Amara M. Konneh (born 7 December 1972) is the
Manager of the World Bank Group's Global Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV)
Hub in Nairobi, Kenya.
He joined the Bank after nearly a decade of service with
the Government of Liberia, most recently as Minister of Finance and Development
Planning and National Coordinator of the Liberia Development Alliance from
February 2012 to April 2016. Prior to this, he was Minister of Planning and
Economic Affairs and Head of the Presidential Office of the Liberia
Reconstruction and Development Committee. Earlier in his career, he worked for
the Vanguard Group of Investment Companies as well as the International Rescue
Committee in Guinea as Education Coordinator.
As Manager of the Bank's Global Fragility, Conflict
and Violence Hub, Mr. Konneh’s top three priorities will be to: (i) implement
the Bank's Cross-cutting Solutions Area's (CCSA) strategic priorities, as part
of the GCFDR Management Team, and in close coordination with GPs, CMUS, IFC,
MIGA and development partners on the ground; (ii) lead the Nairobi-based team
of the CCSA to provide operational and analytical support on FCV issues and to
disseminate best practices and lessons learned; and (iii) represent the Bank
and manage relationships with the donor community in Nairobi.
He was a core member of President Johnson Sirleaf's
Economic Management Team and is credited with helping to stabilize the Liberian
economy from the effects of a protracted civil war and the Ebola Virus Disease
(EVD) that almost brought the Liberian economy to its knees. Mr. Konneh is also
the architect of Liberia's long term development perspective and first national
vision, known as Liberia RISING 2030 and current five-year development agenda
(Agenda for Transformation - 2012 - 2017) that achieved average growth rate of
6% during his tenure. As Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, he also
successfully coordinated the successful implementation of the Lift Liberia
Poverty Reduction Strategy, the administration's three year post-conflict plan
from 2008 to 2011 that achieved an average growth rate of 7.5%. He is a
graduate from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
where he received a master's degee in public administration with a
concentration in political and economic development. He also holds a master's
degree from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor's degree from Drexel
University.
Mr. Konneh provided leadership for several
continental, regional and sub-regional organizations. He most recently served
as Chairman of Africa Group I Constituency of the IMF. Previously, he served as
Chairman of the Mano River Union (MRU) Ministerial Council and the African Peer
Review Mechanism's Ministerial Council. He was the coordinator of all the
Economic Community of West African States' (ECOWAS) activities in Liberia.
He is the recipient of Harvard University's Kennedy
School 2016 Alumni Public Service Award and was named Africa's Finance Minister
of the Year 2014 by The Banker magazine, a subsidiary of the Financial Times
for his efforts to reform, stabilize and grow the Liberian economy.
Early life
and career
On December 7, 1972, Amara Konneh was born in Balla
Bassa, Gbamah District, Gbarpolu County, Liberia to the late Majumah Konneh and
the late Mamadee Konneh. He spent his formative years in Balla Bassa Town then
moved to Monrovia in 1985 in order to continue is formal education having
completed elementary school. He graduated from Monrovia College (high school)
in 1990.
Shortly after graduating high school, Amara Konneh
became a refugee in Guinea, and established a free school for Liberian refugees
with proceeds from corn and beans he harvested from his farm. His leadership at
the school led to an offer by the International Rescue Committee to serve as
the Education Coordinator for Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugee schools
throughout Beyla Prefecture in the Guinea Forest Region. He served in this
capacity from 1991 - 1993 and supervised the development of 18 community
schools, including the first high school in the Beyla Prefecture, and coordinated
curriculum development, teacher training, and resource mobilization.
Upon emigration to the United States in 1993, he
enrolled at Drexel University where he was awarded the Anthony J. Drexel
Academic and Leadership Scholarship and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in
information systems with distinction, following which he earned a graduate
degree in Management from Pennsylvania State University. He worked at Vanguard
Group of Investment Companies, a Fortune 500 Company in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
where he was recruited into the highly competitive and prestigious Smart
Leadership Program upon graduation. After more than a decade of working with
development foundations and as a policy, financial systems analyst and project
manager in Guinea and the United States, Konneh returned to Liberia to serve
his country in 2006.
Personal life
Deputy Chief
of Staff
Upon the election of President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf in 2005, Mr. Konneh was named Deputy Chief of Staff to for Policy and
Communications within the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs. In this
role, he spearheaded several initiatives including:
Reforming
the management practices at the Ministry of State through a performance
improvement program;
Coordinating the development of policies and communications strategy;
Organizing Liberia’s first conference on Information and Communication
Technologies for Development (ICT4D); and
Improving
the Executive Mansion’s relationship with the Liberian Media by giving them
increased access to the Presidency and creating better working conditions.
After a year and a half of serving in this
capacity, Mr. Konneh took a sabbatical in order to enroll at the John F.
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he earned a master's
degree in public administration with an emphasis in political and economic
development and a certificate in Public Policy.
Upon completion of his studies at Harvard, Minister
Konneh returned to Liberia and was appointed by President Sirleaf as the 16th
Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs of the Republic of Liberia.
Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs
In August 2008, Mr. Konneh was sworn in as
Liberia's Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs. He also served
concurrently as the National Coordinator of the Liberia Reconstruction and
Development Committee and the National Authorizing Officer of the European
Development Fund for Liberia. Under his leadership, the implementation of the
three year Lift Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS I) was accelerated
resulting to a successful conclusion. Mr. Konneh is a core member of President
Johnson Sirleaf's Economic Management Team and is credited with helping to
stabilize the Liberian economy from the effects of a protracted civil war. His
accomplishments included rebuilding the Ministry of Planning's internal
capacity to support Liberia's post-war reconstruction; unscrupulously
implementing Liberia's three -Year development strategy (2008-2011) Poverty
Reduction Strategy that sought to enhance security, revitalize the economy
after years of conflict, rehabilitate infrastructure and resume the provision
of basic services such as education, healthcare, water and sanitation services
to the population; and improving governance and the rule of law. He is the
architect of Liberia's new long term development plan the Liberia RISING 2030
Vision, and a five-year Medium Term Development Strategy - the Agenda for
Transformation ( PRS II 2012-2017), both of which seek to make Liberia a lower
middle income country by 2030 by focusing on inclusive growth through enhanced
security, justice and the rule of law; economic transformation through
increased investment in energy, roads and ports; human development through
education, health, water and sanitation; improving governance and public
institutions; and addressing unemployment. He is also credited for
strengthening aid coordination mechanisms that has seen increased aid on
budget; developing a ten-year National Human Capacity Development Strategy to
reverse Liberia’s brain drain; harmonizing the activities of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) with the national development agenda; and promoting the
use of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) that
led to the landing of a $25 million African Coast to Europe (ACE) fiber optic
high speed Internet cable in Liberia.
As Liberia's Alternate Governor to the World Bank
and African Development Bank, Mr. Konneh played a key supporting role in the
waiver of Liberia's US $4.6 billion debt. He also played a key role in the
cancellation of Liberia’s US $170 million debt obligation to the Paris Club, a
small group of creditor nations. One of Konneh's major accomplishments as
Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs was the development of Liberia’s
three-year Millennium Challenge Account Threshold proposal which he negotiated
with the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation for a US$15 million
grant to reform land rights and access, increase girls’ primary education
completion rate, and develop a trade policy regime consistent with regional
standards. He is also credited for leading the efforts to restore to the
Government of Liberia full authorizing authority over budget support garnered
from the European Union (EU) that was previously administered by the EU office
in Abidjan as a result of the Liberian conflict.
Minister of
Finance
Upon the re-election of President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf in 2011, Mr. Konneh was nominated to the post of Minister of Finance
and was confirmed by the Liberian Senate in February 2012. Since becoming
finance minister, Liberia’s post-war economic growth was sustained in 2012 and
2013, with estimated real GDP growth of 8.9% and 8.7, respectively, led by
mining, buoyant construction, and strong performance in services. Growth was
projected to be impressive in 2014, due in no small measure to macroeconomic
stability and supported by further mining and agriculture related Foreign
Direct Investments (FDI) but was affected by a health crisis - the Ebola Virus
Disease (EVD) - and the global commodity price shock. Consumer price inflation
moderated to 6.9% in 2012. This strong performance also reflects
higher-than-anticipated acceleration in non-mining activities boosted by robust
private and public investments in line with the government’s five year
development strategy, the Agenda for Transformation (AfT) for which he is
credited formulating. As Finance Minister, he has advocated the following
priorities for the government:
Investing
in infrastructure - especially electricity, about $1 billion to restore power
destroyed by the war. Liberia has the highest cost of electricity in the world
which constrains private investment;
Investing
in human capital formation;
Accelerating economic growth via a clear strategy to leverage Liberia's
agricultural potential;
Investing
in developing the private sector, especially Liberian-owned businesses;
Address
the issues and concerns of Liberia's youth through technical and vocational
education; and
Investing
to create economic and political opportunities for all Liberians.
To support the growth envisioned in the
government’s medium-term growth strategy, the Agenda for Transformation,
Minister Konneh quickly introduced a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF),
a multi-year rolling budget framework that began in fiscal year 2012/2013 that
saw an increase in public investments from a mere 7 percent of the budget to
about 25 percent to finance critical infrastructure projects. Through an
aggressive mobilization of domestic and external financing, he has led the
government’s efforts that have raised more than $2 billion US Dollars to
support the Agenda for Transformation. The most significant projects are the
restoration of electricity to the country, construction of major highways to
connect Liberia’s main economic corridors and rehabilitation of the country's
sea and airports. Most of the funding secured so far constitutes grants with
about 20% in concessional loans from various lenders including the World Bank,
the African Development Bank, European Investment Bank, Kuwaiti and Saudi Funds
and other bilateral financing. Through his leadership, he has ensured full
compliance with the Public Financial Management Act under difficult
circumstances, by implementing its core regulations. Through his
administration, Liberia produced for the first time a mid-term budget
performance report and a year-end report that is being audited by the General
Auditing Commission, a crucial compliance requirements of the Public Financial
Management Act which has become a tradition now by the Ministry of Finance and
Development. Konneh has also worked to improve Liberia’s tax administration
through a major reform he championed with the creation of the Liberia Revenue
Authority (LRA) and has automated the chaotic voucher processing system at the
Ministry of Finance that has improved the payment process and significantly
reduced duplication. During his tenure, the Ministry of Finance has made great
strides towards the decentralization of payroll though more challenges remain.
He introduced for the first time in Liberia, the “Open Budget Initiative”-a
platform through which citizens can access the budget and government spending,
making Liberia the first country where ordinary citizens can now track spending
to various sectors including health, education, infrastructure, etc. via mobile
phones, on the Internet, through community radio stations and on an electronic
billboard. This reform is also complemented by the publication of the Citizens
Guide to the Budget, a yearly publication that is distributed nationwide to
empower citizens to hold spending entities accountable for results. [7] He has
made headlines for rooting out corruption within the Ministry of Finance and
for championing the Open Budget Initiative.
Minister of
Finance and Development Planning
In July 2014, Amara M. Konneh was appointed
Liberia’s first Minister of Finance and Development Planning, having previously
served concurrently as Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs and Minister
of Finance from January 2012 to June 2014. He is credited for stabilizing the
Liberian economy from the effects of the most recent effects of the Ebola Virus
Disease (EVD) outbreak that almost brought the Liberian economy to its knees.
With the EVD having halted the implementation of
the AfT and dropped the nation’s economic growth rate from a projected 5.9 to
zero percent, Minister Konneh worked with stakeholders in government,
development partners community, private sector and civil society to maintain
macroeconomic stability during the crisis, resulting in stable exchange rate and
inflation in spite of a sharp decline in economic growth; availability of
essential goods and services in the country given that Liberia is an import
intensive country; and instituted fiscal policies that prioritized financing
the fight against Ebola early during the outbreak when international response
was slow. He tightened coordination within the economic management team with
strong support from the President and took the actions that were necessary to
avert an eminent economic collapse. Under his leadership, the team at the
Ministry of Finance and Development Planning formulated a post-Ebola Economic
Stabilization and Recovery plan (ESRP) that is currently being implemented by
Government to achieve optimum impact for the last two years of the Johnson Sirleaf
Administration. The Plan was an off-shot of the existing Agenda for
Transformation (AfT) but incorporated additional programs and interventions to
specifically address the impact of EVD on the economy and the population; and
the commodity price shock that has affected two of Liberia's main commodities -
iron ore and rubber.He also coordinated the robust Ebola response effort along
with key stakeholders, and spearheaded the mobilization of financial and
non-financial resources for the fight against Ebola effort from government,
bilateral and multilateral partners, NGOs, state owned enterprises and the
private sector.
He also established and provided oversight of the
Ebola Trust Fund, ensuring that all Ebola response agencies received timely
resources and accounted for them; while also leading his team to maintain
consistent salary payments for the entire civil service (including furloughed
staff) throughout the crisis.
Leadership
Liberia’s
Governor on the Board of Governors of the World Bank, International Monetary
Fund and African development Bank, 2012 - 2016.
Chair,
IMF Africa Group I Constituency, 2014 - 2016.
Chair,
Board of Directors, Liberia Bank for Development and Investment, 2012 - 2016.
Member,
Board of Commissioners, Liberia Investment Commission: helped to attract over
US$16 billion in Foreign Direct Investment commitments in iron ore, forestry,
rubber and palm oil, 2014 - 2016.
Chair,
Board of Governors, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development.
Former
Chair, African Peer Review Mechanism Committee of Focal Points, 2013-2014.
Member,
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ministerial Council, 2008 -
2016
Chair,
Mano River Union Ministerial Council, 2008 - 2012.
Awards and
professional recognition
Admitted:
Order of the Star of Africa with the Grade of Grand Band
2016
Alumni Public Service Award, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Minister
of Finance of the Year 2014 for Africa, The Banker Magazine, a subsidiary of
Financial Times;
Featured
in Africa’s New Leaders
Mentioned
in the book ‘Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way;
Featured
in ‘Africa’s Reformers: Re-Writing Governance’ by former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative.
No comments:
Post a Comment