Yesterday I attended an event on Liberia’s national health plan at NYU. S. Tornorlah Varpilah (above), the Liberian Deputy Minister of Health for Planning, Research, and Human Resource Development, presented, along with Alexander Preker, a guy from the World Bank.

Some highlights from the event:

• Minister Varpilah said a main problem was coordinating donor assistance for the Ministry of Health. He talked about one day when there were five visiting consultants at the Ministry.
• Preker told the story of visiting a clinic at 3pm one day. He saw about 60 women and children awaiting vaccines. He said this surprised him because in most developing countries clinics are closed in the afternoon because the health professionals have private practices they want to tend to.
• Preker said Liberia is unique because when the World Bank came to offer assistance there was already a national health plan. Usually this is something that the “imperialistic” (his word) World Bank has to do for a country.
• Minister Varpilah said that when the Liberian government collapsed, NGOs took over. Now the Ministry of Health is trying to wrest control from many NGOs that are reluctant to cede power.
• Minister Varpilah spoke about the difference between information sharing and information taking (my words). He noted that many internationals come to Liberia to gather information, a process that can be exhausting for Liberians and, in my opinion, deeply unfair. I saw this frequently when I was in Liberia. Expat “experts” come in, organize a series of meetings with locals, and have ample material for whatever report they have to write upon return to their home country. Usually they have little or nothing to offer their Liberian interviewees.