Home from Liberia

Well, I made it home again after a couple weeks in Liberia. The experience was amazing, and the people were incredible. Tere were aspects of the country which were better than expected, and some that were worse. There is an amazing amount of work to be done to get the country fully operational.

The total human capacity in the country is still devastated by the war, 15 years of broken educational systems, broken governmental systems, broken industry -- has left many gaps in the capabilities. It has also devastated any institutional knowledge that was present before the war.

There is an underlying current that seemed to have a push/pull against the international community. A couple of paraphrased quotes:

- The UN is helping, but all of the money goes back out of the country to these high paid consultants
- They want to make the country in their likeness (e.g. western)
- The WorldBank is trying to impose their ideas on us, but they don't understand the situation (e.g. we're different)
- We should ban export of raw materials (even go so far as to follow Bolivia's lead and nationalize resources)
- We want foreign investment and competition, but 'need' state owned entities with special priveleges (e.g. telecom, power, media)

There is also a sense of lost opportunity, especially noticeable in the telecom sector. The country missed several opportunities during the last decade with resepct to spectrum licensing and it seems they want to somehow turn back the clock to recoup those lost revenues. But going back is not the path forward. Dwelling on the past way of doing things, the misssed opprotunities, will only exacerbate the problem.

We need to some fresh thinking -- if you are building a country with a fresh start, what should you do? Unfortunately, as it currently sits, it isn't a fresh start, there is baggage all around that are left overs. Nonetheless, it is an opportunity to set things on a path forward not backwards. How should a country handle it's raw resources? How should the country attract foreign investment? How should the country build it's educational system? These and many more questions can be looked at with a fresh perspective.

The Liberian diaspora have an important role to play. As a cross between foreign investment and local investment, they are likely to be more able to understand and take the risks needed to invest in the country. They can assimilate ideas from other regions and apply them to the context of Liberia. They can provide anchors for other investments. But, they also must force out the culture of corruption and ensure that they do not contribute to the continuation of bribery and cronyism that can leave the country in a state of decay.

According to many who have been working in Liberia over the last several years, it has come a long way from the bottom. This may be true, but there is still a long way to go to get the country truly operational. I hope our work can contribute towards some of that progress by helping the government embrace technology as a lever for many of the other sectors that are being built/rebuilt.

Kipp