Liberia faces challenges that few other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, let alone the rest of the world, face. The west African country of 4.4 million people has only been at peace since 2003, when a civil war that had lasted for most of the previous 14 years ended. A quarter of a million Liberians are estimated to have died during the conflict, with many more becoming refugees. Testifying to its sheer economic destruction, Liberia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms has only now reached the level it was at in 1989. “The economy is where it was before the war started,” says Amara Konneh, the 41-year-old finance minister.
Liberia’s security remains fragile and dependent on the presence of about 7500 UN peacekeepers, and it is still one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries. Its economic output is less than $2bn annually and its GDP per capita is only $450. It is severely lacking in infrastructure. “It is the 21st century, yet less than 6% of the population has access to electricity,” says the forthright Mr Konneh. “The road network is in an appalling state.”
