Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) is built on the foundation of the Government’s 150-Day Action Plan. The PRS is part of a longer-term continuum of the Government’s strategy for rapid, inclusive and sustainable growth and poverty reduction, including progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The PRS covers the three-year period from April 2008 to June 2011. The actions and initiatives foreseen in this strategy are based upon the following Pillars: I) Consolidating Peace and Security; II) Revitalizing the Economy; III) Strengthening Governance and the Rule of Law; IV) Rehabilitating Infrastructure and Delivering Basic Services. The four Pillars of Liberia’s PRS represent the core strategic areas at the foundation of generating inclusive and sustainable growth and addressing the poverty challenge in all its dimensions. They establish key priorities.The strategy seeks to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition. One of the key priorities is providing food assistance to vulnerable groups that are severely food insecure. More specifically, Strategic Objective 2 aims to improve food security and nutrition, especially for vulnerable groups such as pregnant and lactating women and children under five. It is worth noticing that another strategic objective is to increase access to safe drinking water, giving special regard to rural population.Pillar II on revitalizing the economic sets out priorities and interventions for transforming the agricultural sector. The strategy aims to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. The central goal for the agricultural sector during the PRS period is to revitalize the sector in order to contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic development and growth, and to provide food security and nutrition, employment and income, and measurable poverty reduction. The key challenges for transformation of the agriculture sector are: increasing food crop yields by adopting new techniques and technologies; improving access to seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs, and strengthening linkages to output markets, primarily by rebuilding farm-to-market roads; restoring value chains and increasing community participation in supply and value chains; strengthening key agricultural institutions that were destroyed during the conflict; slowing the extent of illegal fishing and increasing the value added from catches; slowing deforestation, slash-and-burn cultivation, and tree cutting for firewood and charcoal, which degrade habitats and deplete natural resources.As regards the forestry sector, the central goal over the PRS implementation period is for the sector to become a source of higher incomes for the rural population, ensuring that the benefits are shared equitably, and that adequate environmental and other regulatory safeguards are in place to ensure sustainability. The Forestry Development Authority will focus on the following strategic objectives: developing commercial forestry, including by encouraging value-added forestry products, to be a significant source of revenue generation and growth for local people, Medium and Small Enterprises, and the nation at large; using community forest management techniques to identify viable economic opportunities for communities from forest resources and providing extension and technical assistance in community forest management; conserving protected and important biologically diverse areas, with an emphasis on providing sustainable livelihoods for communities at the fringes of the forest, and promoting tourism; enhancing environmental benefits from forestry reserves through an analysis of potential markets for trading in carbon credits.Further the strategy seeks to enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems. It aims to prove greater opportunities for women and youth in agriculture, especially in the formal sector. The document also encourages, promotes and strengthens farmer-based organizations as the primary institution for farmer coordination, with particular emphasis on women and youth. In line with this approach, the instrument aims to develop a comprehensive national land tenure and land use system that will provide equitable access to land and security of tenure so as to facilitate inclusive, sustained growth and development, ensure peace and security, and provide sustainable management of the environment.The PRS also works to bolster government efforts to protect against natural disasters and emergencies, including climate change risks.Concerning the mining sector, the strategy aims to rapidly expand mining as an engine of economic growth and social development, to ensure that the benefits from mining activities are widely shared, to diversify the mining sector into new and downstream activities, and to improve support to local miners.

Implemented by: Water Supply and Sanitation Policy. (2009-04)