Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world with a population of 4.8 million people and a growth rate of 2.5%. According to the World Food Programme, around 83% of the population live on less than $1.25 a day. The country has been war-torn in two prolonged civil wars. In 2014, it was one of the worst hit countries by the Ebola outbreak, severely impacting the country’s infrastructure and economy, now further deepened by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has some of the highest prevalence rates for malaria and tuberculosis in Africa.

The wars ended in 2003 but destroyed most of the country’s healthcare facilities. Life expectancy in Liberia is much lower than the world average. Communicable diseases are widespread, including tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria, HIV, and Dengue. Female genital mutilation is widely practiced. Nearly a quarter of children under the age of five are malnourished and few people have access to adequate sanitation facilities.

The education sector in Liberia faces multiple challenges related to rebuilding and recovery from civil war, constrained national finances, poor infrastructure and the Ebola epidemic. Some of these challenges are: huge number of drop-outs, poor learning environment, overage enrollment, and unskilled teachers.

On the other hand, sustainable agricultural production is often left unattended to policies and programmes. Due to inadequate investment in the field, farmlands shrunk, water resources were mismanaged, and food distribution and production suffered. Liberia lacks good quality farm inputs, including mechanised farming methods and equipment, from poor pest management and lack of technology to the limited use of fertilisers and modern-day cultivation methods. Furthermore, due to poor road networks and high transport costs, there is little incentive to produce food beyond subsistence levels.

BRAC Liberia takes a participatory, community-based, and inclusive approach to designing context-specific, impactful programmes. Our interventions in urban, rural, and refugee settings prioritise the equitable participation of all groups, particularly women and youth. We work directly with communities, keeping their voice and their story at the centre of our programmes.

Our Programmes

Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihood

Our Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihood projects are designed to provide training in modern agriculture techniques, climate-smart agriculture, increase agricultural outputs, develop capacities of our farmer participants and create employment opportunities through strengthening agriculture value chain activities in rural areas, particularly for women and young people. Our main projects contribute to ending hunger, improving food security and nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture by developing resilient agriculture, markets, and people.

Agriculture, Food Security and Livelihood

Education

Our Education programme takes a community-driven model that supports and sustains quality education in Liberia. This approach emphasises child-centred learning, teacher training, safe learning environment, gender sensitivity and child safeguarding. Second Chance is the main project under the Education portfolio; transitioning 727 children from the 25 Second Chance learning centres to public schools in Lofa and Bomi Counties.

Education

Health

Since starting the programme in late 2008, BRAC has established a combined network of community health promoters and health programme staff in Liberia delivering essential health care services in five key areas: reproductive and child healthcare; Malaria control; TB control; family planning; and basic curative services along with the Ebola and COVID- 19 emergency response. BRAC Liberia’s Health programme includes the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) Project, which has been implemented in 120 selected communities across six districts in Montserrado county, focusing on “Strengthening TB/HIV collaboration to reduce morbidity and mortality”. We have introduced the Community TB Workers model, similar to the Community Health Promoters (CHP) model. Our CHPs work under another TB prevention project to maintain close collaborations and linkages amongst informal private practitioners to improve case detection and treatment adherence.

Health

Microfinance

Launched in 2008, BRAC Liberia Microfinance Company Limited is the largest microfinance provider in Liberia, by the number of clients, operating with 32 branches in 8 counties. It provides inclusive financial services to people living in poverty, with a strong focus on women living in rural and hard-to-reach areas.

Microfinance

Social Enterprises

BRAC Poultry Hatchery and Feed Mill (BRAC Poultry Enterprise) was established in 2013 as the country’s first and only commercial producer of high-quality day-old chicks (DOCs) and feed. BRAC Liberia Poultry Enterprise fills a critical market need for both commercial and small-scale farmers in Liberia. Farmers enrolled in BRAC’s poultry programme receive input packages, training, on-site support, and seeds for establishing a nutrient-diverse homestead garden.

BRAC Seed Testing and Multiplication Farm:

Since 2010, BRAC has also operated a Seed Testing and Multiplication Farm (STMF) in Kingsville, Montserrado. The testing and multiplication farm produces high-quality maize and rice seeds and is multiplying bio-fortified, Vitamin A-rich yellow cassava cuttings. Currently, this is the only private seed production and multiplication farm in the country.

Social Enterprises

Ultra-Poor Graduation

The Ultra-Poor Graduation approach, commonly referred to as the “Graduation approach,” is a two-year project built on five carefully sequenced interventions: food support/cash transfer, savings, an asset transfer, technical skills training, and regular life skills coaching. These interventions are specifically tailored to the unique set of challenges faced by the ultra-poor. UPG focuses on skills development of participants to effectively manage their enterprises, life skills coaching and mentoring, social protection and integration, as well as financial literacy training through the Village Savings and Loan Association approach. From 2019 to 2021, BRAC piloted the first Graduation programme in Liberia to support 750 households to graduate out of extreme poverty.

Ultra-Poor Graduation

Youth Empowerment

Our Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) model, under the Youth Empowerment programme, is designed to empower adolescent girls and young women with life-skills, livelihood training, vocational training and startup kits to start small-scale businesses. As part of the programme adaptation approach for COVID-19, the girls in ELA clubs were trained to produce face masks and liquid hand washing soaps at the club houses which were sold within the communities to prevent spread of COVID-19.

Youth Empowerment

OUR IMPACT

41K

microfinance clients as of June, 2021

85%

of the 750 UPG participants graduated in June, 2021

37%

of Liberia’s population reached with COVID-19 awareness in 2020

96K

households visited by Community TB Workers and Programme Assistants in 2020

Contact us

BRAC LIBERIA
Divine Town, Old Road
Monrovia, Liberia
E: bracliberia@brac.net