TRANSFORMING TOMORROW BY

TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY- STRATEGIC BLUE PRINT

FOR LIBERIA’S VISION 2030

1. Introduction. Transforming Tomorrow and VISION 2030 are

corresponding to each other. ‘I SUPPORT VISION 2030, Our Vision-My

Future’– a slogan touched many hearts of Liberians and so of mine. Key

theme of this 18-year development plan is to raise Liberia to the status of a

middle-income country by 2030. Passion of Loving the Liberian Children and

wonderful experience in 2005-2006 and 2012-2013 aroused my Critical

Reasoning and Creative Thinking and dragged me to pickup this research.

Trust and Transparency are identified by this study as core cultural issue that

decides success or failure of the vision. In this very short inscribe it will only

be possible to draw a sketch of that strategy. In doing so, strategic

management process, campaign planning tools, effect based operations and

core culture will be analyzed.

3. Aim. To combine the Strategy of Business and Military Strategy to

create a suitable model for Liberian’s Vision 2030. Sketch a Strategic Outline

Plan with meticulous emphasis on Action Plan, which will strengthen the

Event Management for the same vision.

4. Retrospect, Future Plan and Present State. Being the first

independent country of Africa, Liberia is one of the poorest of the world.

After the independence in 1847 Liberia was crawlling under the leadership of

Americo Liberian presidents untill 1980. Then the country of liberty

experienced noumber of turmoils, unrest and military coup started by

Samuel doe. She was once suported by ECOWAS in 1990 but again engaged

in civil war, which terminated in 2003 with UN intervension. With the

presence of United Nations Liberia’s security situation is calm, stable and

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peaceful. But the questain remains will she be able to enjoy lasting peace

once the UN leaves this Lone Star?

5. Liberia is currently ranked as the fourth poorest nation in the world i.

This is a contradiction in a country with abundance of natural resource

reserve and sparse population density. The inequality speaks of the

immediate difficulty in working out the vision within the timeframe. The

required framework are part of the larger criteria of economic development

which include enforced rules and law, good governance, institutions,

infrastructures, security, capital, skilled labor and purchasing power etc. By

the economic development at the middle income level, people are neither

poor nor rich, but their incomes can provide basic life needs. Current level of

management in the public and private sectors; psychology and culture has to

be changed for the strategic fit.

6. Blending Literature and Experience.

a. Strategy. Review from Strategic business management and

military strategy will help us grasping the issue easily. Strategy

Approaches for Future, External Environment, Good Fit and

Contentious Progress. Dr. Margolis1 suggests to ensure the strategy is

aligned with culture, and build a strategically-directed, productive and

energized workforce. We can then blend the knowledge with Liberia

those are discussed below:

b. UN in Campaign Planning. Strategy in its simplistic terms is

ends ways and means. To reach the desired end state we need to

attain Centre of Gravity (CG) (Poverty Eradication) through Critical

Capability (CC) and Critical Requirement (CR). Liberia needs to develop

the Critical Capability on Governance/Rule of Law, Security, Economic

Revitalization and Infrastructure and Basic Social Needs which were

used as Strategic Goals. In all these strategic movement we need to

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continuously focus on Critical Vulnerability (CV) which is basically

Mistrust and Gap between leaders and led.

Fig 3: Strategy (Ends, Ways and Means) in Campaign Planning Tools

If we can address Critical Vulnerability properly by successful leaders,

we will be able to able to secure Critical Requirement which will

ultimately lead to achieve Critical Capability and finally to Center of

Gravity. Once we capture Centre of Gravity automatically we reach End

State and Liberia becomes the Middle Income Country. The same way

Liberia can leap forward for vision 2050 and transform into an

advanced nation.

i Ibrahim Al-Bakri Nyei. Liberia Vision 2030: Towsards a Middle-Income Economy. http://www.theperspective.org

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CC

GOVERNANCE

CC

ECONOMIC REVITALIZATION

CC

INFRASTRUCTURE ANDBASIC SOCIAL SERVICES

SOUND MIND SET

IN ALL STRATEGIC,

OPERATIONAL AND

TACTICAL LEVELS

CC

SECURITY

CR

CV

MISTRUST & GAP-LEADER & LED

CG

PovertyEradication

2030-MIDDLE INCOME

ECONOMY

ENDSMEANWAYS

c. Effect Based Operation for HRM. E. A. Smith defines "Effect

based operations (EBO) are coordinated sets of actions directed at

shaping the behavior of friends, foes, and neutrals in peace, crisis and

war1. EBO is founded upon a new scientific appreciation of complexity

and system-of-systems theory that challenges one to think beyond the

linear; and thirdly it calls upon (indeed, relies upon) new

manifestations of technology. Though applicable for military strategy,

it also has implications for operations other than war, and for National

strategy. The effects-based approach is of as much relevance to

'winning- peace' as it is to winning war. EBO occurs mainly in three

domains, namely, physical, information and cognitive domain. In

Liberia we need to play in cognitive domain through information

domain to change physical domain (Human Resource Management/

Capacity Building).

d. Industrial Organizational and Sociological approach.

Industrial organizational approach is based on economic theory and

deals with issues such as competition, resource allocation and

economies of scale. It assumes rationality and targets profit

maximization. Sociological approach deals primarily with human

interactions and assumes bounded rationality, satisfying behavior and

service. We need to utilize sociological strategic approach for Liberia

Vision 2030 by improving service to interact with human and satisfying

them. This is only possible by an exact SWOT Analysis.

e. SWOT - A Critical Reasoning through Experience.

Evaluating strengths, weaknesses, (internal factor) opportunity and

threat (external factors) is called SWOT analysis. It forms the nucleus

of strategic Planning. Vibrating experience of communicating with all

1 Smith, Edward. A, Effect Based Operations, Appling Network Centric Warfare in Peace, Crisis, and War, Center for Advance Concepts and Technology, DOD Command and Control Research Program, USA, Nov 2002 p10.

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levels of Liberian in 2005-2006 and 2012-2013 is the driving force of

deducing the following (many will have different view.

(1) Strengths . (a) Abundance of natural resources like gold,

diamond, iron ore, timber, rubber, gas and oil, unused land and

unexplored ocean. (b) Presence of UN which is being downsized.

(b) Diplomatic relations with USA is also a great source of

strength for Liberia. (d) Strength in Liberian’s characteristics is

they are very simple, pleasure seeking, amusement loving, which

makes them forget past and present agonies (like a child). (e)

Small community.

(2) Weaknesses . There are no of weaknesses, which are

the main impediment for the progress. (a) Transformation is not

taking place because of absence of tomorrow’s thought. People

are busy with today only, not thinking about tomorrow or day

after. To them ‘tomorrow never Comes (b) Gold Mine inside each

personality is covered by today’s thought only, lack in Self

Esteem turned into in-confidence, self-doubting and anxiety. (c)

Fourteen years of negative life style knocked the mental

stability. (d) Poverty drives to meet physiological needs,

overlooking social needs like love and belongings. (e) Lack of

Mutual Trust in Distribution of Wealth increased the Gap between

Leader and Led. (f) Men are not hardworking and again they

consume all money very shortly by drinking and enjoying (Abuse

of Western Culture of Drinking. (g) Most of the ordinary people

are uneducated and unskilled, unconfident and believes in

individualism, meaning no unity of effort/ team work. (h) 55 % of

the people are indigenous, who are superstitious, believe in heart

man, witchdoctor and mastery on witchcrafts. (i) Some wired

people believe, raping and killing is a source of spiritual power

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which can accelerate to higher social position. (j) Traditional

bush school does not include any Literacy Education Program for

the girls. (k) Life threat of man in the past made the women

prime mover (income) of the family. (l) But women are

vulnerable to early pregnancy and over burden with number of

children and very low income. (m) Absence of infrastructure to

attract foreign investors and very high rental cost. (n) There are

further deficiencies in higher echelons i.e. lack of transparency,

diplomacy, policy making and openness of the country.

(3) Opportunity . (a) Intellectuals of UN are the great sources

of knowledge and experience. (b) Softening up the mind and

opening up to the world poses a great opportunity, which can

make Liberia to be a model in Africa. (c) Successful model like

Malaysia also presents an opportunity to follow. (d) Processing

the natural resources before extort presents opportunity to be

industrialized. (e) In 2030 new generation’s age will be 27 years

who did not experience the black history.(4) Threat. (a)

Liberian’s are exposed to external threat like defense

mechanism. (b) Aggressive foreign policy (if there is any) of

neighbor and advance nations towards Liberia is also great

threat. (c) Global Economic Recession is a threat to progress for

time being.Strategic Planning- Outline Plan Core Culture .

Core Cultureii = Purpose (Transform Tomorrow) +

Philosophy (Trust and Transparency) + priority (Trustiii) (Fig 2

illustrates the correlations). A strategic plan will fail if it is not

supported by these prime principles of the Core Culture. As it is

told culture eats strategy like breakfast.

ii Sheila L. Margolis, PhD President, Workplace Culture Institute iii Vision 2030 is originated from amongst the people, and its promulgation is people driven as well.

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iv

Fig 1. Culture and strategy

a. Strategic Goals . United Nations Mission in Liberia’s Military

Observers mainly works in four pillars of Named Area of Interest (NAI),

namely, Governance/ Rule of Law, Security, Economic Revitalizations

and finally Infrastructure and Basic Social Servicev. If we hold them

good as 100% attainable Strategic Goals, now we only need to set

specific, quantifiable perimeters.

b. Strategic Priorities . Strategic Priorities are part of the Core Culture.

These are the principles and values that can change because their

function is to align the Core Culture with the current strategy. Core

Culture must align with and drive the strategy.

iv http://hni.com/what-we-do/business-advisory/culture-strengthening/v SOP

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Fig 2: Vision 2030 with Strategic Goals and Core Culture

c. Action Plan- A Creative Thinking . A Strategic Level Long Term Action

Plan with measures to performance needs to be build with a clear

understanding of the Core Culture, Vision and Strategic Goals. Four

multiple years plan like 2013-2015, 2016-2020, 2021-2025 and 2026-

2030 might start with first three years. From 2013 to 2015 Government

should be able to establish 100% Governance/ Rule of Law by reforming

Law Enforcing Agencies, Judicial System, Public Administration, Informal

Power Structure, Governance, Public Sector Institutions, and Non-

Government Actors etc. For initial capacity building ‘ABC’ might be a

Motto for first three years, when A stand for Ability, B stands for

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Beautify, C stands for Clarityvi. If we succeed, next three five years plan

may work as the table below:

S Pillar 2015 2020 2025 2030 Mottovii

1 Governance/Rule of Law

100% ‘ABC’-Trust & Turn into Gold

2 Security 80% 100% Transforming Tomorrow

3 Economic Revitalization

60% 80% 100% Bridge Across Atlantic-Diplomacy

4 Infrastructure and Basic Social Needs

30% 60% 90% 100% Happy Liberia

Table 1: Four Multiple Years Strategic Plan

Action plan will encompass mobilization of strengths/ resources, which

includes Diplomatic, natural, environmental and most importantly

human resources. In Human Resources Development/Capacity Building

‘Sanwin Trust Model Town’ with Children, Youth and Women Clubs and

Multimedia School can be one of the simulations. Main Effort should be

to Connect People with Ideas, Technology, Knowledge, Light and

Wisdom. (Needs Diplomatic Coverage, Strategic Back Upviii, Tieix, and

Supportx). Motivate Liberian for a strategic change/shift to ensure Good

Fit for 2015 and finally 2030. Most Important task is to propagate the

Strategic Action Plan through mass media like radio, web site, mobile

sms, booklet, and sticker etc to every citizen to change attitude and

perception, ‘Trustxi-Turn into Gold-Discover the Gold in You’. This must

to be contentious process to make the strategy everlasting- everlasting

progress. Research must continue to keep the Dream alive in university

and national level by addressing the weakness, grab opportunity and

counter the threats.

vi LT (N) IAN MCCOLLEY, LT COL MOHD AKIB AND MAJ WAHID’s discussion on 28 Dec 2012.vii ‘ABC’-Trust & Turn into Gold, Transforming Tomorrow, Diplomatic Bridge Across Atlantic and Happy Liberia might be the mottos for Vision 2030.

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e. Turn goals into measurable results. Strategic Goals are and

their sub sets has to be marked into a measurable/quantifiable output.

Accurate ground data is essential to measure the progress. These

measurable variables (ground data) will be consigned to complex

matrix to check the progress and stare whenever needed. Continue

aligning people and processes to the Core Culture and Strategy

through Strategic Change.

8. Implementing Strategy. We need to (a) Design Organizational

Structure, (b) Strategic Control System, (c) Matching Structure and Control to

Strategy and finally, (d) Implement Strategic Change to realize our Vision

2030 transforming into middle Income Economic Country. In successful

society, there is a clearly defined and shared Core Culture that guides the

behavior of members as they interact with each other as well as with others

outside the association.

7. Conclusion. The charisma and character needed in this era is

progressive pan-African leadership that will work out home grown solutions to

development challenges at the same time rationalizing foreign aids with local

demands and traditions and culture. A leadership of such will in the long run

create a vibrant and self-sustainable state that will need no foreign aid and

imported ideas. Such leadership will require strong economic event

management and resistance to the numerous unfit tool-kits of governance.

Can Liberia build such a character in its leadership and work towards a middle

income economy? We can if can go ‘back to the basic’ come out of the war

psychology go back to work and drink tomorrow.

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viii Chief CIMIC of UNMIL, Liberian Government (Hon. Representative Gabrial Buchanan Smith).ix USA’s Foreign Policy towards Liberia and Liberian Foreign Policy towards USA, Africa and rest of the world. x AML, BRE, LAC should come forward with Corporate Social Responsibilities to build models.

xi In God we Trust- may be one of the Ideas.

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