By George K. Werner (former education minister)
This is a more analytical op-ed, bringing together facts, evidence and the everyday realities of Liberian life. I invite you to read it carefully—to consider both the progress being reported and the hardships people continue to experience. At its heart is a simple question: why, in a country so richly gifted with rain, resources and human potential, does “the ground remain dry” for so many?
It is the rainy season in Liberia. Rain beats against zinc roofs, fills gutters, floods communities and turns familiar roads into difficult journeys. Clothes hang for days without drying. Rain and sunshine sometimes hold hands before the clouds take over again.
Liberia is wet. Very wet.
Yet, for too many Liberians, “the ground is dry.”
The expression describes life where income cannot meet obligations. Jobs are difficult to find. Business is slow. Rent is due. Tuition is waiting. A child becomes ill, and the household’s careful calculations collapse.
But Liberia’s wetness means more than rain. It is also the giftedness of this country: gold, iron ore, natural rubber, productive soil, forests, rivers and marine resources. It is the intelligence, creativity and determination of our people.
The painful mismatch is between this abundance and the scarcity of opportunity in everyday life.
Our economy is growing. The World Bank reports that Liberia’s economy expanded by 5.1 percent in 2025, while mining grew by 17 percent. Those gains matter. Their meaning for a family depends on whether they become employment, better earnings and dependable public services.
The Central Bank’s provisional figures for April–June 2026 report US$409.9 million in gold exports, US$200.8 million in iron ore exports and US$28.6 million in rubber exports. These are export earnings, not government revenue or cash available for public spending.
Resources require investment and work to produce. Their wider public value comes through decent wages, taxes, royalties, local purchases and productive businesses built around them.
A country’s wealth must leave more behind than a record of what was shipped away.
Meanwhile, the household evidence is sobering. Liberia’s 2025 Comprehensive Food Security and Nutrition Survey, with a final report dated February 2026, interviewed 11,838 households.
Its Household Food Insecurity Access Scale classified 24.1 percent of households as moderately food insecure and 4.9 percent as severely food insecure a combined 29 percent. Another 31.8 percent experienced mild food insecurity. These figures measure household food access, not the national poverty rate.
That is part of what “the ground is dry” means: uncertainty about food, restricted choices and meals adjusted to whatever money remains.
Government has achievements to report. In September, the Executive Mansion announced that domestic revenue collections had exceeded US$1 billion. It also reported salary increases for more than 23,000 public service workers and officials, and the addition of more than 3,400 long-serving volunteer teachers and health workers to the payroll. These government-reported results deserve recognition and scrutiny.
But revenue collected is different from cash remaining. The billion-dollar announcement alone establishes neither how much was still available nor how effectively spending had improved lives. Citizens deserve a clear account of receipts, expenditure, outstanding obligations and results.
Agriculture, too, has investments to explain. In August, the Ministry reported 13 mechanization service centres across six counties, including one being developed in Clay, Grand Cape Mount. It said District Agriculture Officers had increased from 47 to at least 96.
The practical questions follow. Can a farmer access machinery when needed? At what cost? Is it maintained? Does the extension officer reach the farm? Does the harvest reach a buyer?
Machinery must become cultivated fields, productive harvests and better farm incomes.
Public Works has documented progress as well. On July 28, 2026, it reported the dedication of the completed Gbarnga–Salayea road after a construction journey lasting nearly a decade. That achievement also illustrates why development requires continuity across administrations.
A completed road should mean safer journeys, lower vehicle costs, easier access to services and better opportunities to trade. Those benefits must be measured and protected through maintenance.
The distance between a government announcement and a household’s relief is where public confidence is won or lost.
Household costs remain under pressure. The Central Bank reports that average headline inflation rose from 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026 to 5.4 percent in the second. Second-quarter food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation was 4.5 percent, while transport inflation reached 9.9 percent. Overall inflation nevertheless remained below the 11.1 percent recorded in the same quarter of 2025.
There is improvement compared with a year earlier, alongside renewed pressure on essential expenses.
When fuel and transport costs rise, the effects travel through the economy. A worker spends more reaching the same job. A market woman pays more to bring her goods to customers. A small business spends more keeping its generator running.
Eventually, the cost reaches a household with no one left to pass it to.
That is where the meal becomes smaller. The clinic visit is postponed. A parent says, “Next week,” without knowing what will change by then.
Some entrepreneurs are quietly contemplating closure. Sales are slow, but rent, wages and suppliers must be paid. Customers ask for credit because their own ground is dry.
Closing threatens years of effort and the livelihoods of employees. Staying open may mean deeper debt. Encouraging people to start businesses must include attention to whether those businesses can survive.
For salaried workers, payday can bring only brief relief. The income arrives already committed to food, tuition, rent, transportation and medicine. Then come the family emergencies: a sick mother, a nephew sent home from school, a sister who needs something to cook.
One income takes care of multitudes.
Amid these pressures, the Liberian dollar has recently strengthened. The Central Bank’s published buying rate moved from approximately L$173.00 per US dollar on September 12 to L$172.15 on September 18, 2026. That confirms a modest appreciation during that week.
Households want to know when currency gains will improve what their money can buy. Businesses may hold stock purchased at earlier exchange rates, while freight and other expenses can offset savings. Someone receiving US-dollar income also obtains fewer Liberian dollars when exchanging it. If expenses fixed in Liberian dollars remain unchanged, that household feels a squeeze.
Slower inflation does not erase earlier increases. An item that rises from L$100 to L$120 and then falls by 5 percent still costs L$114.
Families understand this arithmetic. They perform it every day.
There are, however, promising efforts that deserve greater investment.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports has launched a small-business grant programme targeting 2,000 market vendors across all 15 counties, with training, mentoring and follow-up intended to help their enterprises grow. This is a target, rather than confirmation that all beneficiaries have received assistance.
At its September Montserrado launch, the Ministry identified 200 recipients selected for L$30,000 each. It also reported recent cadet, vacation jobs and community-service interventions. These efforts provide practical starting points for expanding opportunity.
Additional investment could help them reach more communities and offer stronger support. That means financing transport, tools, supervision, business guidance and connections to employers and customers.
The Ministry’s emerging collaboration with the fisheries authorities is particularly relevant to Liberia’s natural wealth. A September roundtable identified opportunities in boat construction, engine repair, aquaculture, fish processing and refrigeration. Programme development and a needs assessment are planned; employment results are still to come.
This is the kind of connection we need to build: marine resources linked to skills, viable enterprises and incomes in coastal communities.
Expansion should follow evidence. How many participants are earning six months later? How many supported businesses remain open? How many temporary placements lead to continuing work? Are rural youth, young women and persons with disabilities receiving a fair share of opportunity?
The Ministry should have the resources to develop promising programs and demonstrate what works. Where results are credible, government and its partners should finance wider delivery.
The same principle applies across the economy. Agriculture needs storage, processing and reliable buyers. Resource industries need stronger links with Liberian suppliers. Education and training need meaningful connections to work.
Dependable public services also improve household finances. A functioning clinic reduces avoidable expense. A good public school eases pressure on parents. Reliable and affordable electricity helps a business retain money otherwise spent on fuel.
Government should report these outcomes as clearly as it reports revenues, equipment and projects.
A farmer measures progress by what she can grow, sell and retain after expenses. A commuter measures it by the cost and difficulty of reaching work. A parent measures it by whether paying tuition leaves enough for food. An entrepreneur measures it by whether another month in business is possible.
These are measures of national development, too.
Liberia’s structural difficulties have accumulated over decades. Each administration inherits unfinished work and bears responsibility for what it does next. Progress requires continuity, competent institutions and public accountability.
When Liberians say, “the ground is dry,” they are describing the distance between national promise and household experience.
We should hear them.
Liberia is wet with rain, resources and human possibility. Our task is to turn that abundance into livelihoods people can depend on.
Until a parent can pay tuition without sacrificing food, a young person can earn a decent living, and an entrepreneur can keep the doors open with confidence, the government’s reports and the household’s accounts will continue to tell different stories.
The rain is falling.
For too many Liberians, the ground remains dry.
