Ebook Liberia’s Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP)
In May 2005 Liberia’s international partners initiated a robust action plan to address economic governance in Liberia. The Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP) as it came to be known, was signed between the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) and Liberia’s international partners UN, World Bank, EC/EU, IMF, Ghana, Nigeria, USA, ECOWAS and the AU.
GEMAP was a response to serious corruption and mismanagement of public finances in post-conflict Liberia, the extent of which, in the view of international donors, threatened Liberia’s current transition and prospects for stable peace. GEMAP targets public finance management and accountability in Liberia and, in particular, revenue collection, expenditure controls and government procurement and concession practices. It does this through a set of comprehensive international controls including the placing of international experts with co-signature authority in selected government ministries, agencies and state-owned enterprises (SOE); international management contracts for selected institutions and an international administrator in the Central Bank. It provides for the establishment of an Anti-Corruption Commission to enforce the law and a Steering Committee, chaired by the Head of State with a representative of Liberia’s international partners as deputy, to oversee implementation. The United Nations Security Council has welcomed GEMAP, noted its links to peace implementation and the lifting of sanctions, and undertaken to regularly review its progress.
GEMAP is an innovative and technically complex plan that is seen by many as a potentially effective response to the challenges of post-conflict transition. It can be seen as a possible compromise between two unpalatable policy options for international actors in post conflict situations: imposition of temporary international trusteeship, or the exercise of full range of action by a transition regime drawn from leaders of former warring parties, in which considerations of popular legitimacy, competence or commitment may be secondary. Because of this, GEMAP is seen to have potentially precedent-setting implications for other post-conflict countries.
For these reasons, the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the World Bank decided to undertake a joint review of the process in which GEMAP came into being with a view to identifying lessons for possible consideration in other post-conflict context. The review examines the factors that led to the introduction of a robust governance plan and the lengthy negotiations that preceded its agreement. It explores the key features of GEMAP and its innovation as a plan. Finally, it identifies possible considerations for potential initiatives in other post-conflict contexts. It does not assess GEMAP’s implementation: that exercise is necessary but can only be undertaken after a sufficient period of implementation has passed.
Contents
Executive Summary
I. Introduction
II. The origins of GEMAP
III. The negotiation of GEMAP
IV. Summary of GEMAP’s development
V. GEMAP as an innovative policy initiative
VI. Lessons for learning: Thinking about GEMAP’s potential applicability to other post-conflict
contexts
VII. Conclusion
Annex A: Overview of evolution of various drafts
Annex B: List of persons interviewed
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