Liberia: At the Annual Meetings, Liberia Finance Minister Speaks on “investing in Education for our children”

On the third day of the Annual Meetings in Washington DC, Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning Hon. Samuel D. Tweah was selected to represented Africa on the panel to discuss “Investing in Education for our children”.

The panel was moderated by the World Bank President, David Malpass and included Shafiq Khan, President of Teach the World Foundation and Catherine Russel, Executive Director of UNICEF.

In his opening remarks, Minister Tweah explained the nexus between education and development by providing evidentiary statistics on revenue generation and allocation to the sector. The Education Ministry will need $586 million dollars in the next five years. But that is 60% of the amount needed to stabilize the education sector through the service delivery, the recruitment of  qualified and certificated teachers, improvement in girls education and learning outcomes. In terms of aggregation, 60% amount to only 14% which is 6% percent short of the Sub-Saharan Africa average for education. No country can do any better in the education sector without allocating 20% or more to their education sector

“We are hoping that the balance of 40 percent can be filled in through donor support or extra budgetary allocation once approved by the national Legislature”, he noted. Education cannot be ignored even though the outcomes appear abstract in the short run as compared to investment in electricity, roads  and health. The results of infrastructure development which are physical or visible cannot be sustained without human capital.

The Minister pointed out physical infrastructure dominates human capital because it is invisible. Resources are being directed from growth related projects to subsidies for rice, fuel and fertilizers. He spoke on the invisibility of human capital development which cannot be seen in the short run. He called on finance ministers across SSA to rethink development through the eyes of human capital development

With partnership from the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education and UNICEF, the country now has an opportunity of spending more than $950 million dollars in the long-run to improve the education sector. This sort of partnership will help to build a new framework for education through digitization and optimum learning outcomes which will serve as a strong foundation for sustainable development in Africa and other regions