MONROVIA – The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), held a day-long consultative meeting on Wednesday with sector ministries, agencies, and commissions (MACs) to discuss the process of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) sectorial clearance.
A press release issued today by the MFDP Communications Unit highlighted that the objective of the gathering was to enhance the accreditation and registration process for NGOs operating in the country.
Representing Finance and Development Planning Minister Hon. Boima S. Kamara at the forum, Deputy Minister for Budget and Development Planning, Hon. Tanneh G. Brunson, thanked all participating MACs for their efforts in attending the meeting.
Hon. Brunson disclosed that in 2022, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, through the Department of Economic Management, developed and revised the Aid and NGOs Policy guidelines and procedural manual. This included the creation of a one-stop-shop NGO online registration and accreditation system.
She noted that the system was developed and launched on August 18, 2022, to streamline and improve the NGO accreditation and registration process in Liberia.
“Prior to the launch of the platform, NGO registration and accreditation were conducted manually, which posed several challenges, including long bureaucratic delays, document losses, and an excessive paper trail, taking up to two weeks to complete,” Hon. Brunson explained.
She added that the new platform was developed to remove these bottlenecks and to simplify the process of obtaining sectorial clearance from MACs, alongside accreditation from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
The Deputy Minister also mentioned that both the government and NGO partners, including civil society organizations, national NGOs, and international NGOs operating in Liberia, had held an engagement meeting to address major concerns. These included issues such as discrepancies in fees for sector clearance across government entities and the high fees charged by various bodies.
The consultative meeting saw the participation of Hon. Tanneh G. Brunson, Deputy Minister for Economic Management Hon. Dehpue Zuo, Assistant Minister for External Resource and Debt Management Hon. Alice Williams, and officials from various MACs, as well as staff from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
