Monrovia, Liberia – In order to confront the worldwide injustices that Liberia’s development programs face, Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah, Sr., the country’s labor minister, is pushing international NGOs, development partners, and related donor communities to negotiate the quickly shifting terrain of Western assistance cuts.
In a press release dated Monday, January 26, 2026, Minister Kruah highlighted the extra-protective role of INGOS in supporting the Liberian government, which is one of several countries around the world that have recently been affected by the narrow reductions. This is especially true given the sudden cuts to traditional funding sources and the complete cessation of international development aid.
“As the aid architecture shifts toward fragmented, more politicized, and often less concessional financing, adapting to this new reality is essential for organizations to remain relevant and for more recipient countries to achieve long-term resilience,” Minister Kruah warned INGOS and other development partners.
Through Mr. Stanley Barh, his Chief of Office Staff, Minister Kruah recently made these remarks at “The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Liberia International Non-governmental Organizations (LINGO) Forum” in Monrovia. He claimed that because large donors, including USAID, are reducing aid budgets and canceling thousands of awards, organizations must transition from depending solely on conventional aid to diverse revenue.
Minister Kruah emphasized that when the changing environment is transferred to localized intermediary players, this might have an even more favorable effect on the nation’s labor and economic stimulation. He emphasized that in order to obtain more adaptable outcomes, such assistance landscape transitions must adopt what he called “a portfolio approach,” which combines low-risk and experimental projects.
For the country to survive in a “post-peak aid world,” the Labour Minister’s statement highlighted the impact of the aid cuts on the already high unemployment rate and urged the INGOS and Liberia’s development partners to shift their focus toward emergent value, which aims to use limited resources on projects to create significant, lasting impact by focusing on key leverage points and measurable, evidence-based outcomes.
He expressed hope that new non-governmental contributors are filling the void with different objectives, emphasizing infrastructure over social sectors, even though Western aid is declining. According to Minister Kruah, negotiating new alliances, like those connected to China’s Belt and Road initiative, the South-South Cooperation, BRICKS, and any other voluntarily accessible sources, requires a knowledge of these new, more commercial, and political objectives.
After that, he praised the INGOS for their assistance to President Joseph Nyumah’s government under “The ARREST AGENDA” and promised to continue protecting and supporting their initiatives.
