On a sunny Saturday morning in Zwedru, a town of 15,000 in eastern Liberia, 20 small business owners and employees gather for the third day of a business training program. They can afford to take this time off because apprentices will keep their shops running in their absence. In turn, the business owners will train these apprentices in the skills they’re learning from the local nongovernmental organization trainers who run the program.

This is the core of the Rehabilitation of Artisans Program (RAP), part of the Liberia Community Infrastructure Project (LCIP), which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by DAI. By combining artisan business training with apprenticeships, RAP encourages collaboration across vocational and cultural lines, puts people to work, and equips them with marketable skills. Liberians can earn a steady income while providing goods and services to communities ravaged by 14 years of civil strife. 

During LCIP’s first two years, 992 apprentices and 25 small businesses graduated from the first phase of RAP. Based on this success, the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) contributed funds to LCIP to restart the program in Zwedru and in the coastal cities of Buchanan and Cestos. RAP has now diversified to include masonry, baking, auto mechanics, and cosmetics. 

The three-day business training session is just one of many in an eight-month program. Trainers from the Agricultural and Industrial Training Bureau (AITB)—an independent Liberian government agency—cover skills including inventory management, pricing, contract fundamentals, personnel management, and accounting.

In addition to attending training, participating business owners are assigned apprentices. Some 216 apprentices were chosen from a large pool of applicants to be assigned to 12 participating enterprises. Paid during the eight months by LCIP, the apprentices provide temporarily “free” labor in exchange for the businesses providing comprehensive skills training. It is envisioned that many apprentices will eventually be hired by the enterprises involved, as happened in LCIP’s first phase (many more started their own businesses).

Initiated after the 2003 peace accord that formally ended the civil war, LCIP has, since March 2004, managed diverse development projects including medical clinic and school rehabilitation, road reconstruction, agribusiness skills development, psychosocial counseling, and community reconciliation.

-Jonathan Hill, Project Associate