The United States Agency for International Development, represented by Nathan Associates and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning’s Department of Economic Management, have signed a grant in the amount of US$81,000.
The grant is intended to support the policy unit team at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, under the Liberia Economic Policy Dialogue Activity (LEPDA) project, which is funded by USAID.
Accordingly, the LEPDA project is intended to improve the policy making of the government and to help reduce the cost of doing business, says implementing partner Nathan Associates’ Mark Wilson.
Deputy Minister for Economic Management, Augustus J. Flomo, expressed delight about the in-kind grant, stating that it will support government in its policy process with the implementation of the “Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD)”.
“We must have the efficiency necessary to support the implementation of these policies documents, and without the appropriate tool and equipment to work with makes it difficult,” Deputy Minister for Economic Management, Augustus J. Flomo, stated.
The policy unit team supports coordination across the five departments of the ministry by working with the minister’s office to strengthen coordination of policy implementation of government actions.
Flomo said it is important for technicians to have the right tool in order to deliver on their mandate, adding that the policy unit team has the required competence. He thanked the people of America for providing Liberia with the in-kind grant, which will enhance the work of the (PUT) to deliver on its mandate.
“We remain grateful to the American people for providing us the in-kind grant to deliver on our mandate,” he stated.
Mark Wilson, Nathan Associates, the USAID LEPDA implementing partners, said the grant will go toward the procurement of ICT software and hardware equipment, including the purchasing of computers, and to strengthen the capacity of the policy unit team.
Wilson noted that the timeline of the grant is three months, starting from May 17 and ending August 16, 2021.