Following an appeal to the international community to start planning recovery efforts for Ebola-affected West Africa, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim outlined during his visit to Liberia an 18-month strategy to support economic recovery in the one of the hardest-hit countries by the epidemic.
Speaking to reporters in Monrovia after meeting Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Kim announced a five-pronged strategy that will focus on bolstering Liberia’s agriculture sector, urban infrastructure and local entrepreneurship in an effort to spark an economic turnaround.
“Agriculture is a key pillar of the Liberian economy and we are concerned that agricultural production has dropped as a result of the Ebola epidemic,” he said, according to a World Bank statement. “We will help Liberian farmers recover from this crisis. We must make sure that the Ebola epidemic is not followed by a food security crisis.”
About the author
Jeff Tyson@jtyson21
Jeff is a former global development reporter for Devex. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers multilateral affairs, U.S. aid, and international development trends. He has worked with human rights organizations in both Senegal and the U.S., and prior to joining Devex worked as a production assistant at National Public Radio. He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and French from the University of Rochester.