Impact at the highest level: Australia Awards Alumnus leads Liberia’s international economic cooperation agenda
By Stephanie Carter
Australia Awards Alumnus Elias Shoniyin is shaping outcomes in Liberia. He completed a Master of Public Policy (Development Policy) in 2012 at Australia National University (ANU) in Canberra.
As Deputy Minister for International Economic Cooperation and Integration with the Liberian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Elias Shoniyin is at the frontier of his country’s development. Since taking up his Ministerial position eight months ago, he has led significant diplomacy initiatives for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including various government donor partnerships to support critical development projects in Liberia.
Under Elias’s leadership, the Department of International Economic Cooperation and Integration has successfully negotiated and secured more than USD$150 million in grants for infrastructure development projects such as the Somalia Drive Road in Monrovia, reconstruction of government complexes, transport infrastructure and the renovation of the Sports Complex in Paynesville, Liberia. These infrastructure improvement programs reflect Liberia’s national Agenda for Transformation (AfT), a poverty reduction strategy initiated in 2012. The AfT aims to remove key infrastructure constraints in energy, roads and ports through capacity building and government partnership grants.
Elias observes this shift in economic cooperation and planning within the Liberian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
‘The office did not investigate which donors were interested in intervening in order to align development gaps with available donor funding to address challenges in target sectors. This effort was one of the first initiatives undertaken in my role,’ he explains.
Under his supervision, the Department also secured several bilateral cooperation agreements with more than ten countries across Africa, Asia and South America. Elias reflects on the importance of these agreements in light of Liberia’s shift from political to development diplomacy.
‘Some of these agreements are being operationalised and began addressing development challenges in critical areas, including health, agriculture, education, commerce, trade and investment’.
‘My Department is increasingly becoming the nerve of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the frontier for everything related to development, from leading international development negotiations to advising relevant Government institutions on the prospects of economic matters,’ he adds.
Also as part of his prominent role within the Department of International Economic Cooperation and Integration, Elias coordinated an inaugural Partnership Dialogue with the United States. The event took place in Washington in May 2013, and followed the January 2013 signing of the U.S- Liberia Partnership Dialogue by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A similar Partnership Dialogue is planned for 2014.
In reflecting on his time spent studying at ANU, Elias recognises the contribution to his skills as a senior government leader and champion of international development within his home country of Liberia.
‘I have learnt to think critically, constantly and spontaneously when confronted with a problem, and my analytical ability looks at all sides of the problem. That’s one of the most valuable skills I acquired from studying at ANU. My interpersonal skills have taken a leap, where I look for more potential in team members and then develop it,’ he adds.
Buoyed by his positive experience while on scholarship in Canberra, Elias emphasises the confidence and dynamism he felt in returning to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to a new challenge in the Department of International Economic Cooperation and Integration. In carrying forward Liberia’s international development and economic cooperation agenda, he is no doubt in the enviable position of effecting change at the highest level.