What’s in Liberia’s New 5-Year Development Plan for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene?
In Liberia, government funding for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) has been alarmingly low—contributing not more than 5 per cent of the total expenditure—resulting in huge reliance on donor contributions, at least 95 per cent. As a result, in 2022, one in four Liberians lacked access to clean water close to home, eight in ten did not have access to a decent toilet, and at least nine in ten lacked soap and or water to wash their hands at home (UNICEF/WHO JMP 2023).
In a major shift recently, the Liberian Government launched an ambitious five-year National Development Plan, the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID), on January 15, 2025. This plan aims to make human capital development, economic transformation, and good governance the foundational pillars of development from 2025 to 2029, with a budget of $8.3 billion of which the government has committed to fund at 30 per cent, that’s 2.5 billion.
