African Woman and Child Feature Service

One African country is ahead of United States of America because it has a woman president. It is a small country lying on the West Coast of Africa. It is called Liberia.

This country has a woman President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who became first woman in Africa to be head of State in 2006. During a public lecture where she was to speak on how far Liberia has come since the war ended almost five years ago, a question was posed to her on why there are few women heads of state? Sirleaf, laughed and said we should ask the United States of America why there has never been a woman president in the super power.

“There is too much male domination in the world,” Sirleaf explained. “Women are playing a bigger role in managing families and in Africa boys still get the preference.”

It is this preference for the male that has left a male dominated field in governance and leadership.

However, despite there being more male leaders, governance remains a challenge.

According to Sirleaf unemployment remains one of the biggest challenges facing leadership. For African leaders to tackle unemployment among youth, they need to be more efficient in resource allocation and ensure that the youth have skills that will enable them be absorbed in the job market.

“The leadership also needs to be accountable and transparent in managing resources,” observed Sirleaf.

When she took over Liberia, the country had just come out of war. There were many youth who were idle. There were also many youth who had been combatants and were now not engaged. “This posed a risk of insurgencies occurring,” she says.

However, having peace has enabled the country to put in place fundamentals. Today Liberia can boast of being the fastest growing economy in the world. According to the World Bank it is among the top 10 reformers.

Sirleaf says there is need to consolidate all the gains the country has experienced.  Liberia having set certain targets for itself, leaves Sirleaf with the task of making the Liberian dream come true.

That is why she can now boast of a Liberia that is debt free. A country that had been razed to the ground by war, Liberia can now boast of being an income without debt. This can be attributed to the leadership guided by Sirleaf and the support the country has received from international community.

When Sirleaf took over the leadership of Liberia  in 2006, the country had nothing. She had to work at consolidating resources and raising the country from the ashes of impunity.

“Over the past three years, we have been able to mobilize resources,” observes Sirleaf who took over the leadership when the country was debt stressed. “We needed to have a sound policy. We had to tackle debts that had been in arrears for two decades.”

The President observes that she was restrained to ensure that there was sound public financial management.

“Today we are proud to say that debt arrears are gone. We have been able to realize credit worthiness,” Sirleaf says.

When speaking about Liberia, Sirleaf does not speak as an individual. She speaks of the country as a plural, an indication that she appreciates the support her country has received from Liberians and the country’s friends. This is a complete deviation for male African leaders who speak of ‘my country and my government and not forgetting the I have done and I have said’.

She says: “We have come a long way. Although we have received a lot of support, there have been challenges on the way.”

“What do we prioritise?” she poses the question. Sirleaf then answers the question herself: “Liberia is one of the countries with the highest rates of poverty. We realized that you cannot tackle poverty without growth.  We therefore targeted areas where Liberia had resources such as mines and agriculture.”

When Sirleaf took over Liberia, the economy was down, they started with very low salaries, but today things are changing.

“Today many things are functioning in Liberia,” she observes.

Illiteracy and poor education systems have been reformed. Enrolment in primary schools has increased by over 40 percent.

While Liberia boasts of being a good friend of the US, which was acknowledged that other partners like China have also come in helping rebuild Liberia.

“China is aggressive in Africa. Their main interest lie in raw materials but they also participate infrastructure development,” observes Sirleaf.

However, while she acknowledges that China is not big in Liberia, she says China likes to leave behind big footprints. “The Chinese work hard,” she says.

However, as Liberia moves to realising her dream, Sirleaf says tackling poverty and corruption remain the key challenges that her government must confront.