The government of Liberia says it is ready to release the National Aid and NGO Policy of Liberia (NAPL) to the public with a reporting tool – the Liberia Project Dashboard (LPD).

The LPD, Development Diaries learnt, is an aid information management system designed to collect, analyse, and report information about external assistance programmes and projects.

It was gathered that the management and coordination of aid has overtime been challenging in Liberia.

Most external assistance programmes and projects have been managed and coordinated fairly on an ad-hoc basis, with roles and responsibilities loosely carried out by other government ministries and agencies, leaving the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning with very limited information and also limited consolidated data on aid flow in the country.

Moreover, the absence of a national aid and NGO policy over the years had limited alignment of most external assistance programmes.

The new policy is expected to promote transparency and accountability in the development and implementation of aid programmes and projects.

It has been designed, according to the government of the West African country, to establish an internal coordination mechanism to curtail waste or limited coordination and alignment in programmes and projects.

The policy also establishes a national coordination framework for collective engagement with development partners at the technical and policy level.

All proposals for aid shall be channelled through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for proper vetting, while ministries, agencies, and commissions and MFDP shall jointly establish GoL’s position and participate in negotiations or programme development.

Source: New Dawn Liberia