Liberia Economic Recovery Plan (LERP).

This Economic Recovery Plan aims at tackling the economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, protecting vulnerable population, and taking urgent and proper measures for sustainable development, growth and recovery of the Liberian economy. On this basis, the Plan defines its following core objectives: providing critical support to the health and related sectors directly dealing with the pandemic, in order to strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability; protecting emerging economic recovery, by sustaining the gains under the External Credit Facility (ECF); minimising revenue collapse arising from the economic disruptions wreaked by the pandemic and protect the fiscal space; providing stimulus relief for those key sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and those that have the greatest impact on recovering growth; identifying post-COVID-19 priority investment paths and sectors under the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD). This Plan provides a background of the country, detailing developments in the macroeconomic fundamentals and highlighting the challenges being faced in the presence of the impacts originating from COVID-19 over the medium term. The Plan further details the socioeconomic impact of the viral outbreak on the Liberian economy and particularly on the core sectors, analyses the challenges it faced before the outbreak, identifies the agents involved and finally concerns mitigation measures.
Concerning Health sector, the Plan describes the context and focuses on the most relevant challenges: underfunding; shortage of medicines and medical supplies; limited infrastructures and essential medical equipment; limited support to research. The Plan defines the proper measures to strengthen Liberia’s public health system, expand disease preparedness and adapt the national climate agenda to the health sector: development of health financing policy and strategies; revision of the environmental impact assessment; risk assessment of the impacts of climate change and vulnerability on human health. Concerning Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector, the Plan describes the context and specifies the major limitations to the achievement of sustainable water services: inadequate water distribution; poor sanitation services. The Plan defines the following measures to provide Liberians a safe and improved water and sanitation service: improving access to drinking water; water supply in rural areas; mapping of solid waste management facilities; enhancement of financing for water resources management; improvement of water quality standards. Concerning environmental protection, the Plan provides for the following measures: data and information collection on pollution and degradation; public awareness promotion through public participation in decision making; sustainable use of natural resources.
Concerning Agriculture and Fisheries, the Plan recognises the pivotal role of this sector in the growth and development of the Liberian economy, defines its most relevant challenges: production shortages in all of the major agricultural commodities; low production and productivity from small-scale agriculture; poor quality of planting materials, fertilisers and veterinary services; inadequacy of farming technologies; poor post-harvest management practices; inadequacy of agricultural extension services and infrastructure; increasing risk of zoonotic diseases; limited investment in agricultural research; illegal, uncontrolled and unreported (IUU) fishing. The strategic responses include financial agricultural measures; monitoring food prices, availability and consumption; securing imported cereal supply, to ensure continued food supply and a strategic build-up of reserves; supporting smallholders to diversify production; strengthening animal husbandry and particularly poultry and swine production; strengthening rice, cereals, cocoa and oil palm production; fishery communities management; improvement of fish sanitary standards; capacity building enhancement; development of industrial fishing ports; improvement of aquaculture development; bolstering measures to strengthen public-private partnership to secure and increase the income of smallholder fish farmers. Concerning Forestry, the Plan highlights benefits and resources Liberian forests provide to the country, including: habitat for globally important biodiversity; ecotourism; timber and non-timber forest products supply; high species endemism and biodiversity hotspot. The Plan recognises the importance of customary rights of local communities for forest management and concerns the following measures: involvement and participation of rural communities in decision-making process; conservation of forests; payment for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from avoided deforestation; agroforestry promotion.