Corporations in Liberia: Big Contracts, Not So Big Impact
The standard notion that large multinationals will generate large-scale employment creates a palpable excitement in Liberia. But jobs won’t occur through direct employment with those corporations. This is where Peace Dividend Trust comes in: helping to unleash the development — and job creation — power of Liberia’s private sector.
Maximizing Liberia’s Entrepreneurial Hustle
Seeing the private sector develop through the entrepreneurial hustle of individual Liberians – not the Liberian government or government aid agencies – is not only exceptionally impressive, but important in a country where support services for nascent businesses are mostly nonexistent.
Women working at the Liberian Women’s Sewing Project in Monrovia. Photo from CNN
RAISING THE LEVEL
Why simple stories in the aid world sell but shouldn’t.
HOW TO WEAN LIBERIA OFF AID: A Conversation with Todd Moss
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s goal of weaning Liberia off of international aid in ten years seems like a daunting task. So we sat down with to see how realistic her goal is. 
GOING DUTCH IN AFGHANISTAN
Why the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s estimate that 97% of Afghanistan’s GDP is reliant upon military and donor aid is misleading, to say the least.
M-BANKING NEEDS TO E-MERGE
Mobile banking is no antidote to poverty. Having the ability to save money doesn’t help if you don’t have any money. But increasing access to the tools that help and encourage saving provides a much-needed financial framework for citizens of the developing world.
Côte d’Ivoire’s COCOA BAN BACKFIRES
There was good news out of the world’s biggest cocoa exporter, Côte d’Ivoire, this week. 
On Tuesday, a ship filled with cocoa beans harvested in the West African country left for Antwerp. It was the first ship to carry cocoa out of the country since the three and a half month ban on cocoa exports was lifted. While that is good news, that there was a ban at all is a point of concern. It has choked Côte d’Ivoire’s marketplace.
LEVERAGING LIBERIA’S EXPATS
We recently discovered the Liberia Expat Google group, and we couldn’t be happier. It’s the perfect example of what PDT does but on a smaller scale. Think Yellow Pages meets Match.com.
GIRL POWER! SUCCESS STORIES FROM PDT
Today is International Women’s Day. At Peace Dividend Trust (PDT) we’re celebrating by showcasing the female entrepreneurs that we work with everyday.
