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New Program to Address Liberia’s Health Care Challenges

Seven years after a prolonged civil war, today's Liberia bears little resemblance to the country made famous for its war crimes and use of child soldiers. A visitor walking through the streets of the capital Monrovia is more likely to witness children carrying school supplies– not guns – as they walk to class in the morning.

It is at this pivotal stage in the country's rebuilding process that World Learning is opening a new Liberia office, which will manage a $19 million dollar project aimed at addressing critical gaps in the country's health care system. Funded through a cooperative agreement with the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, the new office aims to tip the scales in favor of Liberia's continued success and recovery.

"I think it's a particularly critical time for Liberia because the democracy right now is in such nascent stages," said Jessica Lowden, World Learning's project director in Liberia. "There are so many people who remember the conflict so vividly and are afraid of the country returning to conflict. I think our presence here is important to solidify in people's minds that this is a country that is in fact moving forward."

Lowden will administer grants to nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, that are focused on key healthcare challenges such as teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS awareness, and adolescent reproductive health. These NGOs have become a small but growing sector of Liberian society in the post-war years, often stepping up to provide important services that the Liberian government is ill-equipped to handle. However, these organizations frequently rely upon international sources of funding, lacking the institutional capacity and best practices to sustain their operations in the long term.

"One of the concerns is that a lot of these local organizations do not have enough staff to branch off on their own," said Lowden. She warns that local NGOs will have to tap into more of their own resources at a time when many international donors, pinched by the global financial crisis, are cutting back on funding. "Through our operations in Liberia, we will have a chance to help identify the needs of local NGOs and to help them build their internal capacity," she said.

A nation with historically close ties to the US, Liberia was founded as a place where former African-American slaves could come and live freely. In the 1980s and 1990s, a series of military coups devastated the country, resulting in civil war and producing thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons. Today, signs of progress and civility – including the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first female president– are tempered with social challenges such as sexual assault and discrimination against women, high fertility rates, and psychological problems for former child soldiers.

According to Lowden, one major goal of World Learning's presence in Liberia is instilling confidence in Liberian institutions. Failure to demonstrate progress in fundamental sectors like education, healthcare, and youth services may harm the government's credibility and sow the seeds of future conflict. That's why one of Lowden's early priorities is to fund programs focusing on orphans and vulnerable children. Many orphanages and care centers in Liberia lack accreditation, even as guardians send their children to these institutions with the impression that they will be fed and cared for.

"Especially when you get into the countryside – where there are no newspapers or landline phones – a lack of information and a lack of knowledge is a big problem," Lowden said. She hopes to fund programs that work to rehabilitate and reintegrate vulnerable children back into the community, instead of merely covering up the problem. Next, Lowden plans to highlight the plight of young mothers by locating grantees for programs that address reproductive health, teen pregnancy, and family planning.

"They say in Liberia that ‘You're trying small,' which means you're making do with what you can and just trying to move forward," said Lowden. You see people ‘trying small' here all the time… taking advantage of programs and embracing what opportunities there are." Faced with a country defined by its past – and the resilience of its people – World Learning is playing its part to help Liberia move forward to a prosperous future.

by Michael Snyder