"Quick contributions in Liberia now are decisive to the county not falling back into crisis and conflict in the long term," said Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf when she met Sida's Acting Director-General Göran Holmqvist on Tuesday 27 November.
After 14 years of civil war and more than a third of the population having fled, Liberia faces difficult challenges. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first popularly elected female president and runs a reform-oriented policy that focuses on development and democratisation. Since Johnson came to power in 2006, there has been progress.
Liberia is a priority partner country for Sweden after the Swedish Government's decision to focus development co-operation to fewer countries. Sweden gives support to Liberia to help rebuild the country, partly through the UN's development programme via UNDP and via Save the Children. The contributions are concerned with building up the local community, health care, education and infrastructure in the country.
One of the keys to a functioning society is to build roads so that the inhabitants in Liberia can get to work, school and health care. Roads are also important to security in the country - not least - to show the people in the country, in a tangible way, the results of the current Government's work.
Johnson-Sirleaf is satisfied with Sweden's development cooperation to Liberia but hopes for intensified cooperation through, among others, UNDP. Sida is currently reviewing how the support can be developed.