Five sectors take most of the budget. Two of them get less than Liberia promised in agreements it signed years ago. Those promises are the yardstick below — not our opinion of what the right number would be.
In 2001 Liberia and other African Union states signed the Abuja Declaration, agreeing to put 15% of the national budget into health. This year’s allocation is reported at 8.4%. Liberian health practitioners and development partners have already raised it publicly.
The 2015 Incheon Declaration recommends 15 to 20% of public spending go to education. $132.9M out of $1.2 billion works out to about 11.1%. That percentage comes from the two figures above, nothing else.
The Ministry of Finance publishes each sector’s total, but not the split between salaries, supplies, buildings and administration. Without that, there is no way to check whether the money reached a clinic, a classroom or a checkpoint.