who served under the former Sirleaf administration before crossing over to the CDC, said. Editing by Jonathan Browne
