NGOs Come and Go, but Na'ting Happening Mehn

According to Aid Data, there are over 7,000 aid-related projects and NGOs operating in Liberia. The population of Liberia is a little over 4 million people. During Ellen Johnson’s Sirleaf leadership, she estimated that there were about 1 NGO per every 4000 Liberian citizens and in 2013, the country reported about $13.7 billion dollars in international funding. With such a huge amount in aid, Liberia still sits idly at number 4 on business insider’s poorest countries in the world. With Liberia’s GDP about 934 per capita, one would think $13 billion dollars in aid should go a long way. Instead, 5 years later with new leadership, Liberia continues to sink in deep economic challenges and continuously reaching out her hands in hopes for more aid. The question then becomes what are NGOs and other aid-related projects really doing to help Liberia move towards real sustainable development?According to the Ministry of Labor, Liberians daily earnings are around 3.5USD for unskilled workers, 5.5USD for skilled workers and a little over 50USD monthly. Conversely, working for NGOs means higher income and in cases involving International NGOs, it can be comparable to working somewhere in the US or Europe. A friend of mine working for an International NGO (INGO) brings home about $900USD monthly as a county representative on an education project in rural Liberia. In comparison to my other friend who is a teacher in a private school, $900 remains a dream to her $150 monthly salary that gets delayed many months due to challenges facing schools. With income as a motivating factor, there is an influx of young Liberians hoping to score positions with INGOs even if it is not in their field. According to the Afrobarometer, a pan-African series of national public attitudes on democracy, more than half of Liberia’s population is unemployed and about 41% of Liberia’s population are considered youth or under the age of 14. Young Liberians only hope for stable income is working with NGOs even if it means gaining no professional development or ignoring personal aspirations.  Every corner of Liberia is plastered with the presence of NGOs. When I say every corner, I mean in the bushes of Fishtown, Rivergee County and on the red dirt roads leading to the rubber plantation in Pleebo, Maryland County. I have seen stickers, posters, cars, campaigns, etc of NGO in every county I have been ( I have been to 13 out of the 15 counties in Liberia!). So what exactly is going on with NGOs and where are the fruits of their labor?  In 2014, Global Witness reported that Liberia might be tired of NOGS. The Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf blamed NGOS for the economic problems facing the country. Whether these claims were valid or not, we know there were a lot more NGOs at the time and that number has increased yet, Liberia’s economy is arguably seeing the worst cases of inflation of all time. The World Bank reported, “GDP’s growth is projected to slow to .4% in 2019 and remain at about 1.5% over the medium term (2020-2021), well below the rate of population growth of 2.6%”. While the rise in the cost of living continues, NGOs all flying under the banner of development continue to operate in Liberia in hopes of something I have yet to identify. West point, one of Liberia’s slums, has been the hot spot for so many NGOs. The population of West Point is approximately 75,000 people according to reports from NGOS working in the area. Name a documentary about poverty in Liberia and I will show a place in west point that was featured. Located on a peninsula of the Atlantic Ocean, West Point residents are some of the most impoverished citizens of Liberia despite Liberia’s NGOs directory reporting West point to have the highest amount of NGO compare to other communities.  As the title of this piece indicates, NGOs come and go and yet there are no significant changes in places West point. So when will Liberia come to terms that NGOs are not really making any significant impact? Cities Alliance, another NGO operating in Liberia and featuring west point in their promo video described the community as being “displaced by the sea”. During the deadly Ebola breakout in Liberia, West point was again a hot spot for NGO and efforts to eradicate the virus. Shortly after that, the erosion by the seas coupled with the daily life in a slum challenges keeps NGO activities very high in that community. In all my 30 years of living, West Point has always been impoverished. With all the NGOs and specifically INGOs focusing on West point, why does this one small community continues to be the face of poverty for so many campaigns? Is the real goal not to alleviate poverty or when will change come? The big joke here is Liberia started off as an NGO from the very beginning. When the American Colonization Society (a private organization) decided to assist the US in bringing back freed slaves from the Americas to Liberia, it was the beginning of NGOs operations in Liberia. From missionaries to present-day development “experts”, Liberia remains vulnerable to foreign aid. Local NGOs tailored their projects to fit the funding requirements. Everyone is chasing the money and new NGOs keep popping up, but the sad reality remains that there is no real improvement. This is no strange news that foreign aid is often associated with mismanagement. We all remember years back when the devastating earthquake hit Haiti. The Red Cross was caught in a firestorm with a case of huge donations and no real development years after the earthquake. ProPublica and NPR reported The Red Cross hired Program Manager for their aid work in Haiti after the storm for about $140,000 USD inclusive of a house, food, and other lucrative allowances. Yet, Haiti too, Like Liberia, remains in the shadows of poverty.  According to the Center for Global Development, many international NGO operating in Haiti and other developing countries estimate about $200,000 each year in salary. Imagine what $200,000 could do for a Liberia or Haiti?  This is not to say International Development work is not needed, but if the overall objective is to develop the countries or communities they operate in, something has got to change. In Liberia, for example, we cannot continue to host foreigners with little to no knowledge about the culture, history or daily life (other than the copy and paste Africa development work) in charge of projects and hope for a miracle. INGOs operating in Liberia living in the nice parts of Monrovia and visiting their field sight in their air-conditioned Land-cruiser will never fully understand development challenges. Even if they walk around in African print hoping to blend in, the fact remains that race and social status makes them stick out in Liberia. Local Liberian NGOs struggling for funding will not collaborate with International NGOs especially since most collaborations are approached as if locals are not the experts. International NGOs fly in and out of poverty-stricken areas (West Point), take their photos, build a well/hand pump, write their reports and move on to the next project while local NGOs remain in the communities waiting for the next collaboration. As NGOs continue to permeate every aspect of Liberian society, it is imperative that we set some guidelines for their operations.  In the Liberian way, Liberia has become the “Go-Buy-Chop” destination for NGOs (which loosely translates to hand to mouth way of life). As NGOs come and go with new projects, new “experts” with new ways to solve Liberia’s problems, the lives of everyday Liberians remain the same. There has to be a better way to build more sustainable and ethical projects where we avoid using Liberia as bait for funding charitable projects and start providing tangible services that help Liberia. Maybe we can start with the crazy idea that requires all INGO to have 90% Liberians staff  and mandatory partnership with Liberian NGO who has demonstrated success through length of service and tangible outcomes (No, building a well does not count!) Another crazy idea would be to actually required that all registered NGO operating in Liberia currently be asses rigorously through what I called the checklist for sustainable and ethical practices for developmental. What have you done in the last year that directly correlates to economic development for Liberia? How long have you operated in Liberia and what can you show for it? (No, wells and hand pumps do not count!) We have to close the “Go-buy-Chop” market until things start to change for the benefit of Liberia and her people. Sources https://www.businessinsider.com/the-25-poorest-countries-in-the-world-2016-4#5-burundi--gdp-per-capita-951-662-21https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homeshttp://www.liberiangodirectory.net/listings/Shttps://www.globalwitness.org/es/blog/liberia-tired-ngos/