The government of Liberia is ardent to transform the agriculture sector by scaling up the level of financing and deploying the resources in a holistic way. Using pillar 2 of the pro-poor agenda for
prosperity and development (PAPD), The Economy and Jobs—create economic stability and job opportunities via effective resource mobilization and careful economic inclusion management. IREDD in
Partnership with ACET with funding from USAID conducted a survey in Bong County under the Project
The title “Regional Collaboration on Overcoming the Binding Constraints on the Growth of Liberia’s Cocoa
Value Chain. The study seeks to undertake an in-depth value chain analysis of the Liberia cocoa industry
in order to understand the sector's challenges and provide recommendations on how to make the cocoa
sector a driver of transformation for Liberia. In addition, the research intends to undertake a Political
Economy Analysis (PEA) to aid in the establishment of policy advocacy platforms that are needed for the
uptake and implementation of the recommendations by the government of Liberia.
The specific objectives of the study are the following:
I. Conduct an in-depth value chain study of the Liberia cocoa sector in three counties to
understand the challenges faced by the sector and make recommendations on what it will take
to make the cocoa sector a driver of transformation for Liberia.
II. Conduct a Political Economy Analysis (PEA) to support the policy advocacy process needed for
uptake and implementation of the recommendations and implement policy advocacy process
including holding policy dialogues
III. Increasing citizen participation and advocacy in the policy-making arena by strengthening CSOs’
capacity to conduct robust policy analyses and become effective partners in the policymaking
process.
From these back drops, series of activities covering milestone 1-5, ranging from the inception meeting to
capacity building of partner CSOs (IREDD, CDG and CePAR), field work ( the collection of data), and the
conduction of the first and second policy dialogue for key stakeholders in the sector. The sole purpose
of the fieldwork was to gather first-hand information from stakeholders that would help identify
approaches to overcoming the binding constraints on Liberia’s cocoa value chain growth and
development.
The study shows that farmers are challenged with the lack of production equipment, lack managerial
capacities, aged trees, and access to technology to advance production, pests, and diseases. These
challenges have left the sector far beyond as compare to its regional counterparts. The policy dialogue
brought together key stakeholders from the GOL and private sector and issues of reforms around the
cocoa industry and financial support and moral support to LACRA, CDA, and the farmers and ideas in
which the sector can progress from tree-to-bar were highly discussed.
As we work to complete this project, the final report will be posted here once available.
