LIBERIA – Naymote Partners for Democratic Development through its executive director, Eddie D. Jarwolo on Wednesday, 18 January released its latest report on the status of President George Weah’s promises made over the last five years.
The report covered January 2018 to December 2022; tracking President Weah’s promises and the status of their implementation annually.
This year’s report comes ten months before the general and presidential election in Liberia.
According to Naymote’s report, President George Weah was elected on a mantra of ‘change’ and his key promises included economic reforms that would ensure substantial Liberian participation in the economy, fighting corruption, and enhancing service delivery.
Accordingly, Naymote says these promises were articulated in the 2017 election manifesto of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), several campaign speeches before the election, the inaugural address, and in policy statements (like the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, PAPD) and presidential addresses.
The report Naymote says documents promises and policies made by President Weah during and after the 2017 presidential campaign, which aim is to promote political accountability, influence public policy and stimulate discussions among citizens and stakeholders. This discussion will hopefully empower and give voters a voice in reviewing the social contract between them and their leaders.
The report narrates that this edition of the President Meter Project reports on 292 promises made by the president, his political party, and the government over the last five years.
Of the 292 promises, Naymote says 65 promises came from the Coalition for Democratic Change 2017 Manifesto, 34 from campaign speeches, policy statements, presidential priority projects (3Ps), and Annual Messages to the Legislature, 6 from the COVID-19 State of Emergency (SoE) relief support 8 from Pillar 4 of the PAPD, 167 from the President’s Nationwide County tour of 2021 and 2022, 8 from the President’s speech at the U.S. Summit for Democracy held in December 2021, and 4 from the President 65th Armed Forces Day Message on February 11, 2022.
The report indicates that this assessment found that only 8% (24 promises) have been fully implemented by the government over the last five years. The assessment also found that the implementation of 91 promises (31% of all promises) was ongoing during the reporting period. Therefore, out of all promises, attempts have been made on only 39% (the sum of those completed and those with ongoing activities).
Nearly two-thirds of all promises, 61% or 177 promises, were identified as ‘Not started/ not rated’ because the government had not commenced work on their implementation, and there was no available information on the status of those promises, the report indicated.
According to the report, the majority of the promises implemented are promised under Pillar 2 of the Manifesto (Economy and Jobs). These constituted (56%) of all completed promises. Specifically, promises on infrastructural development received a high completion rate — constituting 38% of all completed promises.
Pillar 1 of the Manifesto (Power to the People) which has a total of 106 promises, has the lowest completion rate of 8%. Although the completion rate under Pillar 4 (Governance and Transparency) remains the lowest, the assessment however observed that implementation of some promises under this thematic area was ongoing and these could take several years due to the complex nature of the institutional and legislative reforms that may be required to fully implement them.
Additionally, the report points out the assessment found that there were limited efforts by the government on promises centered on ‘Physically Challenge and Senior Citizens’, and action was taken on only 1 out of 10 promises under this sector. However, the government made progress by taking action on all 8 promises under ‘Gender Equality’.
“As the Weah-led government completes its six-year mandate, it is time for the government leads internal processes of self-evaluation and prioritizes specific sectors for implementation ahead of the end of the mandate.
In particular, fulfilling promises on governance, accountability and anti-corruption are crucial as they were a key part of the many policy speeches that elicited support for President Weah during the presidential campaign and after the inauguration. Implementing promises in these areas is crucial for strengthening institutions and laying the foundations for delivering on all other promises.”
This report is Naymote’s fifth edition of the President Meter (WeahMeter) project which tracks and reports on promises made by President Weah and the CDC government.
The President Meter (or WeahMeter) is a democratic monitoring tool used by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development to provide an independent assessment of the implementation of the campaign and post-election promises made by President George Manneh Weah and the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) during the 2017 elections and after he took office in January 2018.
This initiative seeks to promote transparency and political accountability to cement the social contract between Liberians and their elected officials.
The aim of Naymote’s report is to inform citizens about the President’s performance against promises he made during the period under review and to improve communication between the people and the government.
Further, the Naymote PADD and its partners hope that citizens would use the information provided in the report to measure the performance of their government and hold the government accountable from a more informed position.
This year’s report was funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). We want to appreciate the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, (OSIWA) for supporting this project over the past years. Thanks for the partnership and support to our institution over the years and for believing in our vision and supporting our work.
