Liberia RISING 2030 Must Be Viable, Sustainable, Says Dr. Sall

Monday, 28th February 2011

Dr. Alioune Sall, lead facilitator at the week long national vision training workshop is urging Liberians to ensure the viability and sustainability of the national visioning process to set Liberia on course for a long term growth and development.

Speaking at the opening session of the training workshop Monday, Dr. Sall also noted the Liberia RISING 2030 must be politically sustained and viable. He strongly advised that it should not be about the ensuing general elections, which will undermine the entire exercise.

The head of the South African based African Futures Institute also called for the full involvement of the cross section of society, including the public and private sectors, warning that the exercise would be unrewarding if Liberians are not consulted in the crafting of the Liberia RISING 2030 vision document.

Dr. Sall cautioned that the national vision should not just be a projection of the future or a wish list, but that stakeholders should do an in-depth analytical work looking at what is available, what are the variables, and what is possible before creating scenarios that will be an acceptable framework for the process.

The training session which concludes Friday aims to prepare the national team with the knowledge and skills required to drive Liberia’s next visioning process for long term economic growth and development.

Following Dr. Sall's presentation on the Future Studies - History and Development, questions and answers session ensued during which participants including Liberians from the disabled community asked questions about concerns they have. Some participants also made salient suggestions intended to make the visioning process better.

The vision, named “Liberia RISING 2030” seeks to make Liberia a middle income country by 2030. Designed as a national exercise, it is of paramount importance that the national core team which will be the operational arm and backbone of the exercise has a full grasp of the methods associated with each analytical step as well as specific outputs.

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, which spearheads the exercise along with the Governance Commission, says the workshop will be facilitated by the African Futures Institute which has a proven track record in supporting African countries in carrying out long term perspective studies.

Participants drawn from all sectors of the Liberian society including, students, youths, disabled civil society organizations, government ministries and agencies, universities and colleges amongst other were in attendance.
 
Deliberations and engagements surrounding the workshop are focused on the Liberia RISING 2030 process. Emphasis are highly placed on the background and rationale of visioning, the creation of a practical framework for its conceptualization, the methodology for the application of the exercise, and the institutional framework for the implementation of Liberia Rising 2030.

The training program is composed of five modules and is also devoted to a general presentation of futures studies philosophy and methodology and their relationship with strategic planning to provide the participants the general framework in which their work will be carried out.

The following modules will be presented at the workshop: 1) Future Studies - History and Development, 2) The construction of the analytical base: structural analysis and key variables, 3) Scenario construction, 4) Designing Strategies and 5) Open Discussions.

The Government of Liberia is undertaking a National Visioning Exercise to lay out a set of programs for building reconciliation and unity in Liberia and to inscribe the medium term growth strategies in a long term strategic framework.

Meanwhile, Dr. James Kollie who is deputy national coordinator of the Liberia Reconstruction and Development Committee (LRDC) told reporters that no country can move forward without understanding where it wants to go. "2030 is the time frame we set to develop a long term development strategy for this country," he said.

Dr. Kollie noted that once the broad aspirational goal is set, "then we start to work on how we are going to achieve that vision. What we are actually doing this week is going through a training program for people to understand what the concept of long term strategy; what method you use to come up with a long term vision and we will talk about how we will go ahead to put in place an implementation plan to execute that vision."

“Liberia RISING 2030” sets out an ambitious program to move Liberia and all of its population to a desirable future by 2030. It also sets out the outputs (for example a strategic framework to deliver the direction of travel) and strategic outcomes (for example national consensus) that will need to be delivered to achieve the vision in the short, medium (3-5 years) and long term.

Reports Sidiki Trawally

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