This activity financed an affordability study as input to the design and structuring of a subsidy project in Liberia. The findings of the study informed the economic context of the potential energy consumers in Liberia in urban and rural areas.
Activities included:
(1) Quantify consumer access to energy and consumption levels.
(2) Identify characteristics of household income levels of in Liberia and quantify the ability or willingness to pay for energy.

Inputs from the study were included in the commitment paper for the subsidy project, which was approved by the PoE for commitment in June 2011. GPOBA signed the grant agreement with the government on December 21, 2011. The project declared effectiveness on March 2012.

This  scoping  study  assesses  the  feasibility  of implementing   an   OBA   approach   to   expand access  to  piped  water  supply  to  low-income households in Monrovia.

The objective was to introduce integrated services for the urban poor as part of a larger Strategy for Monrovia initiative that identified strategic reforms and investments over the medium-to-longer term for enabling development of Liberia's  capital city. 

The analytical deliverables have been drafted, identifying specific subprojects in water, solid waste management, solar energy, agribusiness, healthcare, education, etc. Spatial analytics that this activity has supported involves mapping of the Greater Monrovia area, helps understand densification of the built environment and people in various parts of the Greater Monrovia district with population of almost one million people, or 20% of the nation.

The activity was extended from December 2019 to July 2020 to be synchronized with the discussion about project scope. GPRBA was to then take part in the discussion of RBF feasibility in each sector to enable the identification of sub-projects for possible funding under the proposed Outcomes Fund.

GPRBA's $3.3 million subsidy is supplementing the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund's $ 6 million to the ongoing Cheesemanburg Landfill and Urban Sanitation (CLUS) project in Monrovia, Liberia.

This additional financing is recognized as a critical intervention to enhance the resilience of the residents of Monrovia to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improved solid waste management can also create skilled and unskilled jobs in the areas of waste collection/processing and recycling, and has the potential to achieve increased levels of social cohesion through engagement and behavior change.

By working toward improved quality waste-related services, a local economy has a greater chance of thriving and enhancing public spaces to be enjoyed by all.

Such public services must be a part of a community’s efforts to protect public health and the environment, as outlined in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.

 A decade and a half of successive armed conflicts in Liberia has devastated the national infrastructure, leaving access to basic services like electricity at practically zero. GPOBA supported, through at $10 million grant,  a project aimed at rehabilitating Monrovia’s power supply and rapidly expanding the roll-out of the network to a low-income households. Using an output-based aid scheme, the project was to help make access to electricity more affordable by subsidizing the connection cost and more inclusive by explicitly targeting the poor. 

Outputs: The project was successful in ensuring broad-based and inclusive access to electricity, and significantly improving living conditions among the poor.

At project closing, a total of 17,165 low-income households (= 83,695 beneficiaries) were connected to electricity in 21 low-income areas, exceeding the target of 16,806 households.