Monrovia – The Government of Liberia today said it (government) “will equally be a congenital part of the implementation and monitoring of the World Food Programme’s Country Strategic Plan (CSP) for the next four and half years”, aimed at enhancing education, promoting food security, agriculture and rural development, nutrition, and social protection services.
Deputy Finance and Development Planning Minister for Fiscal Affairs, Hon. Samora P. Z. Wolokollie, speaking on behalf of Finance and Development Planning Minister Hon. Samuel Tweah, said: “By any measure, the World Food Programme Country Strategic Plan is a great paper, a beautiful Liberia-focused document, and a five-in-one mechanism for development” that is in line with the government’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) aspirations.
He then appealed to Liberia’s partners to join the WFP and government in mobilizing the required resources for the CSP implementation.
“While we applaud WFP and ourselves for this milestone document and plan of action for development, we appeal to our donor community and development partners to support the CSP.”
The deputy Finance boss also disclosed that “the Government of Liberia in Fiscal Year 2019/20 budget has allocated US$500,000 (that’s half a million) toward home-grown school feeding programme.
This amount will of course increase as our budgetary strength grows in the future”.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bienvenu Djossa, WFP’s Representative and Country Director underscored the alignment of the CSP to the government’s national development goals and the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework UNSDCF).
“The WFP CSP fully articulates the Government’s priorities for addressing Liberia’s critical challenges for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and the Government plan of lifting one million people from poverty by 2023 through a range of social protection interventions.”
At the same time, the Ministries of Education and Agriculture have embraced the WFP CSP and pledged their commitment to its implementation.
On behalf of the Minister of Education, Deputy Education Minister for Administration, Hon. Latim Dathong, acknowledged the multi-sectorial nature of the CSP stating that “We recognize the multi-platform the CSP brings through Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
This enables children’s education and improves his or her nutrition while at the same time improving the smallholder farmer’s income.
For the Ministry of Agriculture, Deputy Minister Robert K. Fagans stressed the strong partnership, especially on capacity strengthening between WFP and the Ministry focusing on rural women empowerment.
Hon. Fagans further said: “We were part of the initial crafting of the HGSFP.
I am glad to see it today developed and an integral part of a full programme – a Strategic Plan that satisfies coherence and alignment to the Sustainable Development Goals and also to Liberia’s Development Plan, the PAPD. We are also satisfied with WFP’s activities in Liberia. You can count on the MOA support as a key partner in promoting food security and nutrition in Liberia.
