-As Minister Mamaka Bility Champions Homegrown Public Sector Reform
(Pretoria – In an effort to break Liberia’s cycle of foreign dependency for technical expertise, Minister Mamaka Bility is brokering an unprecedented skills transfer alliance with Africa’s largest distance learning institution during a high-stakes diplomatic-academic mission to South Africa.
At the heart of the six-day tour lies an urgent prescription for Liberia’s bureaucratic anemia: the University of South Africa (UNISA) will co-design customized Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) programs to professionally upskill existing Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) staff. This would include through Targeted Distance Learning – Avoiding brain drain by training civil servants in situ, Contextualized Curriculum – Adapting UNISA’s governance modules to Liberia’s post-war realities and South-South Knowledge Exchange – Leveraging UNISA’s proven work in Sudan and Eritrea.
“This isn’t about importing experts,” Bility stressed during pivotal talks with UNISA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Puleng LenkaBula. “We’re investing in our own people to sustainably fix our systems.” The move comes as frozen USAID support forces Liberia to seek African solutions to development challenges.
Beyond Academia:
The collaboration carries symbolic weight, rekindling historic ties from Liberia’s anti-apartheid advocacy. South African Ambassador Iqbal Jhazbhay underscored the partnership’s dual nature: “This transcends education—it’s pan-African solidarity in action.”
With 42% of Liberian children chronically malnourished (World Food Programme 2024), the delegation explored UNISA’s agricultural sciences department as a potential partner for: School garden programs to combat food insecurity, Vocational training for youth in climate-smart farming and Infrastructure development knowledge sharing.
Before Friday’s expected MOU signing, the delegation will: April 9: Benchmark with South Africa’s DPME on results-based governance, April 10: Finalize tiered training programs for engineers and project managers, and April 11: Align partnership with AU’s Agenda 2063 education targets.
Professor LenkaBula’s commitment was unequivocal: “We’ll help build Liberian institutions that don’t just function—they thrive.” For Minister Bility, the mission embodies a fundamental shift: “Africa’s solutions won’t come from handouts, but from hands joining across borders.”
