Resource information
Poor governance and nearly fifteen years
of brutal conflict have made Liberia one of the poorest
countries in the world. An important objective for the
democratically elected government of post-conflict Liberia
is to reduce poverty. As part of its long-term vision plan,
the Government is preparing a second Poverty Reduction
Strategy (PRS) to set out its medium-term approach to
poverty reduction. The current climate of peace and
security, as well as continued improvements in the economy,
offer the Government a unique opportunity to improve on the
gains that it has made in reducing poverty under its
previous PRS. However, as cross-country evidence has shown,
growth alone is not sufficient for poverty reduction. The
Government must also take steps to break the cycle of
chronic poverty by ensuring that the poor are given
opportunities and support to emerge from poverty, and that
those who have emerged from poverty do not fall back into
poverty. This poverty note is intended to assist the
Government in formulating evidence based policies aimed at
poverty reduction. This policy note draws from rich
information provided by the 2007 and 2010 Core Welfare
Indicator Questionnaires (CWIQs). It also benefits from
qualitative data from a relatively large number of focus
groups on gender and youth. In addition, the note benefits
from the analysis contained in the 2011 human opportunities
report for Liberia, which focuses in particular on access to education.
