While aid trickles in, Liberians get creative to make ends meet

Skeptical of foreign aid's promise, many are creating their own jobs through clever, small-scale entrepreneurial activities.

from the March 7, 2007 edition

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Indeed, most Liberians who are fortunate enough to have any income at all are not working in an office or earning a monthly wage, they are entrepreneurs, hawkers, hairdressers, and bakers. These "average joe" Liberians were given a boost by Black Entertainment Television's founder Robert Johnson who recently announced a $30 million fund to support Liberian entrepreneurs.

But most would rather have proper jobs, and the government is working on it.

The Ministry of Labor has a tough target to hit, according to the Liberian Emergency Employment Program, which calls for 50,000 jobs over the next 18 months. Employment projects are in the pipeline but most tend to be short-term public works carried out on a small-scale using intensive labor, such as fixing roads or clearing garbage. This will not be enough to solve the unemployment crisis, which is why Johnson-Sirleaf spent one day during last month's visit to the US marketing Liberia to private investors.

US-based tire manufacturer Firestone employs 4,000 Liberians on its rubber plantation here, while the anticipated $1 billion investment by steel company Arcelor Mittal to extract iron ore is expected to create 3,000 jobs. Johnson-Sirleaf must attract more of these large international investors. The lifting of sanctions on timber exports in 2006 and the anticipated lifting of sanctions on Liberian diamonds later this year will help.

But the fact remains that Liberia's predominantly agricultural economy is very small and very weak: In 2006, GDP was only $664 million, or less than $200 per person.

"We've got some support but it is not manifest," says deputy minister of labor Ms. Sedia Bangoura. "There is a lot of pledging but it is extremely slow to transform into concrete projects." Filling that gap are the likes of Shain who can earn up to $15 a day charging customers for the use of his computer and teaching them to type.

As Liberians hope that their government and the international community will not fail them, creative entrepreneurialism is still working to sustain people, for now. But without fundamental improvements, observers say Liberians' patience will wane. They want jobs, not just streetlights in some parts of town or drinking water in a few neighborhoods.

Ernest Gaie, a country representative for the non-governmental organization Action Aid, sums up: "People are getting disillusioned day by day with the lack of change, but 14 years of destruction cannot be rebuilt in 14 months of new government."

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