Liberia Governance Challenges - Case Study Example

Running Head: Governance Challenges Name Course Institution Instructor Task: Choose a poor country and explain what governance challenges it faces. What advice would you provide to the government of that country on how to ensure stronger democratic governance to enable development? Date Countries are ranked yearly based on their human development index. Human development index is an assessment of how a country has progressed both socially and economically. Poor nations have low human development index while rich nations have very high human development index. All countries in the world have been put into four major classifications including; very high, high, medium and low human development index. Larger percentage of African nations fall into the category of poor nations. A number of factors have been highlighted as the major causes of poor development and among these factors is poor governance. Many poor nations if not all are being faced with a problem of poor governance and it has been argued as the major cause of many problems both in the social and economical dimension. Governance challenges will be the subject of this essay and I will use Liberia as a case example of a country facing a number of common governance challenges. Arguments will be supported by various scholarly works. Additionally, I will give suggestions on what the government of Sierra Leone need to do in order to steer development both in the social and economic dimension. Good governance as a concept became a subject of concern in the 1990's (Danielle & Regina, 2005, p. 1). Since then, many debates have emerged regarding the relationship between governance and overall economic development. The two aspects (governance and development) have become the agenda of international policies and there has been a general assumption that there is a link between governance and development or growth (World Bank, 2001). Despite this general assumption, the question of how they are related remains unanswered. This has been due to a number of reasons including lack of a precise definition of the term 'governance' and a scale of measurement of this relationship (Danielle & Regina, 2005, p. 2). In addition to this, economic growth or development is affected by many factors thus; it is quite difficult to pinpoint a specific factor having a direct effect of growth. To some extent, these numerous debates have yielded fruits from the fact that many scholars are in agreement with the direct correlation between the two aspects. In fact, according to UNDP (1997), the two concepts are inseparable and 'governance cannot be sound unless it sustains human development' (UNDP, 1997, p. 2). Similarly, the UN secretary general Kofi Annan argued that "good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development" (United Nations, 1998). Former Nigerian leader the late Sani Abacha in one of his speeches said that development could only be achieved in his country through good governance and there exists an internal relationship between governance and overall country development (Abacha Speaks, 1993, p. 8). As observed by the economist, 'of all the ills that kill the poor, none is as lethal as bad government' (Court, 2006, p. 1). Many other scholars are in agreement with the propositions of these scholars. As stated earlier in this paper, there is no precise definition of governance. Despite the fact that it is often used, it has been interpreted differently by different scholars from all disciplines (Danielle & Regina, 2005, p. 3). Giving a precise definition of governance is therefore crucial in identifying its challenges. Governance is simply the exercise of managing the affairs of a country in all dimensions (political, social and economic ) (UNDP, 1997). Countless definitions have been proposed by different scholars. What is quite evident is that all these definitions have some common notions of what good governance entails and they comprise of; accountability, transparency, responsiveness, equity and inclusion, effectiveness and efficiency, rule of law and, participation and consensus (Danielle & Regina, 2005, p. 4). Many leaders have failed in implementing these elements of good governance and have therefore resulted to challenges. The challenges of governance are common and almost the same especially in the African nations. The most common challenges that have confronted African nations are; corruption, conflict resolution problems, human rights, leadership and socio-economic development. Liberia is well known for its long term conflicts which began in 1989 and ended in 2003 when the last peace agreement was signed. The former leader of Liberia Charles Taylor has been convicted of violating human rights during this war. The country is under new governance currently, but despite this it is still nursing the wounds of long term conflicts and some problems still continue to persist. The world Bank report indicates a great improvement in political stability of Liberia (Basedau, 2005). Despite this great improvement, the country remains volatile to conflicts. Many problems still remain unresolved in Liberia a decade after the signing of peace agreement. Among these persistent problems include attainment of complete disarmament exercise, incorporation of ex-fighters, formation of true and loyal security sector and a rebuild of trust among the residents of this country (Basedau, 2005, p. 8). This is evident from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)'s decision to extend its mandate for yet another year. According to UNMIL, the government had not developed an efficient security sector to guarantee long term stability (Voisard, 2013). Basedau (2005) highlights the fact that there are high chances of violence resuming in Liberia if these challenges are not addressed before the exit of UNMIL. Notably, in African nations including Liberia, there is a challenge of leaders accepting election results and flawed process of election leading to violence. The 2011 elections in Liberia that saw the current president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf re-elected to office was gripped with tension after the opposition expressed dissatisfaction with the election process. With regards to these, poor governance is the main causative factor of conflicts. Despite a notable progress in curbing corruption in Liberia, this vice remains at the top of the list of issues affecting Liberian government. According to the transparency international's 2012 corruption perception index, Liberia was ranked number 75 out of 176 (Transparency International, 2012) which was a great improvement from the past years which placed Liberia at position 137 in 2005. Despite the fact that significant developments, corruption remains at top of the list of Liberia's endemics and in fact it has penetrated all sectors (Chene, 2012). Critical sectors such as the security and those involved in revenue collection are the most affected. A research conducted by the Afrobarometer indicated that policing sector was the leading in corruption list with 55% followed by revenue collection sector with 45% (Afrobarometer, 2012). Notably, the percentage of how the citizens perceive increased from 52% to 55% in the policing sector while it remained constant in the revenue sector between 2008 and 2012 (Afrobarometer, 2012). This is in line with another research conducted by transparency international global barometer 2013. The results of this research indicated people's perception on corruption to be among the worst with 75% of those interviewed taking corruption as a normal thing (Transparency International, 2013, p. 9). Similar to Afrobarometer's findings, this research study highlights policing sector as the most corrupt (Transparency International, 2013, p. 11). Quite common for poor nations is where the president is accused of corruption. Liberia's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been accused of corruption. She appointed her sons to the cabinet and defied societal concerns (Mark, 2012). Corruption therefore remains a key challenge in this nation. Socio-economic development is also a major challenge in Liberia. Despite the fact that not much has been done since the end of civil war, development remains a key challenge. Infrastructural development which is the key to overall socio-economic development remains a key challenge. The civil war ruined the entire infrastructure and has remained a challenge to the current government to rebuild (Gul, 2009). It has become a main challenge to finance infrastructure. This is due to the fact that Liberia relies heavily on agriculture for financing these projects. Revitalizing economic development remains a key problem to the current governance. Reliance on agriculture may not be a solution to this. There is need to diversify the economy to avoid overdependence on agriculture. Liberia is endowed with other natural resources which have not been tapped such as timber, iron ore and diamonds (Basedau, 2005, p. 9). With corruption remaining a key challenge, it is quite difficult to tap these resources. This has been accelerated by appointment of unqualified personnel to the government ministries. In conclusion, corruption and conflicts are the key challenges of governance to poor nations. Eradication of corruption and enhancement of peaceful coexistence should be the top priority of Liberia. The government should come up with strategies of conflict resolution to avert ethnic wars. Peaceful coexistence will not only avert deaths among the citizens due to fighting but also encourage investors to Liberia. Foreign direct investment is the key to development especially for a nation whose priority is to develop ruined infrastructure. Importantly, the government should put more effort towards total eradication of corruption. References Abacha Speaks. (1993). An Address at Swearing-in Ceremony of State Administrators 9th December. In the Compendium of Selected Speeches of General Sani Abacha Nigeria 9th Head of State from November 1993 –January 1998. Blue Heaven Communication and Publicly Co. Ltd. Afrobarometer. (2012). Summary of findings Basedau, M. (2005). Good governance and parliament in Liberia-Best practices: Mission report. Institute of African affairs: Hamburg. Chene, M. (2012). Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Liberia. Transparency International. Court, J. (2006). Governance, Development and Aid Effectiveness: A Quick Guide to Complex Relationships. Odi Briefing paper March 2006. Danielle, R. & Regina, B. (2005). Does good governance contribute to pro-poor growth?: A conceptual framework and empirical evidence from cross-country studies, proceedings of the German development economics conference, Kiel 2005, Research committee development economics, no. 5. Retrieved 25 October 2013 from Gul, E. (2009). Case study of Liberian economic growth: Pertinent lessons for developing countries. Monrovia: University of Liberia. Mark T. (2012, November 1). Liberia’s Johnson Sirleaf Defiant Over Nepotism and Corruption Claims. Theguardian, November 1, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/global- development/2012/nov/01/liberia-johnson-sirleaf-nepotism-corruption. Transparency International. (2012). Transparency international corruption perceptions index 2012. EYGM Limited: Berlin. Transparency International. (2013 July). Global Corruption Barometer 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013 United Nations Development Program (UNDP). (1997). Governance for Sustainable Human Development: A UNDP Policy Document. UNDP: New York. United Nations. (1998). Annual Report of the secretary general on the work of the organization, document A/53/1. New York: United Nations. Voisard, A. (2013 September 18). Security council extends UN peace mission in Liberia for another year. UN News Centre. Retrieved 26 October 2013. from World Bank. (2001). World Development Report 2000/2001. Oxford University Press: New York. Read More